Tag Archives: hdr

Classic Beauty

Looking east inside the Wisconsin Capitol. Two glass mosaics (pendentives) are seen: Liberty (left) and Justice (right) (Bill Ferris)

Looking east inside the Wisconsin Capitol. Two glass mosaics (pendentives) are seen: Liberty (left) and Justice (right) (Bill Ferris)

There is just something about classic, old world architecture. I love it and, best of all, so does my camera.

Built during the early 1900’s by George B. Post & Sons of New York, the Wisconsin Capitol building in Madison is a fine example of Renaissance Revival architecture. It features the largest granite dome in the world, a rotunda constructed of marble from Greece and the classical lines and archways one would expect to find in a European capitol. At 284 feet, 5-inches tall, the Capitol is three feet shorter than the nation’s capitol in Washington, DC. In 1988, the state of Wisconsin began a major renovation project to modernize the infrastructure while restoring the original 1917 appearance of the building. Completed in 2002, the result of that work is shown in the photos accompanying this article.

Architectural photography and landscape photography have a lot in common. The most significant commonality is that a good wide angle lens and tripod are key to capturing dramatic images filled with rich color and detail. All the photos in this article were taken with a Nikon D600 and Nikon 16-35mm zoom lens. All were shot at 16mm. To capture as much detail as possible, I used small apertures (f/16 to f/22), which deliver great depth of field. To minimize noise and preserve the detail of the exposures, I selected an ISO of 200.

I visited the capitol building on a late November day, finding an interior illuminated by wonderfully soft natural sunlight. Because I was shooting with small apertures, my exposures needed to be quite long. The above photo, for example, is a 0.8-second exposure. As you look through the other images, you’ll see captures from 2- to 5-seconds in length.

Looking southeast from beneath an archway in the Wisconsin Capitol building, three pendentives are seen: Liberty (left), Justice (center), and Legislation (right) (Bill Ferris)

Looking southeast from beneath an archway in the Wisconsin Capitol building, three pendentives are seen: Liberty (left), Justice (center), and Legislation (right) (Bill Ferris)

This is a 2-second exposure shot at f/16. The dome interior was overexposed by a full stop but the arches and corridors were properly exposed. Shooting in RAW made it relatively easy to correct the overexposed dome in Photoshop. I opened the original RAW image, making subtle adjustments in exposure and color saturation to optimize for the arches, corridors and pendentives. (Pendentives are the colorful glass mosaics between the arches.) This file was then saved as a TIFF. I then re-opened the original file, this time bringing the exposure down by a full stop to optimize for the dome interior. I copied this into a new layer in the TIFF file and used a layer mask to reveal just the dome interior.

This is the beauty of working with RAW files. Because they are uncompressed and contain the widest dynamic range of any format, RAW files allow you the greatest latitude in adjusting exposure, brightness, contrast and color saturation without loss of detail. I can often decrease or boost exposure by two full stops without significant degradation of the image.

A view from the Wisconsin Capitol second floor balcony up toward the dome. Three pendentives are visible. The pendentives are glass mosaics representing the three branches of government: Justice (left), Legislation (center) and Executive Power (Government - right) (Bill Ferris)

A view from the Wisconsin Capitol second floor balcony up toward the dome. Three pendentives are visible. The pendentives are glass mosaics representing the three branches of government: Justice (left), Legislation (center) and Executive Power (Government – right) (Bill Ferris)

The graceful curves and lines make this building perfect for a photographic style that emphasizes balance and symmetry. While setting up, I noticed a small patch of sunlight illuminating the dome interior so, I framed the shot to include this detail, which anchors the upper boundary of the image. This, again, is where a tripod is essential gear. Shooting with a tripod allowed me to carefully compose each shot. I used the D600’s virtual horizon to get the camera level along the horizontal X-axis. Tilting in the vertical Y-axis would still preserve a symmetrical view.

After composing the shot, I used the camera’s AF-S (Auto Focus-Single Servo) mode to set focus on a distant detail. I had also assigned focus activation to the AE/AF lock button. With focus set, I could then pay attention to any final framing adjustments before taking the exposure. To minimize the chance that vibration would introduce shake during these long exposures, I used the camera’s self-timer to delay shutter actuation by 10-seconds from the moment I pushed the shutter release button. This delay allowed the camera body to settle and capture crisp, detailed photos.

The only drawback was that, on several occasions, people would walk into my frame during the 10 second delay. Oh well. When that happened, I would wait for them to leave the frame before starting another exposure count down. Patience, is a valuable asset to have as a photographer.

Looking up from the ground floor toward the center of the dome of the Wisconsin State Capitol. With east at bottom, south at right, west at top and north at left, all four pendentives (glass mosaics) are visible: Liberty (bottom left), Justice (bottom right), Government (top left) and Legislation (top right) (Bill Ferris)

Looking up from the ground floor toward the center of the dome of the Wisconsin State Capitol. With east at bottom, south at right, west at top and north at left, all four pendentives (glass mosaics) are visible: Liberty (bottom left), Justice (bottom right), Government (top left) and Legislation (top right) (Bill Ferris)

This image was taken at 16mm, f/16, ISO 200. It is a 5-second exposure. I intentionally overexposed the dome by two full stops to capture enough light to allow the arched ceilings to show good color and detail. As with the other images in this set, I used the exposure adjustment tool when opening the original RAW image to create multiple layers in the final Photoshop composite. The base layer was optimized for the architectural details in the corners; the next layer, for the arches; then third, for the glass mosaic pendentives; and the uppermost layer exposure was optimized for the dome interior. Exposure was decreased by nearly two stops, which shooting in RAW makes possible.

The real fun of photographing a structure such as this–with its graceful lines, European flourishes and classical beauty–is having the time to play with composition. After capturing a frame featuring one detail, you might move the camera just a few degrees to reveal another detail that serves as the focus point for the next exposure. There is almost no wrong way to work a subject like this. Of course, this assumes you’ve brought your camera along for the trip.

Now, get out an shoot.

Bill Ferris | December 2013

A, Is for Aperture Priority

I don’t recall exactly how long it took before I was able to look at the letters on the menu dial of my camera and see anything other than alphabet soup. It certainly wasn’t overnight after first getting the camera, weeks at a minimum but probably closer to months.

In part this was due to the ability of the modern DSLR camera to auto select settings that produce good photos. Another factor was the menu of scene modes on my Nikon D70. When taking pictures of people, I used the Portrait setting. I also used the Landscape, Sports and Night settings. The names said everything I needed to know about their function and made it easy to explore settings other than Auto. Yes, I was getting all radical with my camera and trying different menu dial positions just weeks after getting it.

But the real experimentation started when I took the leap of faith required to dive into the alphabet soup settings on the menu dial: A, M, P and S. In addition to being an anagram for, spam, those four letters tease and temp a new photographer with hints of the unknown and mysterious. What happens when you choose, A? Will the camera even function?

The Command Dial on most DSLR cameras allows you to choose between a variety of scene and other settings, including Aperture Priority (A)

The Command Dial on most DSLR cameras allows you to choose between a variety of scene and other settings, including Aperture Priority (A) (Graphic used courtesy Creative Commons)

A, is for Aperture Priority, a setting where you manually select the aperture and the camera fill in the other settings. An aperture is an opening that allows light to pass through the lens and fall on your camera’s sensor. If you’re framing a shot at high noon on a sunny day, there’s a lot of light hitting your subject. This abundance of ambient light means your camera’s aperture can be small and still allow enough light to hit the sensor to capture a beautiful image with a short exposure. This brings us to the concept of f-stop or f/ratio. These terms mean the same thing, the ratio of the focal length of your camera lens to the diameter of the lens opening (aperture) allowing light to fall on the camera sensor.

Suppose your shooting with the kit zoom lens that came with your camera and the focal length (zoom) is set to 50 mm (millimeters). Put the camera in auto and take a picture of something. Then, play the photo and look at the information about that exposure. In particular look for the f-number. The number next the f tells you the ratio of the aperture to lens focal length. A picture taken with a 50 mm lens at f/10 had a 5 mm (1/5-inch) aperture. A picture taken with a 50 mm lens at f/4 had a 12.5 mm (1/2-inch) aperture or opening.

So, the smaller the focal ratio or f-number, the larger the aperture. In short, when you shoot with a small f-number, you’re letting more light into the camera to fall on the sensor. Or at least, your camera is trying to let in more light. When we started this discussion, we began by imagining a scenario of taking a picture at high noon on a sunny day. Let’s change the time from high noon to the golden hour, that first hour after sunrise or last hour before sunset when natural light is soft, warm and dramatic. The light quality is better but there’s not as much of it. So, in order for your camera to allow the same quantity of light on its sensor as a shot taken at noon, the aperture needs to be larger.

The begs the question, so what? Why should you care that the aperture needs to be bigger during the golden hour than at high noon? Well, aperture determines the depth of field in a photo. Depth of field is the range of distance within which objects or people will be in focus in a photograph. When shooting portraits, it’s often more pleasing to have a shallow depth of field. In other words, the person who’s the subject of the photo is in focus but anything in the foreground or background will be out of focus. This quality of an out of focus foreground or background is called, bokeh. Bokeh is a Japanese term describing the portion of a photograph that is obviously out of focus. When shooting a portrait, obvious bokeh in the background is typically very pleasing to the eye. The way to create bokeh in your shot is to shoot using a small focal ratio or f-number, the smaller the better.

Northern Arizona's summer monsoon calls forth brilliant yellow wildflowers near Flagstaff, Arizona. (Bill Ferris)

Northern Arizona’s summer monsoon calls forth brilliant yellow wildflowers near Flagstaff, Arizona. (Bill Ferris)

Above, is an example of bokeh. The subject is in focus in the foreground and the background is obviously out of focus. This transforms the background flowers into a pleasingly abstract tapestry of hues and textures complimenting the subject of the photo.

Suppose you’re shooting a landscape at sunset. A wonderful, warm light is painting the temples and buttes of Grand Canyon. For this shot, you’ll probably want everything in your frame to be in focus. You’re not trying to capture just one temple or butte. Everything in your frame needs to be in focus. In this scenario, a shallow depth of field will put much of the frame out of focus. To put everything from the most distant butte to the blooming foreground wildflower in focus, you need to shoot using a large focal ratio. Typically, I shoot at f/9 when doing landscape photography.

 (Bill Ferris)

The last light of day paints Desert View Watchtower on the South Rim of Grand Canyon a deep rusty red. Desert View overlooks the Palisades of the Desert and the Colorado River in eastern Grand Canyon National Park. (Bill Ferris)

This photo of Desert View Watchtower on the South Rim of Grand Canyon was taken at sunset. My Nikon D90 was mounted on a tripod. The camera was in aperture priority at f/9, ISO 500, a lens focal length of 19 mm and an exposure of 1/30-second.

This brings us to the final question of this blog entry. What impact, other than depth of field, will shooting at f/9 have on your photo? As we’ve discussed, the larger the f-number the smaller the aperture or lens opening. If shooting at sunset to capture a landscape illuminated by that gorgeous, soft light, you can compensate for the small aperture by boosting the ISO setting. The same scene that can be captured with an ISO of 200 at high noon, may require an ISO setting of 800 during that dusky time around sunset.

But there is a price to pay for taking this approach. Boosting the ISO to make your camera more sensitive to light adds digital noise to your photo. With higher end digital cameras, images shot at ISO 800 often look very good. But if you’re shooting with an entry-level camera or an older DSLR, an image shot at ISO 800 will often looking grainy and rough. Rest assured, however, there is another solution.

Use a tripod. For landscape photography or any photography where you want to capture sharp, detailed images with good depth-of-field, a tripod is essential gear. Mounting your camera on a tripod allows you to precisely frame the shot. It also allows you to shoot at low ISO’s of 400 or less during the golden hour and still capture great detail. The scene that was perfectly captured with a 1/500-second expose in bright sunlight may require a 1/10-second exposure at a time of day when the quality of the light is warmer, softer and more dramatic.

Now, 1/10-second may not seem slow but trust me, it is slow in photography. As a general rule when shooting handheld, you want exposure times to be no slower than the reciprocal of the lens focal length. OK, in English. Let’s say you’re shooting with a 50 mm lens. If you’re holding the camera in hand for the shot, the slowest shutter speed you’ll want to use is 1/50-second. Faster would be better. Any slower speed will allow the camera to capture the vibration or unsteadiness of your handhold. That vibration will soften details and produce an image that looks out of focus. If the camera is mounted on a tripod, that rock solid platform will allow you to take longer exposures producing crisp, focused photographs.

OK, I’ve rambled long enough. The next time you’re out with your camera, experiment with using the A or aperture priority setting. Shoot the same subject using different apertures. Compare the ISO settings and exposure times for the resulting photos. Most important, compare how the photos look. Which one looks best to you? Write down or make a mental note of those settings and spend the rest of the day shooting with them. You’ll learn a little more about your camera and you’ll get some great shots.

Get out and shoot!

Bill Ferris | August 2013

Psychedelic

Bryce Point in Bryce Canyon National Park basks in the warm glow of sunrise on a mid-summer morning. It is amazing to me that places such as this, with its deeply rich natural hues, can be found on this earth. (Bill Ferris)

Bryce Point in Bryce Canyon National Park basks in the warm glow of sunrise on a mid-summer morning. It is amazing to me that places such as this, with its deeply rich natural hues, can be found on this earth. (Bill Ferris)

Too loud. Garish. Unnatural.

These are words some critics use in lamenting the presentation of bright, bold colors in high dynamic range (HDR) photography. Personally, I like richly saturated hues in my photos. That said, I acknowledge and respect your right to enjoy and celebrate the photographic styles that touch you. After all, photography is deeply personal. There should be room for a wide variety of perspectives and a multitude of forms of expression within the medium.

If asked to describe my HDR photographic style, I suppose the phrase I would choose is, deeply natural. It’s a simple phrase, just two words, but conveys far more about my taste in photography than meets the eye. I’ll begin with the second word, natural. I like my photos to have a natural appearance to them. A natural-looking image is inviting. It’s a whisper saying, step a little closer and have a good look. Natural is something you want to touch, to linger over and sit with. Natural welcomes a long visit.

To preserve that natural quality, I tend to back off on the depth of the processing…just a touch. I mean, let’s not kid around, my HDR is clearly HDR. It’s got that look but it also retains enough of the subject’s inherent beauty to have a natural look. It’s not landscape porn. It’s the landscape next door.

Which brings us back to the first word, deeply. As mentioned at the outset, I like deep rich hues in my photos. These aren’t colors as they appear to my eye. Rather, they’re the colors seen by my soul. When a scene touches and inspires me to pull out the camera and tripod, it comes alive in a way that goes well beyond what can be seen with the eye. It reaches deep inside. The details get a little sharper, the sky a little bluer, the colors brighter and richer.

Bryce Point at sunrise in Bryce Canyon National Park
Bryce Point in Bryce Canyon National Park basks in the warm glow of sunrise on a mid-summer morning.

Bryce Canyon National Park is truly an American gem. What makes this place so magical are the amazing colors in the stone. They are both totally real and completely unnatural at the same time. For an HDR photographer, the unique quality of the color makes Bryce Canyon heaven on earth.

Occasionally, nature does the work for me. The gorgeous, slightly more intense than life quality comes baked into the scene. That above photograph is a perfect example. Those electric day glow colors are totally natural. Catching the early morning light, this is how Bryce Canyon looks. It’s more than the color of reflected light. It is as though the stone hoodoos and rock layers are powered by an inner rainbow glow.

Is it loud? Garish? Unnatural? Maybe so. But that is Bryce Canyon, one of the most unnatural looking wonders on the planet. Bryce Canyon is a place that has to be seen to be believed. It’s like candy to an HDR baby.

So, where is your naturally amazing wonder? Where do you go to find inspiration? Keep that thought in mind. Grab the car keys, and get out and shoot!

Bill Ferris | July 2013