hpd-fotografy
FollowIf you know my images, you know that I - against all common teaching - like to shoot against the sun. But not this time. Here I have the low but strong sun in m...
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If you know my images, you know that I - against all common teaching - like to shoot against the sun. But not this time. Here I have the low but strong sun in my back, its rays being reflected by the snowy mountain called Olstinden on Lofoten islands. The exposure wasn't easy since the snow was very bright and sunny. And I didn't want a standard mountain-and-reflection image (which would have been nice enough, sure) but something different. So I included the see weed and turquoise-blue underwater landscape in the foreground and thus, I needed enough exposure to have some detail there, too. Amazing, what modern camera sensors are capable of.
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Behind The Lens
Location
On the shores of a fjord near Reine in the middle of winter on Lofoten islands, Norway. The Fjord provided the mirror for a nice reflection of the mountain and the under-water plants for foreground-interest. Lofoten are such magical islands, especially in winter.Time
A cold morning in February. The sun was already quite high, so no more reddish-pink sunrise.Lighting
As always: Only available light, of course! Who would travel all the way up to Northern Norway in the middle of winter to catch this fascinating arctic light ... and then spoil it with a flash?Equipment
This was shot with my Nikon D810 and my trusted Nikkor 14-24 mm f/2.8 wide-angle lens, mounted on a sturdy tripod. I used a tripod since I wanted several images for focus stacking later.Inspiration
I didn't just want a standard mountain-and-reflection image (which would have been nice enough, sure) but something different. So I included the sea-weed and turquoise-blue underwater landscape in the foreground and thus, I needed enough exposure to have some detail there, too.Editing
My post-processing workflow is all about quality and quite involved. Starting out with the best possible raw files I used DxO to convert the files into another raw format (.dng) using DxO's very good and gentle noise reduction and lens profile corrections for this particular camera-lens combination. Then I opened all the .dng files in Lightroom and did 90% of the post-processing there, completely nondestructive, everything still in raw, and still working on the individual files - nothing focus-stacked yet. Finally, I opened the files in Photoshop as a 16-bit tiff for focus-stacking and some final touches (like a slight Orton effect, some filters from Nik and Topaz, etc.). Then I saves this 16-bit tiff and add it to my Lightroom library. Never, ever do I convert to jpg. A jpg file has only 8 bits of information-depth as compared to the 14 bits I started out with in raw. That is only a tiny fraction, namely 1/64th (or 1.56%) of the information I gathered with the camera (64 is 2 to the power of 6, and 6=14-8 is the difference in bit-depth between raw and jpg). Therefore, I do not consider jpgs as a decent photo format worth having in my library. The only time I touch jpg is when I export something to upload to the web.In my camera bag
For over 30 years I have always used Nikon equipment, in the end the mighty D800, the D810 and a Nikon D750, the classic Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 lens, the Nikon 85mm f/1.8 and the Nikon 70-200 f/4. But since about 2 years I have sold all this and changed to Sony mirrorless and never looked back. I now have the Sony A7RII and the Sony A7II as cameras, the Sony-Zeiss 16-35 f/4 and 55 f/1.8 lens, the Sony 28 f/2, the 85 f 1.8 and the ultrawide Voigtlaender 10mm f/5.6 VM. I also had the Sony 70-200 f/4 FE-lens, but I sold it since I never go much longer than 100 mm in practice. And for that I'd rather use the 85 f 1.8.Feedback
One thing I cannot stress enough: SHOOT IN RAW! A dynamic range from the underwater-foliage in the foreground to the blazingly bright snow on the mountain is absolutely impossible to tame without RAW. And be careful to never convert to jpg in any step of your workflow! If you do, you throw away over 98% of the information in your raw file and from that moment onwards you work with less than 1.6% of your data - but still 100% of the noise! And for those jpg-shooters out there: You did that already in the very first step of your workflow, i.e. when you shot the picture.