Cedar Lake sunrise with fall colors, near Traverse City, Northern Michigan
This weekend my wife, our malamute Willow and I stayed with some friends at a cabin we rented near Traverse City, Michigan. It is a truly beautiful area. It wasn’t primarily a photography trip, but more about taking in some of the remaining fall color there, some relaxing site seeing along the coastline, and of course visiting some of the great Michigan wineries.
I did manage to get out this morning though for a quick fix of burning some pixels. This image is from the property where we stayed on Cedar Lake, about 25 minutes west of Traverse City.
With the exposure blending options available today, I find myself much less reluctant to photograph into the sun – even after it crests the horizon. I have always liked the way morning sun makes fall leaves glow when they are backlit. This is an attempt to capture some of that.
I blended this one (7 images, 1 stop apart each) using my 15 day trial version of Nik HDR Efex Pro. So far I like it. It offers a nice alternative to Photomatix with excellent presets for very realistic looking blends. Photomatix has dominated the market for so long (for good reason), it is interesting to see the approach another company takes with HDR. I finished it up with minor additional tweaks in Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5.
Amazing fall colors. You did a nice job of blending the images and keeping the image as a whole from looking like an obvious HDR composition.
Thanks Edward.
Mark, Thanks for sharing your experience and image. I am dealing with this issue a bit as well. I think your image works well. I am curious if you would have worked this scene differently if you were working outside of HDR. Also I’m curious if reaction to blended images is different among photographers than it is among “normal” viewers of your work. I suspect we photographers “see” this image in a more analytical way and so maybe miss some of it’s qualities because we concentrate on the technique more.
Sorry for taking so long to respond back to you Paul. Very good points! I haven’t noticed any differences in comments between photographers or normal folks. 😉 I think if something looks unnatural, people will pick up on it in general.
I could have used a Graduated ND filter here, but it certainly could have darkened the upper trees quite a bit to compensate for the sun. And then I wouldn’t have as brilliant backlit glowing leaves in the upper section of the image.
Really beautiful image, Mark! Those low golden rays really bring out some magic in this scene! Great job with the processing as well. I’ve just taken my first series of images to try with HDR, and am so far having mixed results. For a while I was kind of turned off by HDR since I had only really seen images that were way overprocessed and lost any feeling of being natural. However, I think its a remarkable tool when used in the fashion that you have for this shot. Our eyes are an amazing optical instrument and its a shame that current camera technology can’t more easily express how we experience the world. But being able to combine exposures can really move us well in that direction!
Thank you Pat. I am not surprised by the mixed results, I get them myself. But when it seems to work, it really works well.
I have been liking the results people have been getting with Nik’s hdr processing. I’ll have to try it. This image looks great. Love that sun star and all that color. Just beautiful.
Thank you very much Amber.
“Whether it be graduated density filters, darkroom dodging and burning, or HDR tools – we are all just trying to portray the light the way we experienced it and wish to portray it from our minds eye.”
I feel this statement is the key to the use of all the various contemporary techniques. If they are used to translate the “score” into a more accurate portrayal of what the artist saw or envisioned and thus a better “performance” so be it, all the better to use any tool possible. I take issue only with final performances that are clearly over-dramatized (which I realize is a judgment call) and enhanced way beyond what is in good taste (again, according to the viewer’s discretion if they have any).
Hey Mark
I don’t dislike the HDR thing, but I find it really hard to get down. So far, I’ve almost always preferred the results of manual blending than what I’ve managed with the programs.
I agree though, backlit foliage can be awesome, and newer technologies have opened the door a lot.
Great shot
Cheers
Carl
Thanks Paul. Yep, they are dropping pretty quick up here. This area in Northern Michigan had many areas that were past, and many areas that were just hitting their peak. It was hardly uniform at all this year.
Mark: I really like the photo and feel that blending is as much a part of the process as anything else. Who says that what the camera captures in one frame has to be the ‘final’ say. More power to you!
As for the ‘remaining’ leaves … Wow! Out leaves haven’t even started changing much, even in the mountains. I plan a trip up to The Blue Ridge Parkway in a couple of weeks. From what I have heard, the colors are still mostly green. Go figure!
I absolutely love that area! My in-laws have a place up there, too. It provides so much inspiration for my photography. Glad you enjoyed your stay. That’s a gorgeous shot you captured.
Thank you Leslie.
Mark, the photo’s a beautiful tribute to the fall season and in this case I like the processing.
I was thinking as I was looking at the image that you really included/captured about all the classic elements. A fallen tree trunk with mushrooms/fungi, a carpet of colored leaves, the sun star through a stand of trees still bearing fall colored leaves, and a distant lake with hills beyond. Now if you could have found a waterfall with running stream off to one side… 😉
As usually, wonderful work!
Thanks Earl. I cropped out the waterfall, I thought it was making the image too busy. 🙂
I have used the trial version of Photomatix but never purchased it. I am interested in Nik’s version so I may give it a try. Some of the surreal stuff is not appealing to me but the more natural look does. I have been shooting multiple images over the past few months so when I do purchase and HDR package I’ll have images ready to work with. Glad you were able to get away for the weekend and enjoy yourself. Have a great week, Mark.
Thank you Monte. It is well worth a try to see if you like it. Of course, you can take it to the extreme surreal if you want, or keep it very natural looking. The choice is there.
At the risk of being labeled a luddite, I have at times said some things against this whole idea of blending. Actually I feel the jury is still out. It will be interesting to see who accepts it and who doesn’t. Will collectors and museums even buy regular digital prints, let alone HDR, blended or other contemporary methods? I know some of Dad’s friends who are black and white darkroom die hards are up in arms. One of them recently lumped today’s digital photographers together calling them “collage artists, not photographers.” All of that said, I feel that the image above and your work in general do the new techniques justice. The photograph here is beautiful and does not look strangely unreal, on the contrary, this and other blended images of yours look surprisingly natural. Also, I think it helps me to know that you are highly skilled (with a camera) and could in many cases make the photograph either way. I take with a grain of salt or a lot of salt, what those on the far extremes of the issue say anyway. It is all very interesting and will be quite an adventure to see how it all pans out.
Hi David, thank you for your thoughtful comments. Actually, digital prints are already in museums. I know where you are coming from with regards to HDR, and I have seen a wide range of the imagery that can be produced from it. For me, this is simply another tool that lets me address the technical difficulties of photographing in a situation I have shown in this post. Whether it be graduated density filters, darkroom dodging and burning, or HDR tools – we are all just trying to portray the light the way we experienced it and wish to portray it from our minds eye. For me, there can be nothing ever “wrong” with that.