Category: Syndicated Feeds

Realistic HDR Without 3rd Party Applications

I am not a big fan of the typical HDR look. Other people—and even some judges—love it. But, to each his own!

This page contains a recent “tough” shot of an owl sitting in a tree with a bright white cloud behind him. I waited 45 minutes for the white cloud to pass, but it never did. I shot a few dozen (or hundred) images of the Long-eared owl as single shots. Luckily most owls hold very still for long periods. I set my D800 to do a 3 image bracket of the scene: one under, one on, and one over the normal exposure. With the focus set, I just waited until it held a pose and clicked three times. The camera did the exposure adjustments for me. Oh yes, I was shooting on a sturdy tripod!

Bracketed Set: This is a screen grab of the three selected images side by side in Lightroom.

Merge to HDR: I usually right mouse click one of the three images to bring up the Edit In option, then pick Merge to HDR Pro in Photoshop. You can also use the drop down menu Photo>Edit In>Merge to HDR Pro in Photoshop.

Merge to HDR: You will see this screen after Photoshop works with the image a minute or so following the Merge to HDR Pro in Photoshop step above. Don’t get scared off by this flat looking image! The next couple of steps bring the image back to life! This is the important screen grab. You can click it to view it larger. The three images in the lower left appear with no adjustments needed. If I had shot the scene with five, seven or nine images, they’d appear in that group. I make sure “Remove Ghosts” is checked along with “Complete Toning in Adobe Camera Raw”, then click Tone in ACR.

ACR Adjustments: After a few seconds, the image opens up in Adobe Camera Raw. All of the tools are available for adjusting the image, but you’ll quickly discover you have incredible range in the blacks, whites, highlights, and especially shadows. The Merge to HDR step created a huge 32 bit file “packed” with the best information from all three images, and as you can see, the image still looks natural! (Click this image to see it much larger)

Layer with Smart Filter: this is a screen grab of the resulting image coming out of ACR. Notice the layer has a Smart Filter!

Adjustments with Smart Filter: At any time, I can still revisit and adjust any of the commands within ACR by double clicking on the Camera Raw Filter text under Smart Filters. In this case, I double clicked it and made adjustments to the HSL sliders. I increased the saturation of the Oranges and same for the blues. I also added a bit of a vignette in the Effects tab. I can continue to adjust any of the sliders by going back to the Camera Raw Filter by double clicking it. The adjustments are “non-desctructive” to the original base layer.

Save to EXR: If I think I might want to return to this file and continue working with it later, I can save the file as an OpenEXR file. I can also open that file in other HDR programs like NIK HDR Pro 2 or Photomatix Pro. (Note: for this demonstration, neither are necessary). Also note, the EXR file can be imported back into Lightroom and additional adjustments can be made directly in Lightroom, although the same commands are available in ACR. Don’t let this step confuse you! I included it only because the earlier steps can be used as gateways into the other programs. Adobe Photoshop does a very good job of aligning the layers and removing ghosts from the bracketed images.

Cropped 32 bit EXR: To reduce long term file size, I went ahead and cropped the EXR file. (I could have cropped this images in Lightroom in one of the earliest steps, but would have need to Sync the crop in all three images. That’s a quick step.) Photoshop reprocesses the image if done at this stage. I could also wait and crop in later steps. In this case, I went ahead and saved the cropped version over the top of the file name of the full image.

Mode Change: Up until this point, the image has been in 32 bit mode. Not many programs can handle the file in this form. Most Photoshop filters will be grayed out, however, NIK HDR Pro 2 will still be available if I wanted to get the traditional “HDR Look”. Normally, I convert to 16 bit at this stage, especially if I plan on working on it with other filters or techniques. JPGs will need to be converted to 8 bit at some point. At this stage, (if the file is not already flattened) I click Layer>Flatten Image. This removes the Smart Filter functionality and allows for additional effects.

HDR Toning: Immediately after clicking on either 8 bit or 16 bit, this screen pops up. For my purposes, I click on “Method” and choose Exposure and Gamma. If I did my adjustments already in ACR, I don’t need to touch either slider and simply hit the OK button. Note: If you like some of the traditional “HDR” looks, check out the other options in the “Method” box.

Final Image: This is a screen grab of the adjusted HDR image without the HDR look.

Final Save: At this point, I save the final image in the folder of my choice, usually next to the EXR file if I saved one in the earlier steps. I prefer TIF, but other file formats are available from this list. After the save, I have full editing ability, including the option of doing additional ACR adjustments on the 8 bit or 16 bit file buy clicking Filter>Adobe Camera Raw (this option takes Photoshop CC or CC 2014).

The Wrap Up: Sometimes, these kind of “How-To” posts make a process seem much more complicated than it really is. I have to include all the screen grabs to help out, but really the steps are fairly easy and intuitive once you’ve done it a couple of times. The results look much more natural than most images I’ve ever seen using the third party programs. The built in Smart Filters make it easy to adjust the image if you don’t like the last adjustments. I’ve tried this same set of steps on a lot of images and it works very well on most of them. I bumped into one Schwabacher Landing image that gave me problems…it worked, but at least for that image, I didn’t like the colors. The bottom line…on tough shots like this one, it only takes a few seconds to dial in Bracket on the camera and get a few shots just to be safe. 

NIK HDR Efex Pro 2: I didn’t want to confuse readers by including this earlier, but this is the first screen I might have seen if I had opened my image in NIK. I’d need quite a bit of adjusting to try to bring it to the spot I was already at while in Photoshop using the steps I described above. (Click the image to view it much larger)

Lightroom AND Photoshop or ALL Photoshop: I typically start my images in Lightroom. It seems most people have it now. To do these steps, you’d need Photoshop, but you wouldn’t need Lightroom. Also, I started with RAW files. You can create an HDR image with JPGS. To create these steps using only Photoshop, open three images and copy one of them to the clipboard and paste it into one of the others. Do the same for the third image, until you have all images in a single document containing three layers. Shift-Select all three layers in the layers tab, then go to File>Automate>Merge to HDR Pro… The rest of the steps should be essentially the same.

If you like this post, please share it by clicking on any of the Social Media icons below or add links back to this site at your favorite forums. MJ

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A monthly journal of wildlife reports, scenic opportunities, and tidbits for both photographers and Teton visitors!

Please Note: This is first entry or template for the first day of March. Please check the last few days of  February 2015 Daily Updates & Photos for Grand Teton National Park & JH: I’ll be adding new images and notes throughout the month!

Recent Daily Updates Archives:
2015: Mar: |  Feb: | Jan:
2014: Dec: | Nov: | Oct: | Sept: | Aug: | July: | June: | May: | Apr: | Mar: | Feb: | Jan:
2013: Dec: | Nov: | Oct: | Sept: | Aug:

March Overview:

Most of the winter months offer similar opportunities for both wildlife and landscapes: Mountain Goats “normally” start becoming more dependable subjects in March. Red Foxes and Owls seem to appear in random places during this month. Feb: 2015:  |  Jan: 2015  |  Jan: 2014  |  Feb: 2014 | Mar: 2014: |  Dec: 2013. Also check out: The Dead of Winter: The Cold Realities and Exciting Possibilities of Winter Photography in GTNP..

Suggested “Opportunities”: Right now, here are my top spots to check out, especially for wildlife.  Some will be a bit of a gamble, but they might also pay off in a big way if you hit it right. Also note, winter keeps a stronger grip on the landscape in the northern parts of the park and along the base of the mountains. It can start looking like early Spring in some areas and look like December in others.

• Flat Creek Observation Deck: Look for Swans Along Flat Creek, Geese, Ducks and occasional River Otters.
• Boyle’s Hill Pond: Trumpeter Swans of Boyle’s Hill: (The link includes a map)
• Miller Butte: Look for Bighorns , Elk, Pronghorns, Coyotes, Wolves, Eagles, Ravens, Bison.
• Gros Ventre River: Look for Moose , Bald Eagles, Elk, and Bison there.
• Kelly Area: Look for Mule Deer at the edges of town and around the Shane Cabins. Also keep an eye out for a Porcupine near the Shane cabins.
• Alpine Junction: Watch for Mountain Goats near the mouth of the canyon.  With so much of the higher elevations melted off, it doesn’t appear many of the Mountain Goats are coming down anywhere near the road at this time. Wait for more snow to give them a reason to move down.
• Camp Creek along the Hoback River: Check out Bighorns along the road.
• Sleigh Ride on the National Elk Refuge:  Best winter deal in the valley! With all of the warm weather, sleighs have been replaced with wagons. Elk are scattered and the trips are longer.

Important Winter Links

• Best of the Tetons : Start Here!: This page will give you a good overview of the earlier Feature Posts
• Helpful Links and Resources: Weather Reports, Web Cams and Ski Reports have links in the right navigation bar, but this page has many additional links.
• Winter Closures: Many areas are closed during the Winter months. Click the link, scroll to the Winter section and look for the Winter closure maps.
• Winter In the Tetons: Travel and Photography Tips: A “must read” for winter visitors.
  
• The National Elk Refuge & Miller Butte: This is one of the best areas for wildlife during much of the Winter.

Oldie But Goodie Post of the Day

Looking for Transitions:

Some kind of switch goes off in March. Many of the previous Winter months seem about the same. This is a month to watch for the subtle changes. In March, the landscape can change—sometimes dramatically and sometimes quickly.

Most Recent Feature Post: Swan Skirmish on Ice:

This page contains a sequence of about 18 images taken with a Nikon D4 of a battle between two Trumpeter Swan families at Boyle’s Hill. Not many visitors to the valley will ever see anything quite like these shots. It includes a full “take-down”, recovery and chase.

March 1, 2015:

This is a new month with no possible photos yet!  Here’s just one shot from the last day of February.

February 2015 Daily Updates & Photos for Grand Teton National Park & JH:

Check back later in the day for a few images from today. MJ

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Usually A Symbol of Grace and Serenity, Trumpeter Swans Can Also Be Fiercely Protective.

Most people see Trumpeter Swans gracefully swimming in the calm waters of Flat Creek, the Snake River or even the Yellowstone River. They are equally graceful in flight. Take-offs and landings can be somewhat chaotic, but always fun to observe and challenging to photograph. If not in flight, watching Swans mill around and feed is a bit like watching paint dry. After a few hundred shots in various poses, against cattails and over their own reflections, I find myself hoping for “some action”. After preening, or after leaving the water, they’ll usually stretch their wings to even out their feathers. During the winter months, many of the wild Trumpeters spend their day in Jackson Hole moving from open water to other open waters—including the aerated pond at Boyle’s Hill. In such tight quarters, it is possible to find Trumpeters displaying uncharacteristically fierce behavior. Perhaps it is simply a matter of protecting their turf—or ice in this case—or possibly one adult getting too close to the Cygnets of another family. All hell can break loose! Feathers can fly and blood is a possibility.

The sequence below was taken with a Nikon D4 using a Tamron 150-600mm lens at Boyle’s Hill. Once I saw the action beginning, I pressed the shutter and recorded around 35 shots over a period of only four or five seconds. During such an event, every Swan in the area will be “honking” and most will be flapping their wings—even if not part of the action.

Once the skirmish is over, the Trumpeters take part in a victory dance. If you’d like to read more about Trumpeter Swans, hear their honking sound, and see a range map, click: Trumpeter Swan, All About Birds – Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Here’s a link to a previous Feature Post at Best of the Tetons. It includes a map and more info on the area: Trumpeter Swans of Boyle’s Hill:

Body and Lens Comments: A Nikon D4 or D4s can take around 90 images in a continuous burst before filling the buffer—and at roughly 10 to 11 frames per second! A Nikon D800 or D810 will begin to fill the buffer at roughly 12 frames and will shoot at only 5 fps in FX mode. (there are options for faster shooting in DX). My D4 came through for me in this case, allowing me to capture all of the action over the entire duration. For this page, I left out about every other image in the sequence, picking the one with the best action or showing the most heads. Shooting Data: NIKON D4, Tamron 150.0-600.0 mm f/5.0-6.3 at 600 mm, 1/1600 at f/8, Manual Mode, -1 EV,  ISO 220. I was set up in Manual Mode with Auto ISO set as the variable. Other than cropping top and bottom, these are full width captures.

During the busy summer months, people visit Best of the Tetons in preparation for a visit, or simply to see what is currently happening. During the less busy months of the year, I try to add in a few “how-to” articles and topics that can translate equally well to their home areas. This page shows an event most people will never see. Please, if you like the page and feel any of your friends will enjoy it, click on any of the Social Media icons and share it with the rest of the world.

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