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Red Bug Lake Park
Canon PowerShot S100 |
The other day I dropped by Red Bug Lake Park, and I decided to pull out my point and shoot to photograph the lake shore. It was fun to test how my new camera performs when shooting landscapes. It was about 11am when I took these photos, not the optimal time for landscapes, but I was still pretty happy with the photos.
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Red Bug Lake Park
Canon PowerShot S100
In Camera HDR jpeg file |
I also decided to try out the HDR feature in the camera. If you're not aware, HDR stands for high dynamic range. We use the term to refer a relatively new way of dealing with high contrast scenes (like a sunrise) in the computer. In the "old" days of film photography, when shooting high contrast scenes you needed to use things like split neutral density filters to darken the bright sky so that both land and sky would be properly exposed on film. But now with computers and digital photography, you can simply take multiple images at different exposure values, and the computer (or camera) can combine all the images to get proper exposure across the entire image. And you can throw way those pesky filters. This scene was not contrasty enough to make this necessary, but I just wanted to try it. The first image above was taken using the in camera HDR feature. The camera takes three photos and combines them in camera to produce a JPEG file. The first image below is a composite three RAW files taken with auto exposure bracketing. I set it to take three shots separated by 1-1/3 stops. Then I used Photomatix to combine them into one image. I like the second better. For one thing, you get three RAW files to work with instead of a JPEG file, and for another, using Photomatix gives you the opportunity for much more flexibility and creativity. The second shot below was also done in Photomatix with the same three RAW files--I simply used the "monochrome" setting. But for a quick and dirty HDR shot, I like what you can get out of the camera, even though you're stuck with a JPEG file.
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Red Bug Lake Park
Canon PowerShot S100
Three RAW Files taken with Auto Exposure Bracketing, combined in Photomatix |
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Red Bug Lake Park
Canon PowerShot S100
Same three RAW Files taken with Auto Exposure Bracketing, combined in Photomatix |
Be careful how you holster that P&S! ;-) Beautiful images of the lake. Any signs of the SHC adults returning this spring?
ReplyDelete:-). I had my "big gun" (SLR w/ 400mm lens) with me too. Thankfully it was a Saturday. I saw two adults there earlier this month, so hopefully we'll get little ones there too.
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