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669 - Daylight Down
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669 - Daylight Down

by Gary Minish

Gallery: Weekly ChallengePosted January 24, 2015181 views7 comments
The sun setting in the distance behind the snow covered scrub spruce near Glenallen, Alaska.

I used the in-camera 3 exposure HDR blend in the a6000 to deal with the dynamic range problems in the scene.

Sony ILCE-6000, SEL1670Z, 16mm (24mm equiv.), base shot was: ISO-250, f8.0, 1/50, hand held, triple bracketed exposures, aligned and blended in camera (it saves two photos, the single unblended base photo plus the blended image.)

Comments

7 comments
Comment posted by Wayne Jones on January 24, 2015 at 12:27 AM
Hi Gary. I REALLY like this combination of warm and cold, as well as the composition. The sunstar adds an extra kick to an already beautiful scene.

I never considered using in-camera HDR, but after seeing this, I am certainly going to give it a try!
Registered on April 18, 2007, 953 Posts, 6435 Comments
Comment posted by Albert Darmo on January 24, 2015 at 10:24 AM
Hi Gary :wavey: You captered exceptional results here :eek: :jump: :eek: the warm light of the beautiful sunset against the snow makes for an exceptional scene :jump: :toast:



Albert Darmo
Canada
Registered on November 25, 2008, 1386 Posts, 11978 Comments
Comment posted by Mark Seaver on January 24, 2015 at 11:05 AM
This is a lovely scene, Gary. The touch of pink in the clouds and the sunstar really set off the chilly blues in the snow. While this is great as presented, I wonder how a version with the blues back off a bit would look? Interesting that your in camera HDR worked so well, I tried a couple of HDR programs early on, but never liked the results and learned how to blend my own using masks in Photoshop from Sean Bagshaw's tutorials.
Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments
Comment posted by Gary Minish on January 24, 2015 at 2:41 PM
Mark, I've been manually blending multiple exposures in Paintshop Pro for quite a while because I don't like the results from most of the HDR software. The Sony in-camera blend is essentially the same process (align and blend) rather than creating a wide dynamic range image and then remapping it to condense the range like most of the software does. The good news with the a6000 is that I don't have to set up the tripod to do the multiple exposures and I don't have to spend all the computer time to blend them. It does an amazing job of alignment (this shot was 3 photos at 1/50, hand held and it still aligned them perfectly) plus it does a very good job of blending also. All that in about 2 seconds total! Consequently I've been shooting a lot of photos that I wouldn't have bothered trying before.
Registered on February 4, 2006, 625 Posts, 3583 Comments
Comment posted by Mark Seaver on January 25, 2015 at 10:57 AM
Gary, the Sony software sounds well thought out. Since I'm not about to buy another complete digital system, maybe Sony will push Canon and Nikon into improving their software. Good blending in-camera does sound like a major step forward (and it sure looks good here) .
Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments
Comment posted by Karen Kane on January 26, 2015 at 12:27 AM
Lovely scene Gary. As per the other comments, that in-camera HDR blend worked out superb! You aligned your own position expertly to get that sun-star in the gap between trees, it sure does add that "little something special". :toast:
Registered on August 4, 2012, 66 Posts, 726 Comments
Comment posted by Albert Darmo on February 2, 2015 at 7:18 PM
Hi Gary :wavey: Congrats on a well deserved WP :toast: :toast: :toast: :toast:


Albert Darmo
Canada
Registered on November 25, 2008, 1386 Posts, 11978 Comments