Verne monastery in Provence

Verne monastery in Provence

 

Weekly commented photo #8 - A high resolution view of Collobrieres village in Provence

Collobrieres village in Provence

So, this a view of Collobrières village in Provence. I lived there during 15 years.
The photo was done in march 2004 and is about 7 years old.

In 2004 i was mainly using a Nikon D100 for my landscape work but i've always loved smaller cameras for family images or holidays, etc. During the film era, i was really often using an Olypus XA2 with Velvia or Provia slide film. When time cames to digital i tried many compact cameras but was never really happy with their image quality. My favourites non DSLR cameras were the Dimage 7i and A1 from Minolta.

This view of Collobrières was done with the Dimage A1. It was a 5mpx bridge with a 28-200 f2.8 zoom. The sensor was smaller than the one of my DSLRs but really larger the the ones in compact cameras. The lens was a high quality one done by Minolta and i've to say that in many circumstances this camera gave me some amazing raw files.
Of course it was not the camera for low light images but for most common images it was a very good one. It was also compatible with the very good Minolta flash system and i often used it with a 5600 HSD flash with a real pleasure.

So, let come back to the photo :
I was at home and saw the beautiful light of this end of afternoon. My Nikon gears were at my office about 30km far. I grabed the A1 and a tripod, climbed the hill above the village, made a few single shots and as the light became better and better, i decided to make a stitched high resolution image.
It was something i often did in these old years because DSLRs cameras didn't had all the pixels they now have.

So, i took 11 images with the Dimage A1 and the zoom at its longer focal length.
I gave me 11 raw files that i processed with SilkyPix and stitched with PTGuiPro.
The resulting image weights about 20 mega pixels and when i look at the full resolution file i can't distinguish it from a file done with a HD DSLR.

Notre Dame de Pitié

Notre Dame de Pitié at Collobrières in Provence

This little chapel is about 100 meters far from my home.
I've ever posted another HDR view of its interior some years ago, this one is really more quiet :)

For people interested in the technical side of photography, the final image was obtained by tonemapping the same HDR file once with Photomatix and once with Picturenaut. The 2 resulting TIF files were then blended.

Evening light on Collobrières village

Evening light on Collobrières village - Provence

This image perfectly illustrates the adventure life of a landscape photograper.
About one week ago, i was washing my hands in the bathroom when i saw the light.
I opened the window, installed my tripod, took my camera and made this one :)

Place Rouget de l'Isle

Place Rouget de l'Isle in Collobrières - Provence

For the peoples interested in technical things :

This image was created from 3 exposures blended into one real HDR image with Picturenaut.
A first tonemapping was done also with Picturenaut and then the HDR file was also tonemapped with Photomatix.
The 2 tonemapped images were then blended to give the final result.

The most difficult thing is to wait for the wind to stop :)

Snow falls in Provence

Snow on Collobrières roofs

A view from my bathroom's window this morning.
It was just a short snow fall but that's unusual enough to deserve a photo.

HDR from 3 exposures, tonemapped with Photomatix.

Some will ask why to use HDR when the scene doesn't need a large dynamic range.
Just because i was sure at shooting time, to love the effect of tonemapping on this image and a tonemapped image is always cleaner when done from multiple exposures instead of a single one.

Colorful houses in Provence village - HDR

Rue Galilée in Collobrières - Provence

As many of you seem to like this kind of pictures, here's a new one :)

Same place and same day than this one.

A narrow street in Collobrières - HDR

Traverse Montesquieu - Collobrières - Provence

This is an old street of my village, near the Place Rouget de l'Islse.

Some english friends live in the houses on the left so we come there very often but i had never done an image here before :)
I was walking there yesterday morning with my daughter when i had the idea of this HDR shot. So after the walk i came back with a camera and a tripod.

In the house of God - HDR

Notre Dames des Victoires, Collobrières

Nikon D200 + sigma 10-20, HDR from 8 exposures done with Photomatix.

Other church, other dream

Notre Dame des Victoires - Collobrières

Nikon D200 + Sigma 10-20. Hdr from 9 exp. Nef files processed with SilkyPix. Hdr work with Photomatix.

Dreaming in the church

Notre Dame de Pitié

Today i had to go to the post office to send some prints to one client. Coming back i saw that this little chapel was opened and had the idea of this image. As it's less than 100 m from my house it just took a few minutes before i was there with my camera.

Tech : Nikon D200 + Sigma 10-20, hdr from 4 exposures, most of the work done with Photomatix.

Dont miss the large view :)

2009 first one

I've a very few shots of my village but yesterday in the evening i had to cross this place and thought it could give a nice image. So, around midnight i came back with a camera and tripod.
The night was very cold but a guy living in one of these houses saw me and came out to speak about photography :)

This image was done from 5 exposures, processed with SilkyPix, converted to HDR and tone mapped with Photomatix.

The old church

The old church of Collobrières

For some shots i don't always need to wake up at 3 am, to hike in the rocks etc.
This one was done at the end of an april afternoon threw my bathroom window :)

I'm not a big fan of this kind of postcards but i found the light beautiful and i post it here now to show something else that the seascapes i do from months.

Place Rouget de l'Isle

Collobrières, Place Rouget de l'Isle
The Place Rouget de l'Isle is one of the oldest places and i think the most beautiful in Collobrières, the village where i live for 14 years now. I've always loved the ambiance here.