Glowing Tufts

another offering from the 'sloughs' project...

beautiful landscape. Excellent light!

Beautiful sunlight and composition.

The isolated tufts give it quite a surreal quality. They kind of look like little plant-based aliens, migrating across the surface of another world. I can even see their 'wobble' as they walk. I wonder if this is the home planet of the Triffids?

Great landscape with great success recreating original contrast of the scene by blending two shots. We "know" it's not possible to get that in one single exposure, but it looks really natural! The light "enhancing" the multiple tufts is very nice, and the clouds were very important to fill-up the top! Excellent shot... 7/6!

The only thing I could say is that you was there when you needed to be there!

Eric these plants seem to enjoy the rising sun. It is as if they are joyously greeting it in a ceremony we are privileged to witness.

One of the best landscapes that I've seen. Everything works perfectly, light, plants, sky, exposure, color, composition. A very professional image.

Question - was the 'sun/star' effect done afterwards in photoshop in order to hide the blend? I'm just starting to get into this blending-two-exposures stuff and am always interested to learn techniques... Otherwise, I love this photo - and all the rest of the landscape shots in this theme too!

Thanks folks.

 

Stephen - I enjoy your insights. I do aspire to an 'alien' aspect to my landscapes so I'm glad that comes through.

 

David - Not that it matters, but this is sunset.

 

Derek - The sun star is as photographed (flare and all). They are pretty hit or miss - this one turned out well - just good luck.

 

Regarding the blending:

 

I shoot from a tripod and I use the automatic exposure bracketing feature of the 1Ds to take 2 exposures (the number of exposures is configureable with the 1Ds - mine is set to 2). I meter the first exposure for the foreground then meter the sky exposure and set the exposure compensation appropriately (3 stops in this case). For the sky exposure I spot metered near the sun. The two exposures are then taken one right after the other. I use a remote release so I don't touch the camera between exposures - to make sure they line up or register with each other.

 

To combine the two exposures in this case (I have a variety of techniques) I simply place the dark (sky) exposure on top of the light (ground) one and create a mask for the top one. The mask is a simple selection with a slight feathering of the area above the horizon line. I then paint a little on the mask to 'touch things up' as necessary around the horizon line.

 

A 3 stop, hard-edge graduated neutral density filter probably would have done the job just as easily in this case (nice straight horizon line).

 

Thanks,

Eric

Unusual.7/6

Another excellent landscape from you, the best I have seen on PN for a long while. Congrats ! Just curious: do you shoot RAW ? Convert with C1 ?

This is amazing! I think this is a perfect composition!

very well done. I like it so much that I did some cropping for you with appologies. Geo

http://img2.exs.cx/img2/3205/crop.jpg

Great shot, Eric! The blending is not obvious so thanks for the details on that.

A very beautiful and unusual sunset, well done!

Beautiful! Very nice work. Looks like the tilt-shift lens really pays off. (In addition to all the work you obviously put into the shot!)

Very nicely done. It definitely has a kind of surreal appearance.

Carsten - Yes, I always shoot raw and I am converting with C1.

 

Geo - I think your crop works as well. I like the line of clouds on the top, though I do wish they were a little further down in the frame.

 

Thanks,

Eric

hey eric,

I like the composition. I like how you've placed one plant in the foreground.

7/7

Hiya Eric (: beautiful photograph and perhaps one of my most fav's of yours to date. Hard to pick really (; very very nice!!

 

robert...........

that's alberta for ya! wide open spaces and great sunsets. absolutely beautiful. being from the Edmonton area myself I really appreciate the quality of your work - outstanding. if you don't mind i'd be curious to know the specific area of the lake from which this was taken?

Thanks Andrew. This one is from the south end of the lake a little west of the bird observatory area. The other grass photos are from an access point on the east side of the lake.

Original capt., would be more contrast

Wow, this landscape has such vast space and imaginative texture, exciting to see the Northern part of the backyard and province that provides so many photgraphic surprises...regards....Tye.