10/31/2009

 

Red Light (house) framed in Red

So, are we tired of this Lighthouse yet? Cape May Light. This time framed in red sumac leaves and twisted sumac branches. I knew this shot would need cropping in software once I got it home and planned it that way.

 

Sony DSC H50 at about 70mm equivalent for framing. F4 @ 1/125th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto.

Cropped in Lightroom from the bottom. Recovery for the sky behind the light. Blackpoint to the right. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Sharpen Landscape preset.

From Cape May 10/09.

10/30/2009

 

Autumn Pond Full of Cloud

I photographed this pond at Lighthouse State Park in Cape May NJ two days before with moody cloud cover. This day there were still clouds, but the autumn sun transformed the scene. The reflected sky…with pond weed showing through…as well as the band of fall color separating the clouds from their reflections…there is a lot to look at in this image.

Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto.

A touch of Recovery in Lightroom for the clouds and reflections. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Blackpoint to the right. Sharpen Landscape preset. I used the selective HSL tool to increase the Luminance of the red-orange of the fall leaves to make them stand out more.

From Cape May 10/09.

 

10/29/2009

Cape May Light over Cattails

Yes, it is another view of Cape May Lighthouse. Another. But honestly, it is a photogenic light and this year there were simply lots of good views.

For this shot, I used the flip out LCD on the Sony again to get down lower, placing the cattail heads and foreground grass as a strong element in the composition. The Light holds it own on the horizon (carefully placed according to the rule of thirds), and the heavy clouds add drama. I used Program Shift to select the smallest available f-stop for greatest depth of field to keep both foreground and Lighthouse in focus.

Sony DSC H50 at about 60mm equivalent (zoomed up for framing). F8 @ 1/125th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto with program shift.

In Lightroom I did my usual Clarity, Vibrance, blackpoint to the right, Sharpen Landscape stuff…but then I drew a Graduated Filter effect down from the top to darken the sky for drama, and one up from the bottom to increase both clarity and contrast for that chiseled by light look. This is as close to HDR as I get.

From Cape May 10/09.

10/28/2009

 

Pond, Swan, Fall

We seem to be getting a lot of these moody fall days. I manage at least two falls each year. One in Maine, one in New Jersey, and one in New Mexico: mid-October, late-October, and mid-November. This year I will be in Germany in mid-November. I am not sure if that is fall there or not. We shall see.

This is a little pond on the back side of Lighthouse State Park in Cape May, New Jersey. I have never seen as may Mute Swans as there are this year. They are everywhere there is fresh water. A touch of fall in the foliage on the far side and the cat-tails  in the foreground give the image some depth.

Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programmed Auto.

Recovery in Lightroom for the sky. A touch of Fill Light for the foliage. Blackpoint slightly right. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Sharpen Landscapes preset.

From Cape May 10/09.

 

10/27/2009

 

Trees of Flame Framing Lighthouse: Cape May

You may get tired of this Lighthouse, but I seem to have shot it from all angles on this trip. I could not resist these very bright trees and finding an angle that would frame the the lighthouse. I got down low and used the flip out lcd of the H50 to compose the shot.

Sony DSC H50 at 35mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/400 @ ISO 100. Programmed Auto.

Recovery in Lightroom for the sky. A bit of fill light to pick up the leaves in the tree and the textures of the tree trunks. Blackpoint to the right to intensify the image. Added Clarity and Vibrance and Sharpen Landscapes preset. Finally I went in with the selective HLS tools and increased the luminance of the red of the leaves.

And, for contrast, here is a shot with more lighthouse and less trees, taken from the same spot by zooming in.

 

Tighter Frame of Flame

This is at 120mm equivalent. For this shot I used Program Shift on the H50 (easy to do as it is one of the on screen options accessible without opening the menu system) to select the smallest aperture and increase depth of field to keep both foreground and the lighthouse in focus. It received very similar treatment in Lightroom.

So what do you think. Wide frame or tight?

From Cape May 10/09

 

 

10/26/2009

Cape May Lighthouse: Autumn

Cape May Light on moody Autumn afternoon. A touch of color in the trees with the lacy phragmities reeds (of questionable parentage…native or invasive??) form a intricate  cup to support the solid shaft of the light standing tall against the cloudy sky…classic stuff!

Sony DSC H50 at about 135mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/500 @ ISO 100. Programmed auto.

Recovery in Lightroom for the sky and clouds. A touch of Fill Light for the foreground. Blackpoint to the right for intensity. Added Vibrance and Clarity and the Sharpen Landscapes preset.

From Cape May 10/09.

10/25/2009

Another from a Cape May Dawn

Happy Sunday!

Capy May Gingerbread is always a treat. And the fad for white gingerbread is well past, or never caught on in Cape May. The Victorian era homes, now mostly B&Bs are painted as they were when new, in a full rainbow of colors. Even in the light of a cloudy dawn they have a glow.

Sony DSC H50 at about 110mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/60th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto.

This is another shot that required Lightroom’s Graduated Filter to bring up the foreground and make the scene look something like it would to the naked eye. GF from the bottom with added exposure, clarity, and just a touch of contrast. General application of Recover for the sky. Added Clarity and Vibrance and Sharpen Landscapes preset. Cropped slightly from both bottom and top for composition.

From Cape May 10/09.

For those of you who love Gingerbread, I walked around Cape May late yesterday afternoon as the rain held off and shot a quick  gallery of Gingerbread images, using my little pocket Sanyo camera, to show my wife what Cape May is like. You might enjoy it too. Best Quality Cape May Gingerbread on Posterous.

10/24/2009

Cape May Sunrise

Without resorting to Neutral Density filters over the lens, sunrises are among the hardest of scenes to image. You have a great range of light, with a very bright band, generally, just at the horizon. Getting the foreground to look natural is a real challenge…such a challenge that we are used to seeing sunrise shots which, in fact, have the foreground much darker than it ever appears in real life…when you are standing there on the beach facing the sun.

With the Sony H50 I have learned to just bias the exposure somewhat for the sky, enough to keep the colors in the sunrise intense, and work the rest of the image in Lightroom. I just tip the camera up to take the exposure reading, then reframe. Quick and dirty, but it works.

Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/80th @ ISO 100. Programmed Auto.

In Lightroom, some Recovery for the sky and highlights in the dawn. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Blackpoint to the right. Then I pulled a Graduated Filer Effect up from the bottom to just over the horizon and added exposure and brightness, as well as additional Clarity and a little Contrast to the foreground only.

From my new Cape May 10/09 gallery.

10/23/2009

Anhinga: Green Cay Wetlands

There were several birds in this tree. A Red-shouldered Hawk at the top. White Ibis lower, and this Anhinga in the lowest branches. And it is such a great tree! You can see from the abundance of white-wash that the birds really really like it. The tree and the background are as important in the image, for me, as the bird itself.

The challenge of the Anhinga is the range of contrast between the silvery white of the wing patterns, through jet black, to the gold of the throat. The fur-like feathers on the upper breast and throat provide a real test for the resolution of your system.

Zeiss PhotoScope 85FL at 40x (field of view of a 1600mm lens on a full frame DSLR). 1/380th @ ISO 100. Metered at about f5.0.

Just my basic added Clarity and the Sharpen landscapes preset in Lightroom. Only a touch of Vibrance.

From Green Cay, FL.

10/22/2009

Cape May Light

In honor of my trip to Cape May today, an image from Cape May. Cape May light from the north, looking back over the inner dunes and ponds.

Sony DSC H50 at 31mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/640th @ ISO 100. Programmed auto.

Just my basic added Vibrance and Clarity in Lightroom, along with the Sharpen landscapes preset.

This is from my flickr site.