We Need the Storm
"For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake."
-- Frederick Douglass, 4 July 1852
We do indeed need the storm, in so many ways. As for the Sierra, it's been a very dry year, and I was glad to see these otherwise ominous skies, and that rain shower off in the distance above Tuolumne Meadows. But the weather in Yosemite is so often fickle, and alas, the rain did not last.
Yes, this is HDR, sort-of. More like faux-HDR. Here, I thought I'd test the dynamic range on my OM-D E-M5's sensor. So, I took just one shot, with a balanced mid-tone exposure. Then I copied it twice and adjusted one of the copies to properly expose the overly bright highlights in the sky & clouds, and adjusted the other one to properly expose the areas that were lost in shadow. Then I merged the three into an HDR file in Photomatix and finished it off there. So an HDR file, but one created from just one original capture at a medium exposure, as opposed to 3, 5, or 7 different exposures.
Normally I'd do this with the RAW file, but I used a JPEG for this one (set on Large – Fine), just to see if it could handle it. 12-50mm M.Zuiko 3.5-5.6 lens. ISO 200, focal length 12mm (24mm FF equivalent), f/5.6, 1/800 sec, hand-held. I'm really amazed at the performance in this sensor. In a high-contrast scene like this, the highlights that appeared blown out in the original image were in fact fully recoverable. And the darkest shadows did great when I brought them up. Again, this was the JPEG. The RAW files do much, much better. So now I'm really looking forward to installing Lightroom 4 when I get my new Mac (my current one is almost six years old, so I'm due). From what I've seen, highlight and shadow recovery for the OM-D in LR4 is absolutely out of this world.
Thanks for stopping by, everyone, and have a great weekend!
We Need the Storm
"For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake."
-- Frederick Douglass, 4 July 1852
We do indeed need the storm, in so many ways. As for the Sierra, it's been a very dry year, and I was glad to see these otherwise ominous skies, and that rain shower off in the distance above Tuolumne Meadows. But the weather in Yosemite is so often fickle, and alas, the rain did not last.
Yes, this is HDR, sort-of. More like faux-HDR. Here, I thought I'd test the dynamic range on my OM-D E-M5's sensor. So, I took just one shot, with a balanced mid-tone exposure. Then I copied it twice and adjusted one of the copies to properly expose the overly bright highlights in the sky & clouds, and adjusted the other one to properly expose the areas that were lost in shadow. Then I merged the three into an HDR file in Photomatix and finished it off there. So an HDR file, but one created from just one original capture at a medium exposure, as opposed to 3, 5, or 7 different exposures.
Normally I'd do this with the RAW file, but I used a JPEG for this one (set on Large – Fine), just to see if it could handle it. 12-50mm M.Zuiko 3.5-5.6 lens. ISO 200, focal length 12mm (24mm FF equivalent), f/5.6, 1/800 sec, hand-held. I'm really amazed at the performance in this sensor. In a high-contrast scene like this, the highlights that appeared blown out in the original image were in fact fully recoverable. And the darkest shadows did great when I brought them up. Again, this was the JPEG. The RAW files do much, much better. So now I'm really looking forward to installing Lightroom 4 when I get my new Mac (my current one is almost six years old, so I'm due). From what I've seen, highlight and shadow recovery for the OM-D in LR4 is absolutely out of this world.
Thanks for stopping by, everyone, and have a great weekend!