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.

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 ...

Still exploring the natural HDR landscapes capabilities of Picturenaut

Winter afternoon in La Plaine des Maures

As told in some previous posts, i've recently discovered a new HDR tool : Picturenaut. It looks to be a very good tool to produce some natural looking HDR landscapes.

This one was done from 5 exposures taken one year ago and reprocessed this morning with Picturenaut. The result was realy easy to obtain and it very difficult to see any differences with one image i took from the scene with my GND filters.
Highlights are perfect, shadows are clean and detailed, the sky is artifacts free and i can't find any ghosting.

Does it mean that i will sell my GND filters ?
Certainly not. In some cases GND will work better, in some other cases they can't be used and last point, mounting a filter holder on some recent Nikon wide angle zooms is a little tricky. That's still the photographer choice to use the best technic for each image...

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.

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.

Verdon river - A natural looking HDR landscape with Picturenaut

The Verdon river near Quinson

The Verson canyon is known as the European Grand Canyon. It's a beautiful place with high cliffs but there is no comparison possible with the Colorado Canyon :)

This image, shot in september and processed today is not my best of this place but i thought it should be a good test to see how to balance light and shadow with Picturenaut.

3 exposures used, raw files processed with Silkypix and HDR plus tonemapping with Picturenaut.
I'm very happy with the result, higlights are respected, shadows are very detailed and noise free.

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.

A natural japanese garden in the red rocks

I'm a little late for the first post of this new decade but after a bit of celebration i spent the first days hiking and shooting in the cold.

We have two important projects for this new year. First we will be traveling in Corsica from the mid of january to the end of march. Traveling is not the real word because we'll have a house and some animals to take care but i hope some beautiful photographic opportunities.

The second project is a bigger one and i think you will know more at springtime.

Happy New Year to all !

Saint Isidore church at night - HDR

Saint Isidore church

I often pass in front of this place by night, yesterday i had my camera with me and stopped.

HDR from 5 exposures, done with SilkyPix and Photomatix as usual.

Another HDR at Bau Rouge beach

Cloudy morning at Bau Rouge beach

Another old file just processed.

Done from 2 exposures, processed with SilkyPix and Photomatix.
Original images are from september, a few minutes before the rainbow.

If you're interested in HDR photography, you can have a look at my Tips for HDR landscapes.

The little river with the little waterfall - HDR

The little river with the little waterfall

In the late autumn i like to visit this little river in the forest around my village.
We didn't had too much rain this autumn and i could stand up in the middle of the river bed and add a new point of view to my image collection.

This one was done from 3 exposures processed with Photomatix and Silkypix.

The chapel in the forest - HDR

Malière chapel - Provence

I've ever posted a very similar image and some words about this place here.

As you can devine, this one was done the same day but from 3 exposures processed with Photomatix. I love the rendition of the stone walls given by the tonemapping process.

A springtime reminder - Peaceful dusk at Bau Rouge beach

Peaceful dusk at Bau Rouge beach

That's an "old" shot from may, same day that the one posted here.

Autumn light in the forest

Autumn light in Provence forest

Same path that the one shown in this post.

Cloudy morning at Bau Rouge beach - HDR

Cloudy morning at Bau Rouge beach - Provence

An image from September, just finished to process.
Done from 3 exposures with Photomatix.

Same place and same day that this one and this one.

Note : My tips for HDR landscapes are here.

Playing with tonemapping on a tif file and a real HDR seascape

Mediterranean storm at Gigaro beach

When i processed the image of my previous post i wanted it to look natural.
The result was what i wanted but after a few days i found it really too flat for my eyes. So i processed the 48 bits tif file in Photomatix to add a little of tonemapping.
You can see the result just above. I prefer it to the previous image.

Just under, you can find a real HDR version of the same scene, also done with Photomatix but from 3 exposures.

Gigaro beach, the day after

Mediterranean storm on Gigaro beach

Some days the sea looks like the ocean.

End of the day at Gigaro beach - HDR

End of the day at Gigaro beach

It looks like i don't have posted any HDR image here for a long time.

This beach is a famous place in the Saint-Tropez area. I recently spent 2 days here. The first one was with a beautiful weather as you can see but the second one was really not the same ...

Autumn path in Provence forest

Autumn path in Provence forest

I've complained many times about the fact that most of the trees here are evergreen but now you can see that i'm a liar :) In the hudge forest we have here, some places are filled with chestnut trees and can offer some typical autumn images.

Autumn light on red rocks in Provence

Autumn landscape around the Rocher de Roquebrune

I just have to say Thank you to my soft GND filters :)