Desert Oak, Curtin Springs Station

March 1, 2013 by 1 Comment

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It’s off on an adventure, down an unmarked dirt road through the Kings Creek Station and into Curtin Springs Station. It’s hundreds of square kilometres of remote outback Australia and only a handful of people have access to the track, so we see no one else for the next day until we reach the Lasseter Highway several hundred kilometres south.

Our vehicle is purpose designed for this sort of travel, yet even so we find ourselves bogged at the top of a particularly soft sand dune. No trouble! We bundle off the vehicle, grab the metal boards from the trailer and dig them under the wheels. It doesn’t take us too long to sort it out, but we do unload a few suitcases to make the vehicle lighter. Was that a good idea? Possibly not as we found ourselves carrying our suitcases along the sandy track to the rescued vehicle – it certainly made a comical picture.

Photo2_CR_sharpenedFuture sand dunes were approached at higher speed and we only had one more situation to deal with. It certainly made it exciting for a bunch of people used to life in the city, although I dare say our driver Dave was a little unhappy with himself getting bogged the second time!

It’s amazing how much the landscape changes and we soon found ourselves in some beautiful parklands. We sheltered in the shade of desert oaks and set up camp well before sunset, giving us time to prepare our meals and take photographs as the light improved. We all went our separate ways, investigating the surroundings and struggling a little with the complex landscape.

However, once the sun was gone and the stars were out, we discovered a fantasy land right next to our campsite. The red embers from the fire were throwing a warm light on the surrounding trees, contrasting beautifully with the Milky Way above. We tried different exposures from 10 seconds to a couple of minutes, hoping there was not too much breeze moving the delicate leaves.

Screenshot1_630x420_sharpenedPost-Production

Between the shoot and preparing this blog post, Capture One Pro 7 has been released and it was an interesting insight to see just how much better the new version is. Look at the comparison pics below.

Comparison_CR_sharpenedI have done my best to ensure the settings in Capture One for both versions were identical so we have a fair comparison. However, there is some folly in this argument because maybe Capture One 6 (on the left) needs different settings to look its best. Even so, to my eye there was a clear improvement the moment I pressed the ‘Upgrade’ button to change to the new processing engine.

The noise reduction has been handled automatically – I haven’t knowingly tweaked the settings. I mean, this is a pretty tough image to process. Taken on an EOS 60D, I think even Canon would agree that ISO 3200 is towards the limits of the camera’s capability (technically, it can be pushed to ISO 12,800). Give your subject lots of light and the camera will perform miracles, but here the foreground and the tree are either in darkness or lit by the dying embers in a fire some 50 metres away.

Can you see noise and grain? Yep! Do I like it? Yep – I think the image has a really great painterly feeling to it. Is it technically perfect? Who cares! In terms of communicating the amazing stars you see in Australia’s Red Centre, and the enjoyment of camping out in a swag, I think the resulting image does an admirable job. So I’m happy!

Step1_CR_sharpenedThere was a colour difference between the top of the tree and the bottom of the tree (see photo above), so I added in a Local Adjustment and adjusted the colour of the top of the tree to match the bottom. Not exactly sure why there was a colour difference in the first place (possibly tall grasses filtering the light from the fire), but it was easy to fix.

Step2_CR_sharpenedNext, I added a second Local Adjustment to lighten the foreground, putting in some detail that doesn’t deserve to be there. It was a 76 second exposure, so the grasses have moved in the evening breeze, but as a descriptive image, I am happy with this.

Peter Eastway is a professional photographer and photography magazine editor based in Sydney, Australia. If you would like to accompany Peter and Tony Hewitt on a seven day Central Australia ‘Adventures in Oz’ workshop in August 2013, click here for more information.

And if you’d like to see a short movie explaining in more detail how Peter processed this file in Capture One, click here.

To see more of Peter’s photography, visit http://www.petereastway.com. Peter also offers an online Landscape Photography MasterClass. It contains articles and videos, outlining his camera and post-production techniques. Details can be found at www.betterphotography.com.

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Masking In Rainbow Valley, Central Australia

February 21, 2013 by 3 Comments

Final

Admittedly it is hot. We’ve just stepped off a plane in Alice Springs, out of a safe, air conditioned environment and into the midday heat of Central Australia. The hot air hits you like a wall and, considering it is winter back home, we enjoy the difference just long enough before stepping back into an air conditioned vehicle.

The vehicle is not a bus, nor is it a truck, but a four-wheel drive hybrid with a trailer, designed to carry passengers along rough and remote outback tracks. You don’t want to get stuck in the Outback without being prepared and our vehicle has food and water supplies to last us a week, plus a satellite phone to ensure we have contact with the outside world. Later in the trip, we would be leaving the marked roads and following a pencil sketch on a torn piece of paper through some of Australia’s most inaccessible terrain.

Tonight, however, would be relatively civilized. We were heading to Rainbow Valley just 75 kilometres south of Alice Springs. Rainbow Valley is a part of the James Range, but the ranges in the relatively flat Red Centre are more like hills than mountains. The main feature to photograph is a salt pan sitting in front of a multi-coloured bluff. Some of the most interesting photos have the bluff reflected in water, but today the salt pan is bone dry with a few tumbleweeds scattered along its edges. There hasn’t been significant rain here for many months.

Sunrise is interesting, but you’ll probably find that the bluff is in shadow, whereas at sunset we have the escarpment in full light. And our shadows in the foreground, so we skirt around the edge of the salt pan, looking for some existing shadows to hide in, so our presence isn’t obvious. The other option is to wait for the sun to set and then shoot in the twilight. Central Australia is simply magnificent to shoot at this time of the day and by now, the temperature is very comfortable.

Tonight we will sleep under the stars in a swag. A swag is a large canvas bag with a comfortable mattress, sheets and blankets inside. You can be sure it won’t be raining! You simply pull it off the top of the truck, unroll it and climb inside. It’s like a big sleeping bag and there really is nothing better than lying on your back and looking up at the stars, the camp fire crackling in the background as you drop off to sleep…

However, sleep takes a little longer as we can hear the howls of dingoes in the distance. Our guide is unperturbed, so we take our lead from him and cover up our heads with the flap on the end of the swag. Later that night I wake to the sound of scratching near the fire. The embers are now just a glow and I can see the silhouetted legs of a couple of dingoes, scavenging for an easy meal.

Good thing they don’t eat humans. Often.

Post-Production

Photo1

My image of Rainbow Valley (above) was taken with an Alpa TC, a 23mm Rodenstock Digaron lens and a Phase One IQ180 digital back. I positioned the camera very low and very close to the tumbleweed and took several frames at different focus points, so I can focus stack an image if necessary. However, I quite like the softness on the bluff in the background.

Photo2

After applying some global adjustments to the colour, saturation and cropping, there were two main challenges to deal with and the first was easily solved. The bright sky needed to be balanced with the darker foreground, so I used a Local Adjustment in Capture One Pro 7 with the new Gradient Mask. This allowed me to darken the top of the frame and gradually reduce the effect towards the horizon line (see above).

The second challenge was to allow the tumbleweed to stand out from the cracking mud below. Although the wood in the tumbleweed is partially bleached, it is nevertheless coated with dust and sand, much the same colour as the mud behind. It is well camouflaged.

Photo4

I would like to avoid creating a very fine mask for the tumbleweed itself, so I begin by increasing the colour in the foreground mud (above). I add a Local Adjustment layer and open the Advanced Color Editor. Using the Pick Color Correction eyedropper tool, I click on the mud to select the colour range and then I use the Saturation slider to increase the colour. It helps, but still the tumbleweed blends into the background.

Screen01

I then added a four more Local Adjustments, lightening and darkening the areas surrounding the tumbleweed, but with no real success. It seemed that the only option was to create a fine and complicated mask for the tumbleweed’s branches.

Screen02

This is what I had tried to avoid because creating precise masks can be time consuming, especially if your subject has lots of edges. Like a tumbleweed! I have cheated a little because this version of the image is only going to be 2000 pixels in size, so slight errors in my masking technique won’t be too obvious I hope! However, if you’re wanting to keep your workflow within Capture One, the masking tools are here. In addition to size and hardness, Capture One Pro 7 also has an opacity slider to adjust, so there is very little lacking in the application’s masking capabilities.

With the mask completed, the tumbleweed is lightened to ensure it stands out from the mud. I then went back and refined the other settings to produce the result seen at the beginning of this post.

Cheers,

Peter

Peter Eastway is a professional photographer and photography magazine editor based in Sydney, Australia. If you would like to accompany Peter and Tony Hewitt on a seven day Central Australia ‘Adventures in Oz’ workshop in August 2013, click here for more information.

And if you’d like to see a short movie explaining in more detail how Peter processed this file in Capture One,
click here.

To see more of Peter’s photography, visit http://www.petereastway.com. Peter also offers an online Landscape Photography MasterClass. It contains articles and videos, outlining his camera and post-production techniques. Details can be found at www.betterphotography.com.

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Powerful Gradient Masks with the Local Adjustments Tool

January 17, 2013 by 9 Comments

Gradient Masks 1

Capture One has had a Local Adjustments Tool since version 6, and in Capture One Pro 7, a number of improvements and new features have been added to make it even better.

One of these improvements is the new Gradient Mask cursor tool. By using this tool, you can easily create a Gradient Mask in an adjustment layer.

To create a Gradient Mask, you simply click in the image and drag the cursor in the direction of the desired mask:
-          The mask is at full intensity where you start
-          The mask is a 0 intensity where you let go

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The image to the left is straight out of the camera. It has been exposed to preserve detail in the sky, which has resulted in a very dark foreground. The image is a typical example of a shot where we, traditionally, would have used an optical gradient filter to create a better balance between the bright sky and the foreground.

If you shoot with a low noise camera, you can actually achieve even better results by using a Gradient Mask in a Local Adjustments layer. The image to the right shows the effect of correcting the image with the Local Adjustments tool by using the new Gradient Mask option.

I have created two adjustment layers for the image in this example. One for the foreground and one for the sky.

Choose-gradient

In the Local Adjustment tool tab and in the Local Adjustments layers tool you find the selector for the options: Draw Mask, Erase Mask but also the new Gradient Mask cursor tool.

Start by adding a new Adjustments layer by pressing the “+” button and choosing the Gradient Mask option in the selection drop down menu.

Drawing the foreground Gradient Mask

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For the foreground mask I want a short gradient across the horizon.  This creates a mask that selects the foreground and smoothly fades out into the sky.  I draw the gradient mask by clicking with the mouse at the point in the image where I want the mask to be at full intensity. I then draw the mask with the mouse button kept down and let go at the point in the image where I want the mask to be at 0 intensity. Above in the image to the left, you can see the starting point and the end point for the foreground gradient mask. You can see the final foreground mask on the image to the right.

Applying corrections to the foreground mask

Gradient1-DONE

I now open up the dark foreground by adding exposure compensation to the mask.

Drawing the mask for the sky:

gradient-top

For the sky I want a gradient mask that creates a long smooth gradient all the way from the top of the sky down to the foreground. First, I add another Adjustments Layer named “Sky”. With the Gradient Mask hand tool I then draw the mask from the top of the image to a point a little below the horizon.

Applying adjustments to the mask for the sky

Gradient-final

I want to bring back detail and create a bit of drama in the sky. To accomplish that, I simply apply negative exposure compensation to the mask.

Just by using two simple masks with the new Gradient Mask tool, I was able to bring back a good balance between the sky and the foreground – thereby creating a much more interesting image. To add the finishing touches, I also added some minor adjustments to the basic layer of the image with the Exposure tool and the Clarity tool.

I hope this post has inspired you to play around with the new Gradient Mask tool.

All the best,

Niels

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Capture One Pro 7’s Improved Local Adjustments Tool

December 6, 2012 by Leave a comment

Tip704 Img1 full

The Local Adjustments tool in Capture One Pro 7 has been improved on a number of parameters giving you better corrections and more precise control.

These improvements cover:

  • Additional adjustment layers (a total of 10)
  • Greatly improved brush drawing speed
  • Brush opacity setting
  • Support for tablet pen pressure
  • Gradient masks
  • Auto masks
  • A new layout for simulating the brush size and hardness of the cursor tool

Tip704 Img2 675The image to the left is without any adjustments. Even though the sun strikes the yellow leaf, it is a kind of diffused sunlight and the scene looks quite flat. The image on the right was edited in Capture One Pro 7 using the improved Local Adjustments Tool. The tool was used to emphasize the stroke of sunlight, to draw attention to the contrast between the yellow leaf and the surrounding brown leaves.

New brush cursor tool

Tip704-img3-full_circles

The new brush now has two rings for easier indication of the size and hardness. The inner ring indicates where the brush is at 50% of its maximum intensity. The outer ring indicates where the brush intensity is less than 2%. In the example above, you will notice that all three strokes have been done with the same size brush and only the hardness of has been changed. You will also notice that the inner ring is the same size for all 3.

Tip704-img4-full_circles

Capture One Pro 7 now also comes with an extra control option that makes switching between working in an adjustments layer in the Adjustments Tool Tab and working in the background layer in any of the other Tool Tabs easier.

In the screen dump above we see that the “Adjust Selected Layer” option is selected for the Exposure Tool in the Local Adjustments Tool Tab. We also see a small brush icon next to the tool label, which indicates that this option is turned on. All tools in the Local Adjustments Tool Tab will have this option turned on by default, and all tools in other tool tabs will have this turned off by default.

This way you can easily switch from the Local Adjustments Tool Tab to any other tool tab and ensure that the adjustments you do there only affects the background layer.

All the best,

Niels

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Highlights and shadows at Loch Harport

August 30, 2012 by 2 Comments

I am not sure if I have the correct workflow, but it seems to work well for me. My approach is to expose for the highlights and let Capture One bring out the shadows.

Now, up front I have to emphasise that there is a problem with this technique, and that problem lies in the shadow areas. If I am underexposing my image to ensure the sky doesn’t clip (isn’t overexposed), then darker areas in the image might be receiving very little exposure. This isn’t necessarily a problem if I want to leave these areas dark in the final rendition, but if I want to lighten them, then the really dark areas may lack the quality I desire if I lighten them too much.

However, when using a medium format digital back with a wide dynamic range, I find that I can comfortably lighten up the shadows without too many problems, most of the time.

This would not necessarily be the case with a DSLR camera which has a narrower dynamic range. If using a DSLR, I would be better off bracketing my exposures and using a better exposure to lighten up the dark areas. I also bracket with my medium format back as well, as insurance, but I find I don’t need the lighter file very often.

This photograph of a dingy in Loch Harport on the Isle of Skye is a case in point. The original exposure is very dark in the foreground, but the sky is just about right. The camera wanted to give the image a little more exposure, but I used the exposure override to keep the histogram under control. I am always looking at my histogram for this type of work.

Using a Local Adjustment, I brushed in the foreground and lightened it. At this size and looking at a low resolution file, it shouldn’t look too bad. There’s lots of detail to be found and, as I still want to keep some blacks in this area, I’m comfortable with the result. However, as noted above, I could possibly improve the quality of this area by using another exposure which better accommodated the shadow areas, and stripping it in. But that’s a lot of work unless I plan to turn the image into an exhibition print. For book reproduction (where this image was used), the current workflow approach is more than adequate.

The late afternoon light was relatively colourless, so I added in a second Local Adjustment and helped the dingy out with a little more colour. I generally don’t change the colours that are already there, finding that an increase in colour saturation is often enough, but for the dingy I preferred the result when I also warmed up the hue. Bringing out the yellows and reds helps.

Warm colours come forward, cool colours recede, so I added in a third Local Adjustment and made the water and clouds a little blue. This adds to the mood a little and removes a little bit of the murkiness, plus creates more of a separation between the dingy and its background.

And the final step, as shown in the opening photo, was to add one more Local Adjustment and lighten up the dingy itself, giving it a subtle ‘spot light’.

Peter Eastway is a professional photographer and photography magazine editor based in Sydney, Australia. To see more of his photography, visit http://www.petereastway.com. Peter also offers an online Landscape Photography MasterClass. It contains articles and videos, outlining his camera and post-production techniques. Details can be found at http://www.betterphotography.com.

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Fixing heavy burn-outs with the Color Editor

June 7, 2012 by 6 Comments

A camera with a large dynamic range will allow you to better retain the details in both the shadows and highlights at the same time.

Not all camera manufacturers have realized the importance of having a large dynamic range, and images shot with these cameras are more likely to show clipped highlight details.

When working with a RAW file you do have the possibly to recover some of the clipped highlights details as all three color channels typically do not clip data at the same exposure level.

As you get to know your camera, you will learn how much overexposure an image can handle while it is still possible to recover all details. The benefit of doing this is to get brighter shadows and more headroom to open up the deep shadows without showing noise.

Sometimes, you end up with images where the highlights are too blown out and all attempts to recover the clipped data leads to strange looking colors close to the burned-out areas. Capture One Pro 6’s Color Editor can be the only solution to fix such false colors.

The image above was shot with a camera with a limited dynamic range. To the left, you can see the image straight out of the camera where the highlights are clearly burned out. To the right, you can see the image after the highlights has been recovered and the false colors fixed with the Color Editor.

Capture One’s High Dynamic Range tool is the tool to start with when fixing the burned-out highlights. As the image was shot with a camera with a limited dynamic range, there is very limited headroom for the highlights. I can barely recover the details and I get some false greenish color in the recovered zones.

To fix the false color, I’ll use Capture One’s Advanced Color Editor. I’ll make the correction in an Adjustments Layer as I don’t know for sure whether the false color also appear as a natural part of the image.

1. Add a new adjustments layer in the Adjustments Tool by clicking the ‘+’ icon.

2. Invert the mask as you want to make sure that you work on the whole image while setting up the right parameters for the tool.

3. Pick the false greenish color with the color picker.

4. Adjust the selection by checking the “View selected color range” on.

5. Reduce the Smoothness slider and turn the hue a little towards the green color in order to isolate the false color.

6. Uncheck the “View selected color range” and adjust the hue to a more yellow/brown tone.

7. Invert the mask and brush in the color corrections.

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The Flow of Light

May 29, 2012 by 6 Comments

Although I am an advocate of the ‘get it right in camera’ school of photography, I strongly believe in the role that editing plays in our craft, just as the dark room did when printing from negatives in the past. The raw file is the negative, Capture One the darkroom. I continue to use graduated filters for balancing exposure in camera, but sometimes the light still needs a little help.

Before image editing, there is session editing. In this example I made five tripod-mounted exposures. In the original selection I chose CF008429, but a few months later on reflection I marginally prefer the way the rocks are slightly more concealed in CF008428, and that is the exposure I am processing here.

Very little of this image is truly sharp, it is really all about mood and the swirling motion of the water. But what should be sharp needs to be checked at 100%.

Having worked on the image I have saved a clone variant (F3), and then reset it using the reset adjustments button. Thus the ‘original’ is on the right, with the finished image on the left here. The unprocessed raw file looks OK, but I felt the magenta emphasis was too dominant so I have tweaked the white balance, reducing magenta considerably and yellow slightly.

A local adjustment is the digital equivalent of dark room dodge and burn, and I still feel these tools are the ones that best enable tonal balancing, a vital prerequisite of good printing. The first of my local adjustments (layer 1) selects the stones and some of the water, lightening and adding a little saturation. I have avoided the white water areas in the middle zone, which are already bright enough.

The light on the horizon is extremely strong, bright and somewhat ‘clipped’ so layer 2 calms this down. It is painted on using a soft edged brush, the adjustment parameter being Contrast -50. I applied these strokes quickly with an oversized brush to get a feel for the effect, and then I refined the selection back with the erase tool.

The brushes in Capture One are superbly configurable, and with zero hardness they give a wonderfully soft edge, allowing for extremely organic adjustments. I try to imagine I am painting with light.

Layer 3 simply increases the contrast in the sky, which is otherwise rather bland contrasting with the much busier coastal landscape. The contrast increase of 30 is balanced by a saturation reduction of the same value, as contrast would otherwise increase the saturation unnaturally.

The final layer lifts the stones and the ‘forewater’ by quite a bit, increasing contrast (and decreasing saturation accordingly) as well, to enhance their physical presence in the picture space.

In addition to the local adjustments, a small amount of vignetting has been applied on the background layer to ‘hold the corners’. The overall exposure has been reduced marginally (-0.2) and contrast and saturation have received small increases to give a more filmic rendering to the image. For sharpening I use the minimal ‘pre-sharpening 1’ in the sharpening presets. A few dustspots have been removed, and I have straightened the horizon with the straighten tool, resulting in some minor cropping. It’s hard to frame the camera completely perfectly when the light is changing this quickly!

The overall colour the IQ180 produces is usually very well balanced and while the white balance sometimes needs tweaking it is rarely necessary to do further changes to colour when seeking a natural result.

In the end all these changes are very personal, and in keeping with my current thinking, and desire to emphasise the physicality of nature, and ‘the flow of light’ in a print. I can imagine coming back to it in five years time and preferring the softer and more dreamy feel of the original raw file!

PS The “Dummy” title of the session indicates that I have not created a session for this shoot, but rather browsed from my computer hard drive to find the files. The Dummy is simply my default title of this type of session.

Joe Cornish is a professional landscape photographer, writer, printer and broadcaster based in North Yorkshire, England. Joe is a regular contributor to http://www.onlandscape.co.uk/, and his gallery website is http://www.joecornishgallery.co.uk/

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Photography Travelogues: Imperial Shag

March 8, 2012 by 2 Comments


Bleaker Island, Falklands

It was a bleak morning on Bleaker Island in the Falklands. However, if you like photographing birds, then the Falklands is a great location no matter what the weather is like, although transport from island to island isn’t without its challenges. Although there are small airfields dotted around, most people visit as part of an expedition ship and I was no exception, travelling with Peregrine Adventures.

Where we landed on Bleaker Island was home to two colonies of birds, Rockhopper Penguins and the Imperial Shag. The weather was cold, overcast and very windy. We even had a couple of snow showers pass over which was great for atmosphere, but not particularly helpful for photography.


As usual, there were strict rules as to how close we could get to the birds and our group was strung out along a fence line. It was hard to know what the island was like in fairer weather, but I have no doubt it would be very picturesque!

At the end of the fence was a colony of shags who used a stretch of land just in front of us as a runway. The birds would gather speed and throw themselves into the wind and out to sea. It was a perfect location for shooting the Imperial Shag on the wing, but I confess to shooting several hundred frames of which only a couple were satisfactory.

And then, of course, there was the unsatisfactory nature of the light. It was dull and lifeless, so I figured this was a time I could use Capture One to breathe in some colour and excitement!

The first adjustments made in Capture One were to crop the image so the bird was positioned in the centre of  the frame, rather than on the left side. I’d actually prefer there to be a little more room on the left than I have – and that could be easily arranged later in Photoshop. I also adjusted the exposure and contrast to produce as much detail in the shag as possible, being mindful that its white and dark feathers had to be carefully managed.

In this way, the Imperial Shag is natural and honest. This is what I saw. Now, I may get into trouble with the purists for the next few steps!


My first Local Adjustment layer darkens down the sky, with a soft edge brush just above the bird.


I then repeated this with a second Local Adjustment layer, but I positioned the adjustment brush a little higher. I find two or more small adjustments usually produce a better result than one larger adjustment.


Then I added my third Local Adjustment layer and lightened the eye and surrounding feathers. From other photographs I have seen of the Imperial Shag, I think these colours are reasonably realistic – I haven’t added in any colour saturation, just increased the contrast and exposure appropriately.


The fourth Local Adjustment Layer darkens down the top and right hand edges a little more to contain the eye – some people will like this vignetting, others will not. I like it! And at this stage, I stopped, because I figured I couldn’t get into too much trouble for the adjustments I had made. However, the image still lacks a little punch…


So I couldn’t help myself! The final Local Adjustment layer reduces the background exposure and increases the colour saturation, which brings up the colour in the blurred grasses in the background and further darkens the sky. I have masked the shag so that its colours and exposure are not affected and I’m quite happy with the result!

If you’d like to see in more detail how I worked on this file, you can access a short video on the Better Photography website by clicking here.

Peter Eastway is a professional photographer and photography magazine publisher based in Sydney, Australia. To see more of his photography, visit http://www.petereastway.com/. Peter also offers an online Landscape Photography MasterClass. Details can be found at http://www.betterphotography.com/.

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Photography Travelogues by Peter Eastway – Antarctica 1/3

August 5, 2011 by 2 Comments


Leopard Seal, Foyn Harbour, Antarctica

Winter was holding on tightly in Antarctica, but a slight reprieve in the weather allowed us to venture out from our vessel and explore the snow covered foreshores within Foyn Harbour. The weather varied from heavy cloud to overcast with sporadic spots of sunlight, not ideal, but it hardly dampened my enthusiasm!

The radio cracked into life and our guide responded, turning the zodiac around and speeding off in between icebergs. One of the other zodiacs had found a leopard seal snoozing on an ice floe and we were off to investigate. A hundred or so metres away, our guide cut the engine and we slowly and silently drifted into position. It was a young leopard seal and while fully aware of our presence, was barely interested.

On an Antarctic expedition, everyone is a photographer and all ten of us had our cameras trained on our new friend. The guide moved the zodiac around, providing a variety of angles and giving everyone the opportunity for a clear angle.

Using a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III and a 300mm f2.8 lens, I was able to shoot a series of images from full length to much closer, but there was very little time as you never knew when the leopard seal might decide to leave. Shutter speeds were kept high using 1/3200 second at f3.5 and ISO 100, plus I had image stabilization turned on. The image is sharp!

As the zodiac turned around, I kept my camera focused on the leopard seal, firing quickly. Just when the leopard seal lifted his head, the zodiac turned a little further and one of the guests in front of me obscured my angle. There was hardly any time to notice and I just kept shooting. It was only later when reviewing the images in Capture One that I noticed the best shot of the leopard seal also had the red suit of the guest in the foreground.

However, there was a solution.

Here’s the full frame. You can see the problem easily.

Cropping the image helps by limiting the problem, but it is still there. I have also tweaked the file a little in Capture One, adjusting exposure and brightness, and ramping up the saturation to increase the colour in the background.

The solution can be found by using the Advanced Colour Editor. I chose to add a Local Adjustment layer first and used the Draw Local Adjustment brush to cover up the unwanted red colour in the image.

With the selection made, I used the Pick Colour Correction tool to select the reds and then dragged the Saturation slider back to -100, removing all colour in this area. Since the background is already white, the effect is pretty good and to a casual observer, you’d never know there was a problem.

By selecting other colours, further refinements can be made. In theory, I didn’t need a separate adjustment layer to achieve this result as there are no reds anywhere else in the scene. However, the combination of a local adjustment layer mask and what is effectively ‘colour masking’ can be very powerful.

To complete the image, two more local adjustment layers were added, one to increase the clarity around the leopard seal, and a second to add some highlights to the subject’s eyes.

The image was enlarged and using a small brush, the eyes were masked. Then it was simply a matter of adjusting the exposure and contrast sliders to produce an effect that was natural – well, at least it is natural to my non-technical eyes.

While I might not be able to adjust the light like this for scientific applications or even a book on wildlife, as an improvement for an album or audio visual on my trip to Antarctica, it seems to give the leopard seal a little more zest.

To see more of Peter Eastway’s images on Antarctica, visit his website at http://www.petereastway.com/showpics.taf?portno=57&PortName=ROCKHOPPER%20EXHIBITION

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Photography Travelogues by Peter Eastway – Karijini National Park 3/3

June 8, 2011 by Leave a comment

 

Living Dangerously In The Pilbara 

One wonders how it happens, or perhaps why it happens. As I walked over to the lookout above Circular Pool at Dales Gorge in Karijini, the first thing that struck me was the sheer red cliff face stretched across the horizon, backed by a rich green canopy of wet season foliage. The sun had set and there remained a hint of pink in the blue sky. Everything was bathed in a soft, delicate light. And then I noticed the equally delicate position of a large gum tree, hanging on precariously to the edge of the precipice. How long would it last on such a narrow perch?

Although situated in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia, the tree reminded me of another tree similarly perched on the edge of a ravine at Epupa Falls in Namibia. I’m not sure if the baobab is still there, or if the falls I visited 30 years ago have succumbed to a planned dam, but I remember spending hours in the darkroom refining the black and white print and using a brush with Farmers Reducer to bleach back the tree.

However, there’s no need to bleach back the white gums in the Pilbara. In fact, the trick when photographing them is to retain detail in the tree trunks so they don’t reproduce as ugly white blotches. To process this file in Capture One Pro 6, I began with a base exposure that retained full detail in the tree trunk.

One little trick I discovered by accident when processing my files, was to begin with one of Phase One’s ICC Profile presets under the Base Characteristics tool. Normally for landscape work, I’d use the Outdoor Daylight profile, but I found selecting the Portrait setting added in a lovely warmth. (Of course, the availability of this feature depends on the camera you’re using as not all models have a range of settings to choose from.)

To refine the image, I used the Exposure, High Dynamic Range, Clarity and Vignetting tools which I have collected together under my Quick tool tab.

The main issue with this photograph was the difference in exposure between the sky and the cliff. They required different exposures, but this is easily fixed using Capture One Pro 6’s new Local Adjustment tool. I chose to set the exposure for the cliff face correctly with my background layer, and then add in local adjustments to darken down the sky and increase the colour saturation of the green trees.

I also named the local adjustment layers, but I confess only because I was posting this blog, but it is a useful feature as instead of ‘Layer 1’, you can call it ‘Sky – First Pass’ etcetera.

Whether using layers in Capture One or Photoshop, I’ve found it is better to build up an image with two or three small adjustments, rather than one strong adjustment. I also prepare separate, slightly different masks for each local adjustment, the idea being I want my adjustments to be ‘invisible’ when finished.

To darken the sky, I used the Local Adjustment brush to paint in the sky. I find making a precise mask problematic, especially where the sky meets the earth, so instead I use a large brush with a soft edge (setting 0) which feathers the transition nicely. With the selection made, I then used the Exposure and Contrast sliders to darken the sky.

The next local adjustment selected both the sky and green foliage, again using a large brush with a soft edge. This time, I increased the contrast slightly, but I also used the Advanced Colour Editor to select the greens of the trees and increase their saturation.

After reviewing the file, I felt the sky was still a little light, so I repeated the process for the first local adjustment, but with a different mask and slightly different settings for Exposure and Contrast.

From here, the file is ready for processing for web, slide show or printer, straight out of Capture One Pro 6.

To see more of Peter Eastway’s photography techniques, including his Landscape Photography MasterClass, please visit http://www.betterphotography.com/.

Filed under Photography Best Practice, Photography Travelogues Tagged with , , , , ,

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