Weekly Landscape Thread: Sept 16th - Sept 22nd

Mark K W wrote:

Thanks; that's good input. In 8-bit sRGB JPEG these images look a bit more overdone than in the 16-bit ProPhotoRGB I worked in. I will do a re-work of them to reduce the tone-mapped effect of the sky; I just find tone-mapping lifts the texture of otherwise dull clouds so just reached for that as first step and then bullt all the other parts of the final image from the 0EV. It's easy to do a re-generation of the output image(s) though now as I've got the layer-masks I created for these versions. I don't really use tone-mapping nowadays for much else than skies and am more experimenting with exposure-blending and luminosity-masking.

No; not really. By default I typically shoot in ISO100 (I know that is below base-ISO for A900; it's just I come from Velvia/Provia film era and I haven't lost the lowest-ISO = highest-detail mantra). So, if I need to bring exposure times down (these were brackets so there may have been a 30+ second exposure involved), I then adjust the ISO upwards from that - hence to ISO160, ISO200, ISO320, etc.,

I am using Manfrotto 055CXPRO3 with 498RC4 ball-head. The SSS is off, focus is manual, roughly 1/3rd into the scene or to a specific near-point I want sharp. I set the lens to f/11 or smaller, typically f/16 to f/18, shoot in manual, and make a test 0EV exposure and check the histogram before adjusting shutter-speed or dialling in exposure compensation. I use a short remote cable-release and shoot -2EV/0EV/+2EV AE brackets. If I was not doing auto-brackets, I would use MLU. Certainly would do MLU if using a longer lens over 70mm. The fact these are luminosity-masked from the brackets beings a further perception of overall image clarity and then the Nik Output sharpening also improves things further. I'm actually stunned by the clarity of the results looking on my 2560x1600 30" monitor.