Digital , Digital , Digital
Posted on | August 28, 2009 | No Comments
We finished up (until further notice) all the projects our landscape architects and designers assigned us this season. As I was reviewing the images I realized that many would not have been attempted or even possible if we were still shooting film. For example, when we have a swiming pool involved, we had to get the robot cleaner and bright white hose out of the pool. Not as easy as it sounds, especially if you are racing the light. Or a patio where we can sweep the dirt off but the bird droppings require much more effort. In both cases, eliminating these faults in Photoshop saves time and energy.
An even better example happened this year. As part of one large project, we were asked to shoot a long two foot high stone wall with a beautiful limestone capping. When we arrived on location, we noticed that the home owners children discoverd that the stone capping made an excellent tablet for them to practice their alphabet. Large chalk A,B,C, etc for over a hundred feet. Of course this added extra computer time, but we got the image for the client.
The image is this post is an example of using the software, in this case Lightroom, to adjust the raw data and produce an acceptable image where film would have failed.
The upper left was a very bright sky while the right was in shadow. The left side and bottom had sun coming across but the middle of the image was dark. If film were in the camera, we would have had to pass on this shot. With over a uneven twelve stop range – no combination of ND filters would have rendered an acceptable image. With digital, I was able to use a graduated neutral density filter in Lightroom develope module in the upper left and lower the exposure by three stops. I added another ND filter at the bottom to add saturation and highlight the sun coming across. Finally, I added some fill light to open up the shadows in the middle of the image. Total time for these selective adjustments amounted to about five minutes – a few dollars of time. Happy customer – priceless.
Next time you encounter a tough lighting situation, capture some data and see what you can produce. I often remark that digital photography is a large circle we keep traveling. As we learn more about one part we can extend ourselves in the next part. Each time we go thru the process of capturing and processing images we find new possibilities. Images that were passed by before become possibilities.
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