Heath OFeeWell, Stampede week is coming to a close here in Calgary and it was a pretty slack one at work. The office was virtually empty by noon each day which meant I was able to get out early almost all week. I managed to use some of that time to head out and take some much needed photos! Growing up in the southwest of Calgary, I frequented Fish Creek Park quite a bit and became quite familiar with a lot of it. One area I never made it to was the Bow Valley Ranch, so I decided to make a trip there after work this past Thursday. It turned out to be a great spot to snap some brackets for HDR…especially the ranch itself which has been turned into a very nice restaurant simple called ‘The Ranche’. I won’t give you the whole history here but if you’re interested you can read all about by following this link.
The details: 4 exposure HDR tonemapped in Photomatix 3, Lightroom for color, contrast, clarity, sharpening, Photoshop for layer masking, Noiseware for noise control.
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The clarity and sharpness in this shot is so precise and professional. How do you achieve such perfect sharpness? Lightroom? Any tutorial you could point out? LOVE this shot.
Hey Matt! Thanks for the comment, I appreciate it! I guess the sharpness all starts in camera using LiveView and manual focus. The ability to zoom in 10x and really tweak the focus is key…I also find that leaving the camera in AF for HDR shots can sometimes lead to slight focus changes between frames which can decrease the sharpness as well. As for post, after tonemapping in Photomatix I cranked up the contrast and clarity in Lightroom and applied a reasonable amount of sharpening. Hope that helps!
P.S. I’m really enjoying your blog!
Thanks for the response! I’ll usually set the focus using auto, flick the switch to manual, and then fire off my brackets, but I never seem to get this level of detail. I usually trust the camera’s autofocus, although it seems like that might not be such a good idea as you seem to get perfect metering. As far as post goes, i’ll occasionally sharpen in PS, but again, don’t get the same effects as you do.
Thanks for the help, and checking out my blog.
This is an excellent HDR. Very striking without being overdone. Great job!
Thanks very much, I appreciate the feedback!