Weekly commented photo # 49 - Mediterranean dusk at Gigaro beach

Mediterranean dusk at Gigaro beach

This end of autumn is rainy and from a photographer's point of view, the landscape all around is not really exciting. I only made a few images in the past week and spent most of my time working on files from the preceding months. I'm also negociating with a TV channel which want to buy some of my photos but doesn't seems ready for the price i ask :).

So, this morning i was wandering about which image to feature here today when i receive an order from my french website for a print of the above photo.

I was a little surprised because that's an old image and because there is another one just near in the gallery that i find most beautiful. But after all a sale is a sale and one more time i was happy not to post only my own favourite images but all the "correct" ones.

Gigaro beach is a famous place in Saint Tropez area but i've just a few images from there. I think you can now retrieve most of them on this blog through this link.

Weekly commented photo # 46 - Autumn morning along Cheran river

Autumn morning along Chéran river

I spent most of the week preparing the house for winter.
No blogging and almost no photography. I just took some time today in the early morning to return to Chéran canyon.

The drive before dawn to Massif des Bauges natural park was a little longer than usual because of the frosty roads and the path to river was more slippy than last week.

I started by some other images of the little waterfall posted here last friday but with a shorter exposure to give more details in the falling water.

After that, i climbed some rocks to pass over the waterfall. I wanted to explore more deeply the upper part of the river but i discovered it was not possible without a little and cold bath. Not prepared to this kind of game, i decided to stay a little time just on the top of the waterfall where i made the today image.

This one is the result of an HDR work done from 7 exposures and tonemapped with Picturenaut and Photomatix. I also have another one done with a strong GND filter but the left side of the image is really dark and i prefer the HDR one.

As i couldn't go higher i went back to the lower river bed, walked a little to another waterfall i noticed last week, did a few more photos and walked back to my car when the sun started to be really too high in the sky.

Weekly commented photo # 39 : The syncline fold and its waterfall

Chapeau de gendarme syncline fold and waterfall

This is the place around Septmoncel about which i wrote a few words one week ago.
Its name means "Policeman's hat" and comes from its shape.

I discovered it in july with ugly weather and pouring rain. The waterfall was very very impressive and i was a little disappointed when i came back in september and found a very low water level despite the rain we had in the weeks before.

I found a kind of little path in the green vegetation you can see under the cliff and made a small serie of images of the entire waterfall plus some closeups i find more interesting.

The photo you can see here was done from the road. I didn't found any other composition to include all the fold with its waterfall.
The light in this end of afternoon was very nice but contrast between highlights on the cliff and shadows in the vegetation was huge. I could have wait a little more but i would have lost the sunrays lighting the rocks.

That's obvioulsy not the kind of images where GND filters give their best results and so i went for the HDR solution.

Five exposures where used.
NEF files where converted to 48 bits TIFs using SilkyPix.
TIF files where blended to a real HDR file with Picturenaut.
A first tonemapped image was then produced with Picturenaut and a second one was done by tonemapping the HDR file with Photomatix.
These two tonemapped files where then blended to give the final image you can see here.

I know that many magazines (and some famous ones) claim that they don't publish composite images including HDR ones. I think that's to avoid too much fakes in the photojournalism world.
I can understand their choice but on the other side when i compare this HDR photo with the best single exposure i've done from this scene i'm forced to recognized that the HDR file has a really better quality ...

Weekly commented photo #5 - Visitation basilica by night in Annecy

Visitation basilica by night in Annecy

I've to say the truth : i've never liked this monument. But when i arrived back in Annecy in july i saw it by night and thought it could make a beautiful photo.

I love night images but that's not what i'm doing most. I usually prefer the special lights of dawn or dusk. So that's only in january that i decided to try this image.
One afternoon i went to the lake for some dusk shots on the Imperial beach and took a long lens with me for the basilica.
When the night started to fall, i left the beach and walked along the lake until i found a nice point of view.
After one first test, exposing the shot for the highlights on the bell tower, i was sure that HDR would give a relly better image.
Keeping in one single exposure all the details in the highlights would give dark shadows on all the left part of the church. So i did 5 shots at f11 from 4 to more than 80 seconds.
As the evening was a little windy, i weighted my tripod with my bag and as usual i used mirror lockup plus a remote shutter release for each exposure. Getting sharp images with long exposures while using a long lens in the wind can be a little tricky but this night, i was lucky.
After this 5 shots, i walked deeper in the city to make images of some other monuments and also to warm me up.

I processed the raw files 2 or 3 days after with silkypix and Photomatix, trying to keep the tonemapping at a soft level.

Annecy - Palais de l'Isle at night

Annecy - Palais de l'Isle at night

An image from this night.
I went to Annecy in the end of afternoon to make some images of the lake at dusk and when it was too late i moved to the heart of the city for a few night shots.

I you want to know more about this place and see how this place looks in day light, you can have a look here.

And for people who like this kind of information, this is an HDR work done with Photomatix from 5 exposures.

Saint Jean chapel illuminated at night

Saint Jean chapel illuminated at night

I stopped last night in front of this little chapel. The sky seemed to be black but as usual, i was surprised to see the light a one minute long exposure could reveal.

Of course if one minute was perfect for the sky, it was also really too long for the snow ...
So i did a bunch of exposures from 2 to 60 seconds. Once in the "darkroom" i choose 4 and processed them with Photomatix.

Note : There is a road just near and the people driving there last night seemed surprised to see a crazy man with a tripod and a camera standing out in the cold :)

Annecy - Palais de l'Isle

Palais de l'Isle in Annecy

I've eared that this very pretty little castle was one of the most photographed monument in France. I don't know if it's true but this place is hugely touristic and you can read anything about Annecy without seeing such an image.

This castel was built in 1132 and is also very well known under the name of Les vieilles prisons because it was used as a jail during a while.

You can learn a little more about it with this english page of Wikipedia and much more on the french page.

And for peoples who like technical info : this image is the result of a HDR work done from 3 exposures and processed with Photomatix and Oloneo PhotoEngine.

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.

Rural landscape under the clouds near Manosque in Provence

Rural landscape under the clouds

I spent a few days in the Alpes de Hautes Provence region about one week ago.
On sunday i was driving back home across a very rural countryside and decided to stop on a little path to catch some of these cereal fields under the storm light.

I also stopped a few kilometers after this place when i saw some realy old barns. I'll probably post one or two images here next week.

The forest under the clouds

The forest under the clouds - Massif des Maures"

A morning view of the Provence forest in the Massif des Maures.
Taken a very few hours after dawn the light was changing every second.

This one was done from 3 exposures with Photomatix.
Some other with a most impressive sky but no HDR should come in a few days.

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 :)

Green spring

Green springtime on the Massif des Maures - Provence

Early on Monday morning i had some photos to make for a client in this part of the hills around my home.
I could work before the sky was too cloudy and after i had a little time to make a few shots for me before the rain.

I like this one showing all the green hills. Colors will change quickly in the next months ...
It was done from 4 exposures processed with Silkypix and Photomatix. I also have one done with a 0.6 GND filter but i prefer the HDR one, i think it gives a better rendition of the green nuances.

Corsica - Corte by a winter morning

Corsica - Corte by a winter morning

Done by tone mapping with Photomatix,an HDR image produced from 3 exposures.

This kind of photo can of course be done without any HDR process but i love the tone mapping effect with this kind of mood. And applying tone mapping to a real HDR image gives a better file quality than on a single exposure. So ...

Clouds over Casabianda beach - black and white HDR

Clouds over Casabianda beach - Corsica

Corsica - Tagnone river in winter - black and white HDR

Winter mood on Tagnone river - Corsica

Magic light over the orchard and some news from Corsica

Magic light over the orchard

What to say about the making of this image ?
Mostly that it was done using some GND filters to balance sky and ground plus my Hoya ND 400 for the long exposure. As the highlights where not at the best place for regular GND filters i used two exposures (60 and 120 seconds) for the image.

And now some news from our Corsica farming experience :)
All the family is busy with taking care of the farm : feeding animals, cutting wood, cooking clementines jam, etc.
I've started to explore the river which runs in front of the house and i'm planning some hikes in the mountains all around. Some jumps to the 15 km far sea are also planned.
Last point : the only electricity we have here is locally produced by a turbine on a water pipe. It's OK for all the house needs plus for a laptop but a little weak for a serious computer with a serious screen so my time for processing files is counted ...

The clementines orchard under the clouds - HDR

Clementines orchard under the clouds

Our friends here are cultivating clementines so we have a beautiful garden giving us some delicious fruits :)

HDR image done from 4 exposures processed with Silkypix and Photomatix.

HDR in the mountains of the Oule Valley

Autumn landscape in the Oule Valley

The 3 exposures used in this image where done in 2007. I processed them yesterday with the following workflow i think i will re-use often :

- NEF files converted to TIF with Silkypix.
- TIF files combinated to a HDR file with Picturenaut.
- HDR image tonemaped with Picturenaut and saved as a new TIF file.
- HDR image tonemaped with Photomatix and saved as a second new TIF file.
- Manual blending of the two tonemaped TIFs giving most of the weight to the one done with Picturenaut.

And don't forget, you can have a look here at my general tips for HDR landscapes.


This will certainly be my last post befor our departure for Corsica on next tuesday. Tomorrow i'll start to pack all the computers, cameras and other photographic gear we need to carry ...

Saint Isidore church - another HDR interpretation

Saint Isidore church

A little more fun than the previous one.

Done from 5 exposures, with Silkypix and Photomatix.

The Roudoule river and a very few words about Picturenaut my brand new HDR toy

The Roudoule river near Puget Thenier in Provence

Another just processed from my summer archives.

The contrast between the water and the shadows under the trees was just a little too high for a very good single shot, so i decided to shoot 3 exposures to be able to try some HDR processing. I left the files sleeping some months and just reminded them this evening.

The original images where done by a windy day and the exposure times where around one second. To avoid too much ghosting artifacts in the foliage i just used 2 exposures in my HDR work. The most and the less exposed.

As i had just downloaded Picturenaut from HdrLabs i decided to use these images for a little first test and comparison with Photomatix.

So as usual i processed my raw files with SilkyPix and run the full hdr workflow first in Picturenaut and the in Photomatix. Here are my first impressions :

- I'm a long time user of Photomatix but i have to say that i was seducted by the GUI and speed of Picturenaut.

- Between the 3 or 4 tonemapping operators of Picturenaut i could not find any one that give the same results that the Detail Enhacer of Photomatix. I was a little desapointed but i've to say that Picturenaut must certainly be a very good tool for natural looking HDR images.

- I was surprised because the Picturenaut result was free of any ghosting artifact in the foliage while the image processed with Photomatix had many. Note that i don't say that's a general behavior. Some algoritms can work better with some images than with some others.


So, at the end i had my 2 tonemapped images and guess what i did :)
I blended the forest from the Picturenaut result with the river from the Photomatix one. No winner but i had a nice fun with this little experience.