[Newtophotos]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I’ll be traveling in twoweeks and want to be fairly competent at landscape photography beforehand. Toaid this I’ll take practice photos.


CarlJF: You made this photo look much better! Do you makethese adjustments in photoshop or lightroom?


Bewatek: I should clarify; by dreamy I mean a landscape photo that really draws the viewer in and not one that is unrealistic.


Using a tripod, K-30 at ISO 100 with Sigma 8-16mm at >f/8,my plan is to take one photo properly exposing the ground and one photoproperly exposing the sky. I have very limited experience with photoshop (or islightroom more suitable for this?) but I’m sure merging these two photos togetherwon’t be too challenging. Is it possible to merge photos with Apple’s photo app?


Finally, it is better to take HDR photos in the field orperform HDR in post processing?

[dsmithhfx]

On a related note, can anyone show me where to find Ansel Adams in the Effects menu?

[Digitalis]

can anyone show me where to find Ansel Adams in the Effects menu?

[Des]

Finally, it is better to take HDR photos in the field orperform HDR in post processing?

Post processing by far. The in-camera HDR isn't great.

Try exposure bracketing. You can set the parameters - try +/-0.7 EV or +/-1.0 EV to start with. That will generally give you a good set to merge - or the underexposed shot will often be a good basis for working on in PP (because you can pull a lot of detail from shadows, but blown highlights are gone forever). If the dynamic range of the image is greater you might need to bracket wider than 1 stop.

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Last edited by Des; 01-04-2016 at 09:22 PM.

[mattb123]

I got an inexpensive 10 stop filter to try for clouds and water like the photos in your link. Helps tons as does good light and an interesting composition.
The light in your shot looks a bit flat and the composition needs a little more interest in the foreground (IMO). A slower shutter speed would make the clouds streak and those clouds look like they would be good for this (not all are).
Here's one I did last spring with the intentions of creating something "dreamy". Moving water is good for that too. I did a bulb exposure for 105s at f/16 using that 10 stop ND filter. My composition isn't all that great but it does give us some lines to carry you into the scene.


If you wanted to try this without buying a ND filter, shoot at night or pre-dawn or dusk.

[Murfy]

I played around with HDR using some free HDR software I found online, you can google for names. Of course I was just playing and it is no where near what you could get if you could buy software for it. I think Aurora HDR is a new software for Macs and Photomatix I think is the name of another. You can't merge two photos in Lightroom.

EDIT- oops, yes I just remembered the new version does have HDR option, but I am stuck on 5.7

[Glenn5995]

If you are interested in HDR, I have been using Photomatix and found it to work well and is easy to use. Trey Ratcliff's website has a lot of information about HDR photography: Stuck In Customs | HDR Photography, Travel Photography and Camera Reviews

[Newtophotos]

I got an inexpensive 10 stop filter to try for clouds and water like the photos in your link. Helps tons as does good light and an interesting composition.
The light in your shot looks a bit flat and the composition needs a little more interest in the foreground (IMO). A slower shutter speed would make the clouds streak and those clouds look like they would be good for this (not all are).
Here's one I did last spring with the intentions of creating something "dreamy". Moving water is good for that too. I did a bulb exposure for 105s at f/16 using that 10 stop ND filter. My composition isn't all that great but it does give us some lines to carry you into the scene.


If you wanted to try this without buying a ND filter, shoot at night or pre-dawn or dusk.

Thanks Mattb123. Can I ask the brand of your 10 stop filter? Also, how did you set the camera to 105s, I'm used to only a 30second limit but maybe I need to play around the camera more.

For those how use exposure bracketing when taking landscape photos, how many EV stops do you set the over and underexposed image at? Do you vary it if it's sunrise/sunset vs mid day? It appears my K30 can only take 3 photos and not 5,7, etc.

[Imp]

Thanks Mattb123. Can I ask the brand of your 10 stop filter? Also, how did you set the camera to 105s, I'm used to only a 30second limit but maybe I need to play around the camera more.

Use Bulb mode - you can let the shutter stay open for as long as you want

[mattb123]

Thanks Mattb123. Can I ask the brand of your 10 stop filter? Also, how did you set the camera to 105s, I'm used to only a 30second limit but maybe I need to play around the camera more.

For those how use exposure bracketing when taking landscape photos, how many EV stops do you set the over and underexposed image at? Do you vary it if it's sunrise/sunset vs mid day? It appears my K30 can only take 3 photos and not 5,7, etc.

I have a B+W filter. If you use many of the Limited primes, 49mm is a good size to get since it's less expensive and it will fit more of my lenses than any other size.

This was a single exposure. I used bulb mode. You can set it so one push of the button opens the shutter and one closes it in the menus. The default is to have to hold the button which is impractical.

When I do bracket I'll based the spread on how big of a dynamic range I seem to have. If it's big (both very bright and very dark) I'll do +/- 2 stops or more. Most of the time I try to do a given shot with a single exposure if I can.

[hjoseph7]

In addition to what is said above, there's also a lot of PP work to do to get a great landscape. I've no no specific tip for this, it really depends on what you want to achieve. Playing with constrast, saturation, exposure (global or local), white balance will all greatly impact on how your final picture will look and feel.

For example, I've just taken your picture above and done some quick and dirty adjustments (exposure, saturation, contrast, WB), without any local adjustment. The final result is quite different from your picture. If you work from the RAW, you could achieve much better and dramatic results. It's yours to take it the way you want...



---------- Post added 01-01-16 at 05:34 PM ----------

BTW, I've just noticed that you were at f4.0. Usually, for landscape, you want a lot of DOF. It usually works better at f8.0 or f11...

Great work, you changed an ordinary picture to an extraordinary one...

[Gimbal]

If you wanted to try this without buying a ND filter, shoot at night or pre-dawn or dusk.

Or use the multiexposure function in the camera.

[CarlJF]

CarlJF: You made this photo look much better! Do you makethese adjustments in photoshop or lightroom?

LR, but could also be done in PS (or whatever software). I've just played with the basics sliders: contrast, clarity, vibrance and saturation to get somethjing more "punchy". The WB was changed to get a much more warmer picture.You can certainly achieve a much better result by working on the raw file. Only global adjustments were done. You can get a more dramatic scene by doing local adjustments, for example, by higlighting or darkening specific features of the landscape by using the LR magic wand to increase/decrease exposure.

[Sagitta]

If you don't feel like mucking with HDR, you can always try using whats called the 'Orton effect' on some shots to see how it works. An Orton shot basically is a composite of three (or even just 2, but I find 3 works best) exposures, one dark, one normal, and a third very out of focus. It originated in the slide days when all three shots would be added to the same frame to give a dreamy somewhat surreal look to the shot.

I've had people call it a 'bloom' effect like you'll see smetimes in video games.

With digital photography you can pull it off with a single RAW image if you're even halfway decent with Photoshop (or your PP software of choice).

Personally, I sometimes like Ortonizing HDR images because then things get REALLY interesting.
Here are some of my shots I've done one degree or another of this technique to...

[Newtophotos]

If you don't feel like mucking with HDR, you can always try using whats called the 'Orton effect' on some shots to see how it works. An Orton shot basically is a composite of three (or even just 2, but I find 3 works best) exposures, one dark, one normal, and a third very out of focus. It originated in the slide days when all three shots would be added to the same frame to give a dreamy somewhat surreal look to the shot.

I've had people call it a 'bloom' effect like you'll see smetimes in video games.

With digital photography you can pull it off with a single RAW image if you're even halfway decent with Photoshop (or your PP software of choice).

Those are nice pictures, especially the last one. I assume the surreal effect comes from the out of focus picture.


If I have a tripod and I'd like to take a picture of a monument without seeing the people in front is it better to have along exposure or multi exposure? Is it possible to set the mirror to stay up during multi exposure on my K30?

Also, I assume if people are standing still I may not have enough movement to get a picture of the monument or building without people.