HDR Efex by Nik

HDR, or high dynamic range, photography has become very popular in the last few years. This process allows the photographer to render details in high contrast scenes including sunny day landscapes and building interiors, both shadows and highlights will have detail.  All you need to do is bracket your exposures 1/2 stop or more for multiple frames.  I often bracket around 1 stop for 5 frames to get good results.  Using HDR techniques in Arches National Park in the middle of the day I could shoot Double Arch and still get details in my shadows while not blowing out my highlights.

Slow Down the Water

When I teach my photo workshops students often ask is there a right or wrong way to capture moving water.  My response is “it depends.”  The bigger question is what type of water will best contribute to the overall mood and atmosphere of the image?  If I am shooting a tranquil calm scene, then most likely I will want my water slow and silky.  If I am shooting a kayaker paddling off a waterfall, then this adrenaline shot requires water droplets frozen in the air for the right effect.

But what do you do if it is in the middle of the day under sunny skies.  Even with your ISO at 100 and aperture set to F22, you still can’t get exposures 1 second or longer.  You could add a polarizer which will help block out another stop or so of light, but still not slow enough.  The filter I use to accomplish this is the Singh-Ray Vari-ND.  This filter fits on 77mm lenses, and can block from 2-8 stops of light.  This enables me to shoot very long exposures in the middle of the day, even 30 seconds! 

Super slow exposures result in ‘cotton water’, while exposures closer to a second will have some stream detail.  The decision is yours, but photograph water that adds to the feel and mood of your image.  The best shots have design elements that compliment each other, not work against one another.

Panos made easy with BH55 PCL

I have been on the road the last three weeks shooting an assignment, and had a chance to use a new tripod head.  If you like to shoot panoramic images, then you should take a look at the Really Right Stuff BH55 PCL head. This tripod head has a fluid rotating head on top of the standard tripod platform. There is a bubble level on top. To use the head, simply level the tripod head using the bubble, then loosen the rotating head controlled by a small screw.  Then shoot your images giving about 30 percent overlap in each shot. Remember to keep things consistent with each image; no polarizers, adjusting exposure, changing apertures…you need consistent shots to merge in Photoshop. Using the head this way does not compensate for the nodal point, but RRS has a bracket for this as well.

Page 2 of 2 pages  <  1 2