Last Month, I had the chance to head out to Negril Jamaica to photograph a wedding. We stayed at the Rockhouse hotel, a beautiful location right on the rocky cliffs. In the middle of hurricane season, we somehow got away with only being rained on once. The rest of the time, we still reaped the benefits of the gorgeous clouds that held on to the color of the sunsets, even as the sun dove far past the horizon.
See the official blog entry for this Jamaica Wedding Photography session.
With a little time the evening before the wedding, I decided to head out for a few scenic shots to alleviate the stress of planning for the next day.
Considerations for these HDR Landscapes:
There were a few things I made sure to consider.
First off, I always make sure that my landscape shots have a primary focus, in this case it was the villa closest to the camera.
Secondly, as with most tropical landscape shots, I wanted to capture all of the color and vibrance in both the highlights and the shadows, so I knew hat an HDR shot would be appropriate.
Thirdly, I knew that I didn’t want to wait until I was in front of my computer to get a glimpse at the results, so I turned on my in-camera HDR mode available on the 5D Mark III.
And lastly, I knew that I wanted to create a serene, peaceful feel to the water, so I made sure I used slow shutter speeds to create that glassy water effect.
As a side note, Post Production Pye, the HDR Guru in our Studio, will be coming out with a comprehensive HDR DVD within a month. Be sure to check it out in our Photography Resources Store when it’s released! We’ll also be releasing a comprehensive tutorial on the in-camera HDR function, so stay updated for that as well on our newsletter as well as our Facebook.
HDR Gear:
Camera: 5D Mark III
Lens: Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L Lens
Tripod: Manfrotto 055XPROB Pro Tripod Legs
Note: No shutter release, no flash
The Middle Exposure
Settings: Aperture – F/5.6, Shutter – 1/10th, ISO – 100
The Under Exposure
Settings: Aperture – F/5.6, Shutter – 1/20th, ISO – 100
The Over Exposure
Settings: Aperture – F/5.6, Shutter – 1/5th, ISO – 100
In Camera HDR
In Camera HDR Settings: Adjust dyn range: 2 EV, Effect: Natural, Continuous HDR: Every Shot, Auto Image Align: Enable, Save source imgs: Every Image
<img src="https://cloudfront.slrlounge.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/jamaica-destination-wedding-photographer-3.jpg" alt="jamaica-destination-wedding-photographer" title="jamaica-destination-wedding-photographer-1" width="620" height="413" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-143816" /
The Final Lightroom Processed Image
Processing: To process the final image, we used our SLR Lounge Lightroom Presets System. Using a few brushes presets included in the system to bring out color and contrast, I was able to achieve the final image.
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