travel Archives - Page 17 of 28 - TimeLine Media Blog

February 11, 2014

Photography, Technology, Travel | 0 comment

Comparing HDR to Non-HDR images

Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument from Virginia - ©TimeLine Media

With all my landscape images, I have been bracketing exposures with the intent to do some post processing on the photos and create a high dynamic range (HDR) final image. One evening, I walked out on the Virginia side of the Potomac River from Washington, DC to the Memorial Bridge. This is a beautiful spot to make images of the Lincoln and Washington Monuments especially in the early evening. With the sun lowering, the white buildings again take on that pink/orange hue of the fading light.

HDR testing

In looking through the set of images that I made after the shoot, I did notice that this night had a smoggy haze. With rush hour traffic starting to build, it did not make for as nice a scene as the crisp winter mornings. The haze came in the middle of the frames underneath the blue, and stayed over the pink part of the sky overlaying this ugly gray layer.

This was just bad luck for the time I happened to be out there shooting. Obviously, it makes me want to try this on a different day. Perhaps I can get a better result next time. In any case, I saw the result from the post processing the bracketed photos with Photomatix. I wanted to compare it to the RAW file images. With this in mind, I had a feeling that being able to shoot at a low ISO. Additionally, with all the detail and information that the Nikon D4 gathers, I could make one of the RAW files that was in the middle of the bracket look just as good as the HDR image.

Washington, DC

What I learned in looking at these photos, is that there is not a huge difference between the dark and light sections of the photo. Moreover it is very possible to make one exposure similar to a realistic HDR image from 7 bracketed photos. The Raw file was adjusted in Adobe Lightroom with just some contrast, clarity, and vibrance added to the original file.

I then adjusted the white balance of the scene to mimic the HDR, and these photos looked very similar. Although it is not something that I am comfortable yet pre-visualizing. So it is nice to have the bracketed photos as a backup. I will probably continue to shoot both ways, and processes them in 2 ways, until I can more easily predict when it will save me a lot of time and memory card space to shoot just one photo instead of the whole series.

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February 7, 2014

Photography, Technology, Travel | 0 comment

Creating Vignettes with Flash

Lighting the Roosevelt Memorial with small flash - ©TimeLine Media

On yesterday’s post, I wrote about creating vignettes, in Photoshop. Today, I want to post some photos of another cool way to create vignettes, but this time, doing it in camera. I made these at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, DC. In this walk-through park dedicated to the longest-serving US President, there are many of his quotes engraved into the large pink-colored blocks that make up the monument. You can use the color of the blocks to your advantage as pink and blue are next to each other on the color wheel, so they will work together well in a frame. Here is a frame of the manual exposure setup in the camera without the flash:

Roosevelt Memorial without flash - ©TimeLine Media — Roosevelt Memorial without flash – ©TimeLine Media

Washington, DC

I am just looking to keep a dark, saturated blue in the sky. The flash will be used to illuminate the foreground and pop the subject out of the frame. To setup the flash, I put a warming gel over the front of the flash. Additionally I zoomed the head in to 180mm. This focuses the flash into a tight circle as opposed to just spilling light all over the scene. This is what creates the vignette effect which will draw your viewer’s eye to where you want it to go. I hand held the flash with my left hand, and made this photo:

How far you zoom the head, can make the circle of light larger. Especially if you have more of an area you want to cover in light. This next photo, I zoomed the head out farther since I was standing farther away, and had more words that I wanted to light:

It was a challenge to get the light exactly right. Sometimes, I would flash the ground, sometimes, I would only light the trees above the blocks. It would be much easier to do this with the flash on a stand that you can control with more consistency, but I did not want to risk any entanglements with the park rangers. I simply used a hot shoe cable cord to get the flash off the camera, and fired away. Give it a try next time to get a different look at places that are photographed all the time!

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

February 1, 2014

Photography, Travel | 0 comment

Masonic Temple at Sunrise – Alexandria, VA

Alexandria Virginia Masonic Temple - ©TimeLine Media

I have read from landscape photographers that the key to getting great images is to photograph in great light. Most of the time, that means going to sites when the light is very low on the horizon. In this case, the early morning just before and after sunrise, or in the evening just before and after sunset. This “Golden Hour” in the morning or “Blue Hour” in the evening does make for some nice backgrounds for photos. The early sunrise in the winter months makes it easier to get out of the house at a semi-decent hour to get these photos. The extremely cold temperatures also help. It keeps cars and other people to a minimum. Who wants to be out here unless you really NEED to be out here at this time?

Masonic Temple

Alexandria, VA - ©TimeLine Media — Alexandria, VA – ©TimeLine Media

This particular morning, I made the trip to the outskirts of Old Town Alexandria. I did not have any trouble finding street parking at this hour – another benefit of such an early shoot, and walked the few blocks to the Masonic Temple. This beautiful structure can be seen from most of the major freeways and highways in the DC Area. It is familiar to anyone that has driven in the area especially if you are traveling across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, or flying into National Airport. I have never been inside, but have put this on my list to photograph once I figured that this would probably be situated perfectly for a sunrise shoot. With it’s East-facing position being the preferable angle, it made for a very easy subject to lineup and photograph. After only three attempts, this day’s attempt was the best from me. I will definitely be back to see about going on a tour. It should have a nice view in to Old Town Alexandria to the Potomac River and Maryland beyond.

TimeLine Media – www.timelinedc.com
703-864-8208

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HDR testing

Washington, DC

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Masonic Temple

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