I was browsing Fred Miranda's site and i noticed a few of his AMAZING pictures. A couple caught my attention because they looked as if they were computer generated, however I know they were actually captured :
Can anyone give me an idea of how this was done. Specifically the reflections in the water are so crystal clear and the sky is absolutely unreal. I do realize that Fred has a degree in computer graphics, so I am guessing that has something to do with it. Any insight will be much appreciated.
I've seen reflections this crystal clear with my own eyes, may times, up in the Sierras. The key to capturing them on film is usually to shoot just after dawn, when there is absolutely no breeze whatsoever to ruffle the water. You need water that is literally as smooth as glass to capture these clear reflections. The lighting is also usually beautiful at this time, as you can see from these photos.
Members on the FM site also asked why the sky was darker than the reflection in the water (No reply as of yet), so I am assuming some major photoshopping was done. Overall it is an amazing picture, whether it was digitally touched up or not. I would just like to know the specifics.
Ken
with all due respect to fred and miranda as they are top-notch photographers, alot of their pix in fact, most others as well on that forums went through quite a bit of post-processing prior to being posted.
I was browsing Fred Miranda's site and i noticed a few of his AMAZING pictures. A couple caught my attention because they looked as if they were computer generated, however I know they were actually captured :
Can anyone give me an idea of how this was done. Specifically the reflections in the water are so crystal clear and the sky is absolutely unreal. I do realize that Fred has a degree in computer graphics, so I am guessing that has something to do with it. Any insight will be much appreciated.
Ken
While these may have been altered slightly, for effect, it's not all that unusual to find mirrored reflections. Like this:
D7000, D70, CP990, CP900, FE + a lens or 6.
Ha! See, I can change...
I guess my real question is how is this done. If I were to go to where that picture was shot, would the sky look that dark? would the background look so sureal? Most likely the problem is I have never been out west and I don't have any other pictures to compare this image to. Overall it just seems like it was computer generated, but I know that it was an actual picuture.
Ken
Don't be so quick to judge on the post processing. Most landscape photographers use Grad ND filters to balance out the light in the sky vs the light of the landscape (I actually use one quite a bit when doing LS's), A polarizing filter would also darken the sky, though I'm not sure if he used a polarizer since they usually kill reflection on water...
The quality of the light makes this much easier than you'd think to achieve as well. With a strong sun coming from behind the photographer and illuminating the salt columns, spot metering on the salt columns would darken everything else in relation, giving a nice dark exposure to the sky...
EDIT: After a closer look, I am more certain that he did this with a Polarizing filter and spot meterin on the salt columns. If you look at the shadows, the sun is at a 90 degree angle to the photographer, the perfect angle for the maximum dark sky effect of the polarizer (and the color is consistent with a CP as well). Still not sure about the reflection though...
I guess my real question is how is this done. If I were to go to where that picture was shot, would the sky look that dark? would the background look so sureal? Most likely the problem is I have never been out west and I don't have any other pictures to compare this image to. Overall it just seems like it was computer generated, but I know that it was an actual picuture.
Ken
Time to go west. The columns at Mono Lake are that spectacular, Fred just happened to be there on a spectacular (spring?) day. as is the Colorado River from Desert View at the Grand Canyon, or the 1600 miles of Pacific coast. The Columbia River Gorge, or the Seven Sisters (volcanic peaks including Mt. St. Helens) of the Nothwest. It's endless. Come out and visit us sometime when you have a few years.
New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington. If it's west of the Great Divide, it's gonna be exiting. Sometimes we loose track of how fortunate we are.
D7000, D70, CP990, CP900, FE + a lens or 6.
Ha! See, I can change...
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Originally Posted by ktixx
