Archives For glacier national park

St. Mary Falls, Glacier National Park, Montana (MT), USA

The Color of the Glacier

Jay Patel —  December 24, 2012

The first few times I visited St. Mary’s Falls, the water level was too high and foaming water hid the brilliant colors. During our last workshop in Glacier National Park, the water level was just right.

It was partly cloudy that day, and I waited for a cloud to soften the light from the sun. I used a circular polarizer filter to cut through the glare on the surface of the water and bring our the rich colors. You might think that even lighting like this would be just perfect for getting a shot like this right in-camera… but life is never quite that easy. I used Layers & Masks in Photoshop along with our iHDR workflow to get the exposure just right in every part of the image.

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Transient Light, Glacier National Park, MT

How much time do you spend in Photoshop?

Jay Patel —  November 12, 2012

For us, the answer is different for every photograph. Some photos require just a moment or two in Photoshop, while others requires more than 30 minutes. On average, I spend between 5 and 15 minutes per image in Photoshop. Here is a typical Photoshop workflow for me.

This is an image from Glacier National Park in Montana. It’s one of my early photographs produced using a GND filter and my old Canon D30 (Canon’s first 3mp DSLR). I always do what I can to get it right in-camera, but the dynamic range of the scene was too great for my camera to handle.

This image showcases two types of light. On the right side of the image, you can see predawn magenta light. This is the subtle reflected light that touches the mountains before the sun comes over the horizon. The light falling on the clouds in the upper left is direct light from the sun, which is very low on the horizon. This light is far more intense than the soft, predawn light on the right side. So even with my GND filter, the top left of the image was over exposed.

To process this image, I started with the Basic tab in Adobe Camera RAW (as shown above – click for a larger view). I chose white balance and exposure settings that produced the most accurate colors for the predawn light. (2 minutes)  As expected, the area that was lit by direct sunlight (the area marked in red) was too bright. I felt that most of the image was correctly processed with just a few simple adjustments to white balance, exposure, and contrast. In almost all my images, I use a colors saturation of 10% or less.

The next step was to open the image in Photoshop and to restore the highlights, bring out the shadow details, and make few minor targeted adjustments. To restores the highlight, I processed this RAW image again, and manually blended the two versions using our iHDR workflow. (6 minutes)  Then, I used layers and masks in Photoshop to make targeted adjustments. I used a Wacom Intuos tablet for drawing selections for masks – the stylus lets me be incredibly precise so I can create perfect masks really quickly. (5 minutes) My total time spend in Photoshop (including Adobe Camera RAW) for this particular image was about 13 minutes.

How much time do you spend in Photoshop? Feel free to share your workflow.

To learn more about photography check our webinars and eBooks below:

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St. Mary

Featured Download: St. Mary’s Sunrise

Jay Patel —  November 9, 2012

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We had been up for almost 24 hours the day before, but decided to get up and shoot anyway. It’s tough to get out of bed after just 4 hours of sleep… but it was worth it. We were rewarded with fantastic light and clouds over St. Mary Lake in Glacier National Park (Montana).

This image is all about balancing the light. I used a 0.6- stop GND filter to balance the light between the foreground and the sky. Even with the GND filter, I needed to use our manual blending (iHDR) workflow. I also used a 1.2-stop ND filter and polarizer to slow down the shutter speed for a smooth surface on the water.

10 seconds @ F16, ISO:100

As always, these images are provided for personal use as computer wallpaper or backgrounds ONLY. Copyright belongs to the photographer,and photographs cannot be used, redistributed, or recreated in print, on the web, or in any other medium without written permission from the photographer.

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Lower Grinell Lake, Glacier National Park, Montana (MT), USA

Lower Grinnell Lake

Jay Patel —  October 3, 2012

I love Grinnell Glacier Trail. The hike is about 12 miles, with about 1500 feet of elevation gain – so it’s not an easy one… but with breathtaking view like this one along the way, it’s well worth the effort! A few minutes before I took this photograph we were forced to stop because of three fully grown big horn sheep who were blocking the trail. We came upon them suddenly, and they were so close that I could see veins in their eyes. We just stood there and stared at each for a few minutes, and then they jumped right over the ledge to the cliffs below, and let us pass.

This photograph is all about timing. We had passed this location on our way up to the glacier, but the sun was directly in our eyes. So, we decided to shoot on our way back. We thought we might not make it back in time because we were stalled by the sheep on the trail – but we made it with a few minutes to spare. I used a circular polarizer for this shot.

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Prelude to the Light, Glacier National Park, WY

Is it “Photoshopped”?

Jay Patel —  September 3, 2012

Sometimes when people look at our photographs, they ask if the colors are manipulated. Have people told you your photos look “fake”, “too HDRish”, or that you used too much “photoshop magic”? One of our personal favorites is the assertion that “Photoshop ruined photography.”

Believe me, we’ve heard it all. So, what’s our answer to all this? When someone asks if we photoshop our photos, we simply say “Yes”. The fact is, we use Photoshop for every single image we take because we shoot only in RAW. We need to choose the proper settings in Adobe’s RAW converter.

But how much manipulation are we really using? Each image is different, but here’s a typical photograph – and the settings we used in Adobe Camera RAW. (Click on the image to see it at a larger size.)

The most important setting is color balance. The wrong color balance will make the whole image look weird. Jay chose a setting that showed the colors as he remembered them. He also bumped up the color saturation by about 4%. (Varina often leaves this setting at zero.) Straight-out-of-the-camera images shot with Velvia film will have far more saturated colors.

In many cases, we’ll use manual blending to bring out details in over or under exposed areas. And we may use targeted adjustments – similar to the way Varina used to use burning and dodging in the darkroom. We use Photoshop to help us bring out details in areas that the camera can not handle properly because the range of light in the image.

So, what’s the secret to getting those brilliant colors? Look for conditions that produce intense colors (like sunrise and sunset), get your settings right in-camera, and follow up with subtle processing. You can find more about capturing brilliant colors in these eBooks.

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Cloud Burst over Saint Mary’s Lake

Jay Patel —  August 8, 2012

The day before I took this shot, we spent more than 24 hours traveling – by car, airplane, and car again. We were operating on very little sleep – having been unable to sleep on the flight or during the drive. After just a few hours of sleep, we rose to catch an early sunrise on the shores of Saint Mary’s Lake. We were hoping for some good light… and we were not disappointed.

I used a soft 0.9 Graduated Neutral Density filter to reduce the brightness of the sky and the overall dynamic range for this shot. Even with the filter, the range of light was very broad because the foreground is in shadow, and the sky is brightly lit by the sun. I needed to use our manual iHDR workflow in Photoshop to restore details in the highlights in the clouds and shadows on the rocks. I also used a Neutral Density filter to increase the shutter speed to smooth the surface of the lake, and capture the motion of the fast-moving clouds.

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Spring Bloom @ Iceberg Lake

Jay Patel —  June 22, 2012

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Iceberg Lake is about a 9-mile round-trip, but this is the scene that awaits you! We arrived at the lake in stormy weather. The clouds were moving fast overhead, and the sun peeked through every now and then – shining patches of the light onto the surface of this turquoise lake.

The heavily overcast skies softened the light over the scene, so the image wasn’t too difficult to expose properly. My main concern was capturing detail in the highlight areas. I waited until the lake was partially lit by the sun to bring out the brilliant colors you see in this image.

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Featured Download: Colors of Glacier

Jay Patel —  May 11, 2012

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St. Mary’s Falls is a popular tourist destination and can be accessed via a short hike from Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park (Montana). These magnificent falls are often flowing at their peak in the summer, and the high water levels can obscure the colors you see in this image. Later in the summer, the water levels go down, and the brilliant red rocks underneath are revealed. I took this photograph during our Fall 2011 workshop.

As always, these images are provided for personal use as computer wallpaper or backgrounds ONLY. Copyright belongs to the photographer,and photographs cannot be used, redistributed, or recreated in print or on the web or on any other medium without written permission from the photographer.

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Nature Photography and iHDR Workflow Recordings

Photoshop How To: Layers and Mask

Jay Patel —  April 23, 2012

St. Mary Falls, Glacier National Park, Montana (MT), USA

Here is a photo of St. Mary falls in Glacier National Park. You can see exquisite details and vibrant colors in every part of the image. But did the image come out looking like this, or did we have to make adjustments to the original? Most landscape photographs require some amount of post-processing for a natural look, and this photo was no exception. I made selected adjustment to the image using layers and masks in the photograph. The video below explains the adjustments I made and why I felt they were necessary.

Layers and Mask are valuable tools that have the potential to dramatically improve your photography. To learn more about Layers and Mask check out our webinar below:

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Mountain Meadow

Long Exposure and Windy Conditions

Varina Patel —  April 12, 2012

Do you find yourself packing it in when conditions aren’t optimal? Or do you see difficult conditions as a personal challenge?

After shooting the sunset at Logan Pass in Glacier National Park, I took one last shot. The light was fading fast and it was awfully windy – but those conditions would work in my favor if I could create the image I wanted.

So, I set up my tripod low to the ground, framing my shot so that I was really close to the pretty purple and yellow flowers that dotted the hillside. I guessed that I needed about fifteen seconds to get the effect I wanted, so I chose my camera settings accordingly… f/11, 15 seconds, ISO 100). I made sure my ND Grad filter was adjusted appropriately to help even out the exposure. And then I stood back and waited while my shutter was open.

The fading light meant I needed that long shutter speed – and the high winds ensured that a long shutter speed would blur anything that moved while the shutter was open. Fifteen seconds was just right to blur the colorful flowers, and get a bit of motion in the clouds. My concern was that I’d end up with too much blur… and I wanted to be sure that you can tell those are flowers in the foreground. My shutter speed selection ended up being just right. Just enough blur to produce an interesting effect – and not so much that you can’t tell they are flowers. To me, the scene feels like something out of a story book.

Later, in Photoshop, I made some very basic adjustments. I checked my color balance to ensure that the scene looked natural, adjusted the contrast to bring out the rich colors and tones in the image. I used my Wacom tablet to draw a quick selection for the foreground and create a curves adjustment layer mask to brighten the foreground just slightly.

I always enjoy playing with the conditions I have at hand. Rather than seeing the wind as an obstacle – or the fading light as a problem – why not take those conditions and turn them into tools… something you can use to create something unexpected? Rise to the challenge!

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