Crown of Fire (HDR)


Posted by Royce Howland on Sat Mar 22, 2014 10:36 am

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It has been a long time since I posted something here... I could use a couple of clones of myself so at least one of us would have a bit more discretionary time. :)

Last year I went to Iceland for the second time, and spent nearly an entire very rainy month in the summer, part of it co-leading a small group tour. I think I'm picking up E.J.'s rain curse since I've now been in at least 6 exceptional rain / flooding situations since 2004 or so. ;) Anyway, I thought I would share a view from the one evening last July that we got any amazing light. When you chase the light sometimes you catch it, and other times it catches you.

One evening we had chased light to the town of Ólafsvík on the north coast of the Snæfellsnes peninsula. But it was getting quite late, and we headed back before anything significant developed since the group was running on empty. (Sleep is a rare commodity with 20+ hours of direct sunlight each day, and the rest of it being gorgeous twilight!) Sure enough, halfway back to our guesthouse on the south coast, we saw the sky begin to catch fire above us.

We were traveling a dark, rough, twisty mountain road through the volcanic region of Snæfellsjökull. Picking a spot that afforded some kind of view of a mountainous ridge on the outskirts of the main glacial area, we stopped for a few quick photographs. The chill wind was blowing like mad, the clouds were like flame over the dark lava rocks, and I couldn’t help but think this would be a great location to film some kind of fantasy story. Maybe I should try to sell that idea to a producer somewhere.

This is 5 bracketed exposures merged and finished with my usual HDR-based technique. The fastest exposure had the clouds rendered relatively crisply, but I let the HDR blending blur them a little to communicate some of the windy conditions. Using colour controls, I also developed the cool blue shadow tones, both to provide colour contrast with the sunset-lit clouds and also to allude to the chilled feeling we had as the strong wind rushing over the Snæfellsjökull glacier blasted us repeatedly.

Thanks for looking! All comments, questions and critiques are welcomed.

Gear: Pentax 645D, FA 45-85mm f/4.5 @ 50mm (~39mm equiv.), circular polarizer.
S
hooting info: 5 RAW exposures (0.4s, 0.8s, 1.6s, 3s, 6s) @ f/11, ISO 100.
Processing: RAW conversion in Adobe Camera Raw. HDR merging & toning in Oloneo PhotoEngine. Finishing in Photoshop CC: spotting; crop to 4x5 (88% of full frame); selective levels & curves adjustments; selective noise reduction with Topaz Labs DeNoise filter; selective local contrast enhancement & sharpening with Topaz Labs Detail filter; Magic Bullet PhotoLooks spot focus filter; layer blending for a bit more sky drama; selective desaturation and cooling filters.
Royce Howland

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by Carol Clarke on Sat Mar 22, 2014 3:06 pm
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This would make a stunning setting for The Ride Of The Valkyries! An awesome image of this amazing place and the mood is tangible Royce!
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by Greg Basco on Sat Mar 22, 2014 7:15 pm
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Great technique and execution, Royce. The relative luminance values look really natural, and I agree with Carol that it has a really dramatic feel to it.

Thanks for the sharing the detailed about how you took and processed it!

Cheers,
Greg
 

by Jens Peermann on Sat Mar 22, 2014 10:05 pm
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Amazing detail in the dark areas. I particularly like the hint of green on the mountainside.
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by yo13dawg on Sun Mar 23, 2014 1:37 am
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Nice blend...love the sky here.
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by jerryb on Sun Mar 23, 2014 9:31 am
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I also like the details in the dark areas.
Larger sized samples of my work can be seen on Google Plus at https://plus.google.com/u/0/+JerryBarnettPhoto
 

by John Labrenz on Sun Mar 23, 2014 7:20 pm
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Nice one Royce.
Best viewed against a dark b/g.
 

by Porsche917 on Mon Mar 24, 2014 11:42 am
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Fantastic image Royce!  The light, layers and detail in the darker areas are outstanding.

Best Regards,

Roman :-)
 

by steve mackay on Tue Mar 25, 2014 3:08 pm
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Great processing and what a sky!, wonderful image!
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by Royce Howland on Tue Mar 25, 2014 5:02 pm
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Thanks for the comments, everyone. This was a fun evening all around... :)
Royce Howland
 

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