This obsure little puddle ‘mirrors’ one I captured last month… And interestingly enough is actually located not far from it, only a few kilometers up the road. You know you have a good landscape when you lietrally have dozens of choices for potential subjects, and the hardest part of the process is deciding what to take a photo of!
I’ve since halted my weekly trips to Oamaru while I sort a few things out regarding the flight training and study I was undertaking… So I’m not driving four hours every friday anymore, but on the downside I’ve been missing scenes like this as they offer interesting challenges to deal with in post.
With that in mind, I decided to document the process from start to finish by making a tutorial of sorts… This is a 40 minute video that walks through my entire post processing workflow from start to finish. I do my best to explain how and why I do things, including my techniques for sharpening, noise reduction, eliminating chromatic aberrations, color correction and more. I’ve tried to be as clear as possible with these steps, but please bear in mind it was impromptu and somewhat unplanned!
(Note: The audio quality of this video is a little stetchy… I’m quickly getting to the end of my rope with Final Cut Pro X, as I’ve had to render and upload this thing 4 times before finally accepting that it’s not gonna get any better. It’s taken an extra day to get this sorted, but here we go…)
This isn’t necessarily a full on tutorial, and some of the information is delivered rapid fire as I talk to myself during the process! So, with that in mind, I’m more than happy to field questions and give specific advice on certain techniques.
However, it is a pretty faithful overview to my thought process and various techniques used. If you have any specific questions relating to this process or would like to know more about a specific techniqe I use… Just drop me a line via a comment and I’ll be glad to help. I’m never too busy to pass along information to the viewing audience!
If you like this photo, please let me know in the comments section below!
Alternatively, if you’d like to get in touch, you can find me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter! This photo, and all my other works, are covered under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND — For full details, click here…
Thanks for visiting!
Love the photo Eden and thanks for getting back to me on that lens it well may be my choice lens thanks .Will watch your video later.
Thanks, Louis.
Enjoyed video,a little over my head but enjoyed did a grand job.
What an extremely pleasant shot. Your HDR processing is fantastic: no black clouds, no crazy halos, mountains in the distance actually retain some level of obscurity… fantastic!
Thank you, Tim. I’m always endeavoring to create a more natural look for my photos as well as balance the surrealistic tones that HDR is known for. I feel it’s a fine line between perfect and overdone!