Ya, I know. Its been quite a while since my last post. What can I say? I’ve been busy with things other than photography – work, family, house – it happens.
But… I spent Easter Sunday riding the backroads of Colorado and did a little shooting in the field. I wanted to practice with my TS-E lenses and also work on taking multiple exposures with intent of blending images on the computer during post processing. This can be a tricky technique to do well, and I need practice.
The location/destination? A cool little spot on the Eastern plains near Calhan, Colorado called the Paint Mines Interpretive Site. Its kind of a mini badlands/painted desert.
I arrived smack in the middle of the day and set about exploring. Mid-day photos are usually looked down upon since the light is harsh with blinding highlights and deep shadows. This location amplifies these effects with its white sand, tall hoodoos and twisting gullies. But attempting to tame these conditions was part of the plan and the challenge. So, let’s do some exposure blending to balance out the extreme contrast, toning down the highlights and opening the shadows.
How? Well, for some time, I’ve been wanting to test out Timothy Armes’ LR/Enfuse Plugin for Lightroom. So after making a donation to get a registration code for the plugin, all I did was select the 3 images with exposures +/- 1 stop and ran them through LR/Enfuse using the default settings. The results had a bit of a halo around the top of the hoodoo, so I used the adjustment brush to blend it in. Then I just added a little warmth to the image. All in all, it was about 5 minutes of work. The results, while not spectacular, aren’t half bad, IMHO.
Paint Mines Big Hoodoo
With better light as a starting point, the LR/Enfuse plugin is going to be a very powerful tool.
A day riding the bike, exploring and shooting, and good results testing out a new tool. Success!
For the 2-wheel-inclined, here’s a snapshot from the parking lot and my means of transportation…
Paint Mines '99 F650 Parking
