Greg Molyneux Photography

Tag: photomatix pro

  • Still worth it

    An HDR photograph taken over a windswept marsh on a cold winter's day at sunset along Cedar Run Dock Road. The photograph features a soft diffuse light.
    Still worth it — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures

    Twilight was cold. And windy. And frankly the sky was largely meh—a ho-hum vestige at best. Did I mention it was windy? And cold?

    Wind was such a factor I was concerned about camera shake with my exposures. Were it to wind up being an issue it would have been further compounded as I was taking seven bracketed exposures to boost dynamic range. Looking at my images back at the house revealed the trusty tripod did its work and kept the images clean and clear. Seriously, I can’t stress the importance of a sturdy tripod enough; particularly if landscape photography is going to be your thing.

    Back home I took a little departure from my standard post-processing workflow. After some initial tweaks to the seven exposures in Lightroom, I imported the images into Photomatix for merging. After re-importing a single image back to Lightroom I edited to taste further, bringing about a more representative dynamic range. It’s here where I departed from the status quo and took it an extra step. Bringing the image over to Nik Software’s Color Efex Pro 4 I applied the Duplex filter to make the final image more diffuse and a touch warmer.

    I’m pleased with the result—maximizing the most of an otherwise ordinary sunset.

    I did have some company while I was out there. I ran into a gentlemen cruising about Cedar Run Dock Road in his van taking sunset snapshots. We chatted for a few minutes, talked about good spots, a sunset a few days back, and then went on about our business. It’s always good to see other people out and about enjoying and capturing nature. It’s not a bad way to pass the time.

  • I’ll leave you when the summertime

    An HDR photograph of the marsh at sunset taken by photographer Greg Molyneux on Great Bay Boulevard in Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey
    I’ll leave you when the summertime — 14mm | f/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures

    Since I was already down in Little Egg Harbor visiting with friends today, Great Bay Boulevard always hung in the back of my mind as the likely landing spot for tonight’s obligatory sunset chasing. I say obligatory if only because a) it’s a Saturday in winter—rending me home from work—and b) the setup looked favorable all day.

    We found our general area and I began investigating as to where I’d eventually plant myself and my tripod. While meandering about the shoreline excellent light was holding sway out over the marsh and my mood was good. This is always a favorite part of the experience for me—framing the shot and appreciating the waning light of day. Always take a moment to step back from the viewfinder to take it all in.

    I positioned myself precariously on some loose fitting jetty rock, or some facsimile of a lesser jetty rock. Regardless, it felt like a twisted ankle waiting to happen but served up the best view angle as far as I was concerned. Potential falls be damned, I set up the camera and tripod and began making the above photograph. It’s a composite of seven exposures later merged for processing in Photomatix Pro and Lightroom. I hope you enjoy.

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