I enjoyed messing around with this technique in the "Shadows" Challenge a while back. But my "Night at the Museum" (http://www.pbase.com/cslr_challenge/image/79278212 )was probably also the last time I did this, to be honest! :-) Regards Nico
Thanks, Lonnit, for the explanation. HDR on bw... I have only tried that once or twice before... thanks for the inspiration to have another look into this some time. Kind regards Nico
Thank you, Nico. And you won my heart with your choice of topics, as you know I am passionate for the photography related themes as opposed to subject themes.
I converted this to BW, then I used the Photomatix Tone Mapping plug-in to HDR it. I thought it an excellent image for this technique, being that the haze made the background so beautifully soft, giving tremendous depth to the image with the sharp rocks and tree and grass in the foreground, which allowed for excellent separation. Normally I would not care so much for an image shot at f/18 like this because the sharpness of all distances prevents separation of the elements within the image. Here, the sharp foreground tree, and the slightly softer midground tree, along with the rocks, jump of the background allowing for tremendous depth in the image, giving it somewhat of a three-dimensional look. I like this image very much and am very proud of it. You know I rarely do landscapes, so I take pride in the fact that this turned out as well as it did. For another photog it might have been no big deal. For me it was quite an accomplishment. I normally always shoot wide open. I can count on one hand the times I have shot f/16 or smaller, and those have usually been trashed for precisely the reason I mentioned above - all is in focus leaving nothing for the eye to focus on.
Excellent choice of topic. It so happens that this was exactly the technique I was working on when I shot this just prior to the challenge! I was inspired by Hanson Fong. I went to his seminar a week prior. He is a wonderful speaker and so incredibly talented. ~ Lonnit