HDR landscape in the Oule valley

Paysage HDR dans la vallée de l'Oule

I think i'm going to play a little more with HDR.
I was keeping the 3 shots used to build this photo for 5 months, since my last trip in the Alps. I've just processed them one hour ago.

When i took these photos in october, it was the end of the day, the light was beautiful on the mountains but the valley was in the shadow.
Combining 3 shots allows me to have very detailed and noise free shadows, beautiful midtones and respected highlights on the cliffs.

About the technical things :

• The 3 shots were done with a Nikon D100 and a zoom Tamron 17-50.
• The 3 raw files were converted to HDR and the tonemapped with Photomatix
• The resulting image was saved as a 48 bits TIF file and re-processed with SilkyPix for color and contrast adjustments.

A larger version of this image can be seen here.

First HDR landscape

Derniers rayons sur le lac des Escarcets
My recent discovery of the Hidyn Gems blog decided me to make some new tries with hdr for my landscapes.

The lake landscape above was captured with the last sun of the day.
Water was very dark, some grass was lightened and shined while some other was in the shadow. It was the good time to test the HDR thing and little plus : the water was very calm while it had been wavy during all the afternoon.

I used 3 shots to build this image :

• 1 exposed for the midtones, with underexposed shadows and blown highlights.
• 1 exposed with +1IL to increase shadows details and quality.
• 1 exposed with -1IL to preserve highlights details.

The 3 nef files were directly converted to a real HDR image and then tonemapped with Photomatix. The tonemapped image was saved as a 48 bits TIF file on which i did a very few further enhancements in PictureWindow Pro.
In the final image, the shining grass is perfect and also the dark one as you can see with the crops under.

If you want to have a better view on this photo, you can see it larger here.

Dark forest revisited

In 2007 december, i made a few pictures while walking threw a wild and natural forest, a few kilometers far from my home. I knew this place for years and years but it was the first time i went there to make photos. I remember this day. It was cold, it was dark and i was tired ... But i love some of the images i could bring back.

So, soon in january, i came back on this path by an other cold day. It was an other day, with other light and other colors and i took a very few images. The two posted here are the most similars to the initial ones. I also have one or two with more green made where the forest was less dark, perharps i'll show them in a future post.

About coming back :
I often like to come back. The most i know the place, the most i can find the best lights, the best points of view, the best atmosphère. That's not always true and sometimes improvisation gives the best results and i make my best pictures the first time, when i just discover one new place.
I think there is no absolute rules about photography but coming back to a nice natural place is always a pleasure for me.

Waterfalls

Provence waterfall
Last week, after a few raining days, i spent some time in a little canyon to make some waterfalls images. A few years ago, these canyons always had some running water but now they are often dry.

The one i choose was narrow, deep and covered by autumn forest.
I had to walk about one hour in a wild and sharp vegetation to find the scene i was looking for : A stream running between mossy rocks and a little waterfall.
The place was very dark so it was not difficult to obtain the silky water effect but i had just a few time to make my photos. I rapidly found two or three dry and almost flat places to put my tripod and took a few shots. Shutter speed was between 15 and 30 sec for all of them.
Next, i put the tripod legs (and mines) in the water to try some more impressive photos. I didn't kept the corresponding images because running water made vibrating tripod and the shots were not as sharp as i wanted. It was just a try ...

Just after the night was there and i came back with my head lamp. Back home, i started to sort and process my raw files (about 20) and kept 5.

Just one technical thing :
A few years ago, long exposure often gave noisy digital images. Now at ISO 100, the Nikon D200 gives excellent results with 30 seconds exposure, even after 20 shots.


Autumn stream in Provence

Africa in Provence

Provence landscape : La Plaine des Maures after the rain
Provence has always been a hot country but from a few years, summers seem to be more and more dry.
In 2007, from june to october we had no cloud and no rain. In the middle of the month, whe had 2 days of strong rain. Just when the sun came back, i went with my wife and daughter in La Plaine des Maures guessing i could make some nice landscape photographs.
The place was wonderful with many little rivers and ponds borned with the rain.
I always love (and often go) making photos here. This place is also named Little Africa with a red rocky ground covered by bush and some evergreen parasol pines forests.

My 3 yo daughter spent her time bathing in some ponds while i was hiking and shooting around. The photo above is one of my favorites from this day with the little river running in the grass burnt by the summer dryness.

Fine art prints are available for sale in my Etsy shop.

I can't tell why but i love this photo

Rural landscape in the Oule valley
Paysage rural dans la vallée de l'Oule

Last week, i went in the south of the french Alps to make some autumn mountains landscapes.
On saturday, after two shooting days in other places i moved to the Oule valley. In the second part of the morning, i sarted to hike the hills to find a nice point of view for afternoon photography. After a few hours i thought i had the good place. In the middle of a field on a big hill i had a very nice view on the other side of the valley with great mountains covered whith autumn forest. Guessing the light would be nice on these mountains at the end of afternoon i left the place and returned to the van for a little lunch.
At 5pm, i came back on my hill and after a litlle wait the light became very nice on the mountains and i started making photos.
A little time after one cloud came just over the valley. The cloud itself was not a problem but its shadow was very disturbing on the forests ...
I decided to wait that the cloud leaves this place and looked all around to see if it was the only one. Looking behind me, i saw on the top of the hill this fence and yellow grass shining in the sun. I left my place, climbed the hill with my tripod and camera and made two or three photos of the fence and field. My prefered is this one with the fence and rocky mountain in the opposite corners.
To make it, i installed my tripod just near the first fence stick and used a wide angle lens.
Two things were a little tricky to manage :

• The focusing point because i needed a great depth of field and wanted the wood stick to be perfectly sharp. It was so near my lens that if i had focused on it the depth of field would have been to short for the rest of the scene. If had focused too far of it, it wouldn't have been very sharp ... In such a situation, you can't rely on a DSLR viewfinder to see if the foreground is really as sharp as you want. The only solution is trying to use the hyperfocal and guess it will do the job ...
  
• The good moment : The day was a little windy making the grass moving. Because of the depth of field i had to shut down the lens and so the shutter speed was very slow. I had to wait an instant with absolutely no wind, focusing done, finger on the shutter release.

Three days after, back at the office i started to process my raw files and "falled in love" with this picture. I found everything perfect : nice colors, shining grass, stick sharpness and no disturbing blur due to the wind.
That's not the kind of landscapes i usualy do, that's not the photo i had plan to make in this valley but i love it !

Autum colors in the provence vineyard

Around my village, there are forests and vineyards. I take many vines photos that you can see on my french website.

In september, i was hiking in "La Plaine des Maures" looking for a good place and waiting for the best place for some landscape photography when i discovered a big vineyard field like an oasis in this little desert.

Most of the vine's leaves were still green but some of them started to wear their autumn colors. So i spent some times playing with them and my camera.

The image in this post is my prefered from this day. I choose this square format because it features the most colorful leaves.

Just back from holidays

From August 24 to September 5 i left the south of Provence to the Alps with my wife and daughter for a little holidays.
As usual, we traveled with our van so we can stop where and when we want.
After a few days in the north of Provence, we stopped in this wonderful place in the south of french Alps.

Green fields, blue sky, wonderful mountains and rivers. It was a nice place for photography, for playing and for hiking so we stayed there about 10 days.

As i was not there for work and didn't want to carry some heavy equipment i just took my D100 with one brand new zoom : Tarmon 17-50 XR DiII and one light and small tripod.
About the Tamron, i've to say that it's amazing : not expensive, light, small and very sharp. I think it's a perfect only lens for holidays. The focal range permits some nice landscapes and family candids and i was nicely surprised by the raw files sharpness.

Something else about this lens :
I shoot some panoramic landscapes with just one tripod and nothing to set up the nodal point. When stitching in PTGui Pro some files shooted with the shortest focal the optimizer's diagnostic was always very good. It seems that the nodal point is not so far in front of the lens. Nice !

3 new posters in my ArtistRising gallery

Three new posters are now available for sale in my ArtistRising gallery.

  

Lac des Escarcets

The "Lac des Escarcets" is part of a protected wilderness area in Provence, not so far from where i live.
I went there the first time 15 years ago by a rainy day and never returned for all this time.
I went back for hiking without any camera in January 2007 and the beauty of this place decided me to return for taking photos.

So, during the first quarter of 2007 i came back a few times, exploring for points of view and trying to catch the best lights. This area shows a nice diversity with rocky beaches, rivers under the trees, birds etc ...

 

A few words about panoramic photography

I always loved panoramic landscapes, with digital photography, stitching images has become very popular and stitching softwares very powerful.
I own 2 QTVR panoramic heads, one pro and one cheap.
The cheap one presents for me 2 issues. First it's long to setup in the field and second it's not rigid enough to ensure a very good image sharpness with some lenses.
The pro one is better but i don't always have it in my bag ...
So most of time i just use my tripod with its standard rotule head and a bubble level.

After the shooting session, digital workflow is still the same :

• The RAW files are converted in 48 bits TIF with SilkyPix.
• The TIF files are stitched with PTGUI.
• Final adjustments are done with PictureWindow Pro.

With the earliest versions of PTGui, we had to manually set up the control points. With the recent versions this time is gone and PTGui offers two different ways to automaticaly find these points. Its blending capabilities has also evoluated with the versions and you can now obtain rapidly some stuning results if you take a little care while shooting.

Shooting method and digital workflow

I always have in mind a few places to go.
Depending of weather and of my envy, when i think conditions are good i take my equipment and go.
I usually carry one DSLR with 3 or 4 lenses and one tripod.
Tripod is one of the most useful part of the landscape photographer equipement. Mines are always lights and small (when folded) so i can always have one with me.

When the light is the best its rarely strong, for landscapes i very often shot at f:14 or smaller aperture to ensure a great deep of field. The consequence is a low shutter speed and the tripod is sometime not enough and i don't hesitate to use a remote control or the camera self timer with mirror locking.

Back to the office, starts the post processing session.

• Renaming, sorting, examining and selecting files to keep.
• Processing raw keepers with SilkyPix.
• Further adjustments with Picture Window Pro.
• Backup.
  

Provence landscape photography

Provence landscapes are mostly lavender fields, seascapes and famous villages.
I prefer exploring and shooting some less knowns wild and wonderful natural areas with forests, cliffs, canyons, rivers and lakes.



I spend a lot of time walking and hiking in this nature, trying to find the best point of view, estimating when the light will be the best... When i think it's ok, i come back for shooting.