{"id":900,"date":"2014-05-13T17:00:48","date_gmt":"2014-05-13T23:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/?p=900"},"modified":"2017-06-20T15:28:25","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T21:28:25","slug":"landscape-photography-no-hdr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/photography-lessons-tips\/landscape-photography-no-hdr\/","title":{"rendered":"Landscape Photography: Sometimes It Just Takes Two"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_902\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-902\" class=\"size-full wp-image-902\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/RaccoonGrove-140507-0010-FINAL-copyright-600px.jpg?resize=400%2C600\" alt=\"Landscape photography may seem tough when there's a wide range of light, and a lot of photographers turn to HDR software. But, in most cases, HDR doesn't work for landscape photography because of artifacts caused by the wind. Here, this springtime image of a Will County woodland would not have been possible without merging two consecutive shots taken at different exposures: one for the land and the other for the sky. But, HDR was not required.\" width=\"400\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/RaccoonGrove-140507-0010-FINAL-copyright-600px.jpg?w=400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/RaccoonGrove-140507-0010-FINAL-copyright-600px.jpg?resize=200%2C300&amp;ssl=1 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-902\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">PHOTO A: This springtime image of a Will County woodland would not have been possible without merging two consecutive shots taken at different exposures: one for the land and the other for the sky. But, I didn&#8217;t use HDR. As with most landscape shots that feature plants, wind is an HDR killer, resulting in artifacts that are impossible to fix.<br \/>(See picture below for how HDR performed with this shot.)<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 6.0pt; margin-bottom: 0.0pt;\">Landscape photography sometimes\u00a0requires two shots to capture the drama of a single scene.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 6.0pt; margin-bottom: 0.0pt;\">Here in the woodlands of Will County, this afternoon landscape of bluebells along the stream would have been impossible to convey with just one photograph.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 6.0pt; margin-bottom: 0.0pt;\">Those who are familiar with HDR (High Dynamic Range) will take several shots, separated by one stop (maybe two),\u00a0then blend them using their favorite HDR software.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 6.0pt; margin-bottom: 0.0pt;\">Photomatix is the most popular product, but it\u2019s very hard to achieve a realistic look without a lot of\u00a0time and experimenting with the various sliders. Instead, I\u2019ve moved to Photoshop\u2019s HDR Pro and their 32-bit workflow, which allows for two powerful passes of Adobe Camera Raw. Because Photoshop is a photography program, it defaults to producing a realistic look, plus I&#8217;m already\u00a0familiar with the intuitive functions and sliders of ACR. Still, even the best software cannot account for motion\u2014those\u00a0small positional shifts\u00a0that happen between shots as subjects blow in the wind. But, do not fear. There&#8217;s a much easier approach that gives near perfect results!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_911\" style=\"width: 204px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-911\" class=\"size-full wp-image-911\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Bad-HDR-Movement.jpg?resize=194%2C194\" alt=\"This is a crop of the previous photograph resulting from merging two shots with Photoshop HDR Pro. Movement in the wind-blown trees cause artifacts are impossible to fix. Therefore, HDR isn't the best approach for landscape photography.\" width=\"194\" height=\"194\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Bad-HDR-Movement.jpg?w=194&amp;ssl=1 194w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Bad-HDR-Movement.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Bad-HDR-Movement.jpg?resize=144%2C144&amp;ssl=1 144w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 194px) 100vw, 194px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-911\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">PHOTO B: I attempted to use Photoshop HDR Pro to merge just two exposures of Photo A, but movement in the wind-blown trees caused artifacts\u00a0all over the sky. I originally tried it with five exposures, which, as you can imagine, also turned out badly. Unless the air is perfectly still, multiple images of a landscape that contains plant life is almost impossible to align with HDR software.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Most landscape photographs only require two pictures: one exposed for the dark land and a second exposed for the\u00a0bright sky. Simply\u00a0open up those two those\u00a0images in Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements), drag one picture onto the other, then\u00a0blend the layers\u00a0using selections and masks. There are\u00a0no alignment issues with this method and no need for HDR\u00a0software.<\/p>\n<p>Digitally captured photographs can\u00a0provide a\u00a0truer experience than\u00a0film, but it takes more work.\u00a0Just be smart about it. It&#8217;s all about choosing the best methods and tools.\u00a0And it\u00a0all begins with taking the\u00a0picture. Plan your shot by\u00a0evaluating the light and determining if you need one shot or two. Carefully take your shot(s)\u00a0and check the\u00a0histogram. That&#8217;s\u00a0it.<\/p>\n<p>Now you can enjoy yourself knowing\u00a0that you won&#8217;t have a lot of work or disappointment\u00a0later on. After all, landscape photography should be fun.<\/p>\n<p>So, get out into the great outdoors and shoot those landscapes. And remember,\u00a0two shots are probably all you&#8217;re ever going to need to communicate nature&#8217;s majesty.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.workshops.chicagonature.com\">Learn more from Creative Eye Workshops.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Landscape photography sometimes\u00a0requires two shots to capture the drama of a single scene. Here in the woodlands of Will County, this afternoon landscape of bluebells along the stream would have been impossible to convey with just one photograph. Those who &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagonature.com\/blog\/index.php\/photography-lessons-tips\/landscape-photography-no-hdr\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[71,73,79,70],"tags":[252,257,253,254],"class_list":["post-900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-digital-photography-lessons-tips","category-landscape-photography-lessons-tips","category-nature-photography-lessons","category-photography-lessons-tips","tag-digital-darkroom","tag-hdr","tag-photoshop","tag-photoshop-elements"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Landscape Photography: Sometimes It Just Takes Two<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Landscape photography sometimes requires two shots to capture the drama of a single scene. 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