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Echoes of the Wave - Jay Patel

Echoes of the Wave

Jay Patel —  October 24, 2012


While I was photographing seals on a beach in Redwood Forest National Park, I noticed this glowing ridge about two miles away. I got in the car and drove closer to see if I could get a photo.

This shot was something of an accident. I was trying to capture leading lines formed by the waves pointing toward the brilliantly lit ridge. After several unsuccessful attempts, I gave up and started to focus on other shots. When I got home, I was instantly drawn to this photograph because of the repeating patterns. Notice that the shape of the ridge seems to be repeated in the foam on the beach.

Every once in a while, it is kind of nice when things don’t go according to plan.

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Photographing a Splash

Varina Patel —  June 26, 2012

I spent the better part of two hours photographing water as it splashed against the rocks at Bean Hollow State Park’s Pebble Beach in California. I noticed that foam was collecting in a pool just beyond the biggest rocks, so I watched for a while until I could begin to predict where the biggest splashes would occur. I also wanted to make sure that I chose the spot with the best light – I wanted soft shadows to show the incredible details. But I also wanted to be sure to avoid blown highlights and deep, black shadows. This spot was just what I wanted.

After I chose my spot, I took several test shots – I wanted nice, sharp details, and a perfect exposure, so that I wouldn’t have to worry about clipping my highlights. A chose to shoot at f/13 and 1/800 at ISO 400. An even faster shutter speed would have been better, but I wasn’t willing to sacrifice too much depth of field with a wider aperture. I didn’t want to add too much noise either, so I didn’t increase my ISO beyond 400.

And then I clicked away happily until I was sure I had what I wanted… deleting far more shots than I kept, since I couldn’t predict what the waves would do as they crashed ashore.

This is my favorite of the collection.

Post-processing was easy – I converted the image to black and white, but gave it a bit of a blue tint. I also brightened up the lower right corner just a bit.

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The Finished Product

Varina Patel —  September 30, 2010

When we visited Olympic National Park in Washington in 2009, we spent hours shooting at Second Beach. We arrived when the sun was low in the sky – hoping to capture golden light as the sun sank towards the horizon… and maybe a nice sunset, too. We’ve been to this beach many times before and since. It’s a gorgeous location with large and small rocks, sea stacks, tide pools, and smooth sand. I took this shot a few minutes after sunset – as the tide was coming in and the color in the sky was at its best.

Processing a photo with a wide range of light usually requires bracketing. In this case, I took two bracketed shots and opened them in Adobe Camera Raw. I selected my color balance for a natural-looking sky, and then adjusted the contrast. I ignored the foreground in the first image, and processed it for the sky alone. The second image would be used for the water. I made sure the highlight areas in the water were not overexposed, and opened the photo in Photoshop… then opened the RAW file again in Adobe Camera Raw. This time, I reduced the clarity of the photo… allowing the waves in the foreground to soften even more. (If you make different adjustments to a single RAW file, you can save a “Snapshot” of each version for easy reference.)

You can see my three adjustments in the triptych below. Notice that the sky in the photo on the left looks good. The highlights in the water are just right in the middle photo, and the foreground waves look nice and smooth in the third. In all, these adjustments took me three to five minutes to make.

Once I’ve prepared these three versions of the same composition, I use our iHDR manual blending technique to produce a final image that is as close to my memory of scene as I can bring it. I stack the image in three layers, and use selections and masks to blend the images very carefully. Sometimes the process takes a while – but if I know what I want in my final image, I can finish in just a few minutes… so an image like this one might take me about ten minutes to process from beginning to end.

And while we’re on the subject of iHDR – just a reminder for those who are interested…

Our next live iHDR webinar series starts this Sunday – so if you are interested, don’t forget to sign up soon! We record each session so that anyone who can’t make the live sessions can watch the streaming video for up to four months after the class. Students who do attend the live session have that option as well… in case you need a refresher. :)

Click on the link below to register for the webinar:

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