Cloudy Day over the Lake (AuroraHDR, Graphic Novel and Photocopy filters)

Cropped Original

AuroraHDR HDR edit

Graphic Novel filter

Colorized Graphic Novel filter

Photocopy filter

Colorized Photocopy filter

AuroraHDR soft edit

Cloudy Sky Over the Lake at Sunset (AuroraHDR, Graphic Novel and Photocopy filters)

Cropped Original

AuroraHDR HDR edit

Graphic Novel filter

Colorized Graphic Novel filter

Photocopy filter

Colorized Photocopy filter

AuroraHDR soft edit

Cloudy Sky Over the Lake (Graphic Novel and Photocopy filter)

Graphic Novel filter

Colorized Graphic Novel filter

Photocopy filter

Colorized Photocopy filter

Cloudy Evening Sky Over the Lake (AuroraHDR, Graphic Novel and Photocopy filters)

Cropped Original

AuroraHDR HDR edit

Graphic Novel filter edit

Colorized Graphic Novel filter

Photocopy edit

Colorized Photocopy filter edit

AuroraHDR soft edit

Cloud Over the Water (AuroraHDR, Graphic Novel and Photocopy filters)

Cropped Original

AuroraHDR HDR edit (touched up with Corel Paintshop Pro Magic Eraser)

Graphic Novel filter

Colorized Graphic Novel filter

Photocopy filter

Colorized Photocopy filter

AuroraHDR soft edit (touched up with Corel Paintshop Pro Magic Eraser)

Cloudy Landscape (Graphic Novel filter)

The only thing missing from my title was trees. There are trees in this landscape, too.

I actually processed this one quite some time ago. I included the earlier stamp filtered images at the bottom of this post. The top ones are Graphic Novel filter BW, and colorized.

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Cloudy Lines in the Sky (Dry Brush Filter)

A finger drew lines

in the sky at the sunset.

The writing is light.

I had processed this image before, merging three exposures into an HDR image. In today's post, I processed a single image (not for HDR, though). Thanks for stopping by!

Cloudy Sky through Trees (Dry Brush Filter)

As we were out taking a walk the other day, my wife asked my what I was taking a picture of as I aimed my camera up toward these trees. (I had been looking for birds earlier in the walk.) At this point, I said that I liked the cloudy pattern in the background with the tree branches in the foreground. In general, the color blue is a personal favorite. Thanks for stopping by!

Cloudy Tree in the Evening (Dry Brush Filter)

This is another picture pulled from the 2013 archives, taken (3 exposures) within the first month or so after I had purchased my camera, edited this morning. What mostly impresses me about this picture is the layering of the clouds behind the tree, with a hint of the sunset behind the tree, coming through with splashes of yellow in the clouds. I don't remember whether or not a storm rolled in, but it looks like the kind of day that you didn't want to stay long outside. Thanks for stopping by!

Looking at the Pink Clouds Down the Road (Dry Brush)

It was sunset time, and I was enjoying the pink clouds down the road. You know the saying, "Red sky in the morning: sailors, take warning. Red sky at night: sailors, delight." Thanks for stopping by!

Clouds and Trees Landscape

I liked the texture that the clouds gave to the background of this autumn landscape, something like marble. The leaves (that are left) seem to be caught somewhere between yellow and green; it won't be long before winter arrives.

Apple Tree on a Cloudy Day

This is another photo from a month ago. I don't know if all apple trees look this way, but this one looks kind of wild, with its branches shooting off in every which direction. I like how the redness of the apples stand out in contrast with the dark bluish tint of the clouds in the background.

Dark Clouds after Sunset

This is another picture of those stormy clouds from just after sunset from a few days ago. The sun had already gone down, and the sky was still quite colorful.

Red and White Tower against Dark Clouds

For some time, I have admired the skyline landscape scene of this red and white tower in the background behind these trees. I happened to be in the area with my camera, taking a few pictures... before I started to hear the thunder rolling in the distance and decided that it might be best to move along. This photo was processed as HDR in-camera, and then I edited it in AfterShot Pro. Thanks for looking!

Beach View of the Lake with Dark Clouds

Dirt Road and Bicycle Path to the Lake

Walking down a local bike path a few days ago, I stopped with my tripod and NEX-7, grabbing three exposures of the darkly overcast sky, the dirt road, and the water-logged ditch. Processing the image in Photomatix, I was surprised how much color was able to come out in the grass -- not just the green, but also some yellows and oranges.

Blue Clouds Over Mackinac

It was getting to the end of an ominous, October day. (The clouds looked dark and threatening of rain for much of the day.) Taking a series of sunset pictures from the island (shooting towards the Mackinac Bridge), I later found that the cloudy sky had a bluish hue to it. (Photo editing programs also have a way of enhancing such things.) 

Compare Sony NEX In-Camera HDR with Processed HDR

Here I am going to lay out a series of images, all shot one right after the other (within a two minute time-frame), to give a comparison between the Sony in-camera HDR and a post-processed version. Here, I was shooting a sunset on a cloudy day down at Lake Charlotte.

When I set my Sony NEX-7 to in-camera HDR processing mode, I get two images: The 'no touch up' JPEG version and the 'three image composite HDR processed version', both of which you see pictured below.

--- In Camera ---

DSC03115
09/30/13
Size: 5.43 MB
Sony NEX-7
F-stop: f/5.6
Exposure time: 1/800 sec.
ISO Speed: ISO-100
Exposure bias: 0 step

DSC03116
09/30/13
Size: 5.87 MB
Sony NEX-7
F-stop: f/5.6
Exposure time: 1/800 sec.
ISO Speed: ISO-100
Exposure bias: 0 step

The first difference that you might notice between these two images is the file size. No surprise here, the HDR version is slightly bigger. (It is, after all, a composite of three images that have been 'blended' and processed together.)

Second, you should be able to make out some details in the HDR version that are 'darkened out' in the regular JPEG version. (For example, the HDR version makes the details in the line of trees along the lake far more visible than they are in the regular JPEG version.)

--- Post-processed ---

In the five pictures that follow, the first three that you see are the unedited images (shot in RAW; here, converted to JPEG) that I merged together in Photomatix 5. These are the basis of the last two images, the post-processed versions.

In order to shoot these first three images, I set my Sony NEX-7 to 'automatic autobracketing mode'. This setting rapidly captures the images at a preset variation in the exposure bias. (The exposure bias can also be changed manually while you are shooting; however, doing so takes far more time than to simply shoot in automatic autobracketing mode. Time becomes a special consideration when shooting subjects that are likely to move. For processing in Photomatix, it's best that the images 'line up' as closely as possible, otherwise, you experience a phenomenon called 'ghosting' in your post-processing. Less time between pictures equals less time for the subject to move, and a greater likelihood that everything will 'line up'. For landscape pictures such as these, you have to watch out for movement in the clouds, the trees, and the water.)

There are pitfalls to the automatic autobracketing mode. For reasons that are unknown to me, my NEX-7 will sometimes ignore my autobracketing settings. In this setting, it's not uncommon for me to get two images shot at the same exposure bias. (I suspect this may have something to do with the fact that I am shooting in Aperture Priority mode.) For the images that appear below, the exposure biases should have been 0, -3, +3, but for some reason the camera shot them at 0, -2.3, +3.

DSC03117
09/30/13
Size: 23.8 MB
Sony NEX-7
F-stop: f/5.6
Exposure time: 1/800 sec.
ISO Speed: ISO-100
Exposure bias: 0 step

DSC03118
09/30/13
Size: 23.6 MB
Sony NEX-7
F-stop: f/5.6
Exposure time: 1/4000 sec.
ISO Speed: ISO-100
Exposure bias: -2.3 step

 

DSC03119

09/30/13

Size: 23.8 MB
Sony NEX-7
F-stop: f/5.6
Exposure time: 1/100 sec.
ISO Speed: ISO-100
Exposure bias: +3 step

The following two images are the result of merging these images and sending them through post-processing in Photomatix 5. The first picture is a 'fusion' of the preceding three images. 

After processing your files once, Photomatix 5 has an option to send the resulting image back through a second time. Here is a tonemapped version of the preceding image.

In my final images, the visibility of the trees was not as great of a concern for me as was drawing out the colors of the sun and bouncing it off the clouds. Could I have achieved this effect without going to all of the trouble of fusing and tonemapping? Quite possibly. But that's what novices do; they walk ten steps in order to go five.

Thanks for following along with me on my photographic journey!