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.

On the beach before the rain - HDR

Bau Rouge beach before the rain

A few time after the rainbow posted in my previous post.
And for the newest readers, you can have a look here at my tips for HDR landscapes, they also work for seascapes :)

Rainbow over the sea

Rainbow over the Mediterranean sea

I wake up a long time before dawn to make some images of a mountain around Toulon.
While driving i saw that the sky was really not the one i was expecting.
So i decided to change my destination and to go the the sea.

After some hours of typical images of cloudy dawn i was about to leave and go back when the rainbow appeared. Sometimes, photographers are just lucky :)

Golden rocks at the sea

Morning light around Le Port du Niel

Just around Le Port du Niel, same day than the one in the previous post but about one hour later.
This islands all around are called Golden Islands ...

A very soft dawn on the Mediterranean coast

Mediterranean dawn at Le Port du Niel

During the second part of august, we went twice to sleep at the sea. To park the van we choose the little pier of Le Port du Niel on the Presqu'île de Giens. That's a very peaceful place and you can't see it on these images but the coast all around is really wild and beautiful. I hope to return there before the end of summer for a more serious photographic work.

Morning light on Le Port du Niel

Dusk on the Gapeau river

Dusk on the Gapeau river

The Gapeau runs to the sea not too far from my home. I was driving along the river one of the past evenings and found the light beautiful ...

HDR tones and colors

HDR seascape at Le Pradet in Provence

That's not my prefered kind of shots, i always say that as an apologize when i post this kind of image but i know some of you love them.

Tech info : Nikon D200 + sigma 10-20, 3 NEF files processed first with SilkyPix, converted to a real HDR image and then tonemapped with Photomatix.

In the cold light of a summer morning

Cold morning light on the Mediterranean coast

These colors are unusual for me and since July i hesitate, keeping this image or not ? I think i'll keep it.

Still

That's one of my long exposures from August, just processed because since i'm back from Corsica i'm too busy with administrative things and file processing.

A very soft time

A very soft time - Le Pradet - Provence

Same place, other light, other shot

Récifs in the Mediterranean sea - Le Pradet

Just one month ago, i've posted an other view of these rocks in the Mediterranean waves.
This morning, i went to the same place before dawn. Around 8 am the sky was really blue and i could make this new shot with deep some blue water.

Some other tones

Mediterranean vapors large view

Long exposure (more than 70s) on the Mediterranean sea at dusk time.
Usually this kind of shots is done in black and white and mostly with a strong contrast. Here, i've prefered to keep a few colors and some very soft tones.

One minute for the sea

Recifs in the Mediterranean sea at Le Pradet - Provence

Another long exposure in full daylight.
Don't miss the large view.

Some rocks on the beach (second version)

Mediterranean coast at Le Pradet - Provence

I don't do that very often but after processing the image in my previous post i wanted to try a softer version. After obtaining the new one i was about to delete the first one but decided to keep them both.

Calm at dawn

Calm at dawn - Le Pradet - Provence

Peaceful mediterranean seascape in Provence.

Colors and shapes

Rocks in the Mediterranean sea

Long exposure in full day light.

Morning contrasts

don't miss the large view

Wake up : 3 am.
Look threw the window : Clear and starry night with beautiful moon.
Coffee and drive to the sea.
Arrival on the place : 4 am. Still dark with big clouds ...
That's the third time i try to catch one soft dawn on the sea at this place. That's the third time i arrive there under the clouds.

Back home : 8 am under a small rain.

I'll have to come back another time.

When the gray sky makes the sea gray

Récif in the Mediterraneans sea large view

Long exposure by a gray morning at Le Pradet - Provence.

Long exposure in full daylight with the Hoya ND 400 filter

Full Mediterranean colors large view

The Hoya ND 400 filter is a ND (neutral density) filter which reduces the light entering the lens by 9 f stops. That means that exposure time is multiplied by 512. In other words if your shutter speed without any filter was 1/30s, with the filter the shutter speed will be around 17s.

As you could notice, for this springtime i do many seascapes, mostly with long exposures. Without any filters, such exposure times are only possible some few moments at dawn and dusk time. The ND 400 is a good tool to increase the time available for long exposures and such shots with scenes a little more lightned can be beautiful and unusual.
Of course, with or without filter, shooting scapes at noon won't give stunning images but a strong ND filter can open some creative doors to capture beautiful lights with an unusual style.

Last point : The ND 400 is a very dark piece of glass (i could say black) and when it's on the lens you don't see anything in the viewfinder. So it's not for point and shot photography. You have to set up the tripod and the camera, frame without filter, lock everything on the tripod, install the filter, shoot, remove the filter and so on.

Bold HDR colors

Le Pradet - Provence large view

HDR photography of course helps with saving highlights and shadows but it also increase greatly the colors informations in the image file. So the photographer can go very far in post processing without altering image quality. Som can think that highly processesed images don't go with quality. That's another and eternal story. You can like it or not. These days i like it.

HDR from 3 exposures, raw process with SilkyPix, HDR and tone mapping with Photomatix and ultimate post processing with Picture Window Pro.