How does one get images like these.....?

[sting]

There's a reason to shoot in the rain, or in the first sunlight when it stops - real water looks different than sprayed glycerin.

While your arguments support the mission of the dedicated, you are talking about extraordinary efforts to pursue the extraordinary. I wouldn't discount an effective Photoshop technique when it comes to producting a compelling picture. Why have we always accepted film manipulation but not digital image manipulation?

 

[Patrick Dodds]

I've asked Charles over from his website (pictureoregon.org, I think - bloody Mac hardly ever copies and pastes without seventy five attempts) by way of Flickr to see if he can tell us (and I am as interested as the next person) how he got the photo in the last picture the OP put up.
--
Patrick Dodds

 

[Taylor Studios]

Images shot on film, and wet printed, command many times the price of images shot digitally or printed digitally.

Why do you suppose that is? I am serious... no sarcasm.

I love photography and old school prints... but seriously... these advanced digital cameras are amazing. But most images in digital, just like film, need tweaking.

And for example... Ansel Adams wouldn't have been SQUAT if not for post-processing

 

[John M Roberts]

Reminds me of the days when I carried a water bottle sprayer to make sure the "dew" was there!

And you don't now or just don't shoot that type of subject? I found it useful for bringing out the faded colors of metal items like your great shot of the old truck.

Or the wild life photographer that trucked his wildlife to the scene!

Or planting "wild flowers" where THEY needed ot be.

All done secretly by many a working pro.

When I first signed onto a stock agency, it was suggested to, let say while at Teton NP, rent a flat bed and fill it full of flowers to get some images with the great backdrop. That wasn't my thing but I have come across photographers who would stick blooms where they didn't naturally grow and get published in nature type publications.

Definition of where you draw the line varies greatly to circumstances.

John R

 

[viking79]

Um, not for nothing, the ONLY way you can tell if it is real or photoshopped is by asking the photographer.

In my many many many years of photography, including getting out of bed at 4 am to get sunrise photos, I have never seen anything like the photos posted occur naturally.

Of course, you may live in a part of the world where that does occur, but I apparently have never been there.

You have to get out on a humid foggy morning. They probably occur in most any location that also gets fog, but even where I live in Iowa I don't see many days a year with appropriate conditions.

Eric
--
I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object
be what it may - light, shade, and perspective will always make it
beautiful. - John Constable (quote)

See my Blog at: http://viking79.blogspot.com/ (9/9/09)
Flickr Photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28177041@N03/ (updated daily)
See my PPG Shots: http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/erictastad (8/31/09)

 

[pluton]

Rent a fog machine usually they burn peanut oil. Get up early. Have assistant run fog machine. Take pictures. Add more fog. Take pictures. Or you can hope you get lucky.
--
Enjoy the Day

Paul Guba New Jersey Photographer
http://www.gubavision.com

--

They actually do stuff like that(fog a whole forest) for zillion-dollar movie shots.

My favorite is the well-known Antelope Canyon sun-beam shots that everyone gets in northern Arizona--if you pay extra, one of the Navajo minders goes up top and shovels dirt down the gap in the top of the canyon so the photogs can get those magical sunbeams in their beautiful "nature scene". Slightly pathetic.-KB-

 

[thepaladin]

sir,

would you mind tell me why the blown out highlight at the lower left corner is of lower LV than the rays?
ugly!!!

--



http://flickr.com/photos/namnguyen/

 

[thepaladin]

I think the lights are real, the scene is real, the artist does wake early... But the photo is no out-of-camera jpeg and has been manipulated.

I stand firm that the image-manipulation-illiterate crowds can not produce such. Throw in all the filters you want, there is nothing able to grey up highlight blowing out.

--



http://flickr.com/photos/namnguyen/

 

[KrishnaM]

I have been following this thread since today morning as i always wondered how to take similar pictures. The question asked was " how does one get images like these...."

Unfortunately it got mixed with photoshop vs real photographic technique discussion. It seems the only lesson I could learn is to take pictures early in the morning when it is still foggy. Is that all?

I'll appreciate if you all knowledgeable experts can guide me how to get images like these...

Thanks,
Krishna

 

[punwit]

Krishna,

If you've followed the thread and are able to filter out the squabbling I'd say that far and away the most repeated phrase has been "right time, right place" There is no technical gimmick at play here. Get up early and head out to take pictures. You won't find the right conditions often but you will find them if you are diligent at rising and venturing forth early. I'll add that I've even seen rays as late as an hour or two past sunrise... it just depends on how long the mist/fog last.

I have been following this thread since today morning as i always wondered how to take similar pictures. The question asked was " how does one get images like these...."

Unfortunately it got mixed with photoshop vs real photographic technique discussion. It seems the only lesson I could learn is to take pictures early in the morning when it is still foggy. Is that all?

I'll appreciate if you all knowledgeable experts can guide me how to get images like these...

Thanks,
Krishna

--

I post images because I desire feedback. Please feel free to comment, critique and or PP any image I post unless otherwise noted.

Darren

 

[KrishnaM]

Thanks

 

[Bernard Languillier]

This one was shot late afternoon...



100 mega pixel pano from d3x and Zeiss 100mm f2.0.

Cheers,
Bernard

 

[Mikael Ejberg Pedersen]

...you can capture the most wonderful golden morning sun:



It's all about timing. 10 minutes earlier, the mist was too dense for any ray to penetrate. A few minutes after this picture was taken, the show was over.

 

[Chuck Harkins]

I have been living in Oregon for 66 years and have worked in the forest and woods for all my life. My family also came from a long line of nature lovers, so I have seen my share of sunrays in the deep woods.

As I posted with my shot, I did enhance the picture somewhat to achieve the look I viewed as I drove through the fog.

Through the years, I and my wife have taken many forest sunray shots, but generally do not post them, just view the beauty ourselves. The conditions are almost always the same, some heavy fog, a fairly dark setting, with the sun just coming up to brighten the background. If the sun is to strong, or there is not enough fog, the rays do not stand out, but sometimes you may see a glow without the rays. In fact, the camera does not see the rays as strong as they are in the natural. I will be posting more sun-ray shots in the future.

 

[RedFox88]

Those are early morning pictures with fog, then sunlight breaking or burning through. You can't go out at 10am or 4pm and expect to get photos like this. For photos like this, there is no substitute for getting out of bed before sunrise for early morning photos. Photos at sunset are never like this. Sunset is easier but does not bring as many possibilities as early morning does.

I often go to places where fog is accentuated early morning while watching weather reports for high chances of fog (temperature and dew point being within a degree of each other).

 

[Knute]

I have been following this thread since today morning as i always wondered how to take similar pictures. The question asked was " how does one get images like these...."

Unfortunately it got mixed with photoshop vs real photographic technique discussion. It seems the only lesson I could learn is to take pictures early in the morning when it is still foggy. Is that all?

I'll appreciate if you all knowledgeable experts can guide me how to get images like these...

Thanks,
Krishna

As others have said you just have to be in the right place at the right time, you don't need a D3x, D700 or any special camera to do it. For example, this was taken a bit over 10 years ago in the north California redwoods with an Olympus P&S digital. This is a full 100% "medium resolution" shot - I wish I'd used "high resolution" of 640x480.

 

[Raul]

at 4:30 am to the woods, wait and shoot at the approppriate moment. You can also invite guests and even the minister.

 

[Larry J. Bond]

You certainly don't need Photoshop. It may help but I took this shot unassisted in Algonquin Park in June.

It is difficult to catch the sun rays like this, let alone over an outhouse!

I can almost smell this scene in Algonquin Park at 6 am in the
morning. But photography is all in the eye, lighting, not the nose . Right.

http://picasaweb.google.ca/larrybond/Fall2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCNTipfGPvMe9PQ#slideshow/5405257295205113170

--
Larry
http://www.birdstar.org

 

[Phil Bishop]

I agree. Damp woodland air, a low winter Sun and it can be achieved at any time of the day. Also you can get the same sort of effect with pollen from trees in Spring.
--
Phil Bishop
http://philbishopsbirdingblog.blogspot.com/

 

[René Schuster]

Sorry, I know this is hardly D3-D1/D700-specific, but as a D700 user this is the forum I always post in and trust.

None of the photos below are mine, however I'd really like to achieve a similar effect, i.e. shafts of light shining down onto the forest floor. However, I've never managed this in any of my "forest" shots. What might I be doing wrong? Does it only work when the conditions are quite foggy?

I must be honest - I've never actually "seen" shafts of light quite these in forests I've been in. I'm wondering if it's something that the camera picks up even if the eye doesn't, or perhaps I've just never been in a forest in the right conditions?

didn´t read through all the replies, so probably someone else mentioned it before, but there is only one rule: Be there! (well, and have a camera with you).

I love it just as much you do, seen it hundreds of times. And it´s not necessary to get up real early like somebody mentioned, lol, not my cup of tea! Unless it is in the middle of summer it usually takes the sun quite a while to burn through the fog, sometimes not at all, so normally anything between 8 and 11 or 12 a.m. is fine, at least in Germany.

Here are a few of my older ones from some years ago, quickly uploaded them to pbase.

And sorry, PP and everything is far from being perfect, was in my earlier days of digital. And sorry again, it was nothing Nikon but just an old 2MP Olympus camera:











René