Today was a vacation day for me.  It had been several years since my last jaunt to Silver Falls State Park.  It was time for a revisit.  The venue is located about an hour and a half southeast of Portland.  One of the largest parks in Oregon, Silver Falls State Park is home to ten gorgeous waterfalls.  Fall and spring are probably the best times to visit, as summer can attract a lot of foot traffic.

The day was overcast with light drizzle, perfect for waterfall and forest photography.  I left home at 6 am, grabbed a quick bite at McDonalds, and was at the park by 10:30.  I left my car at the North Fall parking area and did a relatively easy 3 1/2 mile loop that took me to Upper North Fall, North Fall, and Winter Fall.  I came across very few people and took my time enjoying the hike and views.  I don’t think I captured anything spectacular, but today was more about the journey and hike.  I stopped over in Portland and had dinner before heading back to Seattle.  By 8 PM I was downloading and post-processing the images from the day.

Here are a few tips and personal preferences for waterfall photography:

  • I love overcast days for waterfalls, as the light is diffused, with no harsh shadows or overly bright sunlit areas.
  • If at all possible, I try to not include a lot of sky in my images, as gray skies are dull, uninteresting, and often show up as bright, overexposed areas in my pictures.
  • My favorite shutter speed for waterfalls is between 1/4 and 3/4 second.  Any slower, the water looks too much like shaving cream for my taste.  Any faster than 1/4 second, and the water isn’t blurry enough.  This is all personal preference, of course.
  • I like to use a polarizer when shooting waterfalls, because it significantly reduce glare from things such as water surface and wet leaves.
  • Because you’re working with such slow shutter speeds, a tripod is a must.  Don’t be lazy; carry a tripod.  I also recommend using a cable release and enabling mirror lock-up if your camera has the feature.
  • Proper exposure can be tricky, as waterfalls are very white while the surround foliage, rocks, etc. are much darker.  I always exposure bracket my shots about 1 to 1 1/2 stops on either side of 0.  I then combine the exposures later in post-processing to get the perfect balance between highlight and shadow detail.  In the near future, I’ll write a tutorial describing how I do this.
  • I often find myself getting very close to waterfalls, and keeping my equipment (especially the front of the lens) free of water droplets is a real challenge.  I carry a small lens cloth which I use to wipe down the front of the lens (or polarizing filter if you have it on) between exposures.  The trick is to have everything set up (eg, composition, f-stop/shutter speed/ISO values) first.  Then wipe down the lens and snap the image (or bracketed images).  A lens hood helps, as does a portable umbrella.

Here are a few shots from today’s trip.

Panasonic GF-1, Panasonic 14-45 f/3.5-5.6 lens, 26mm (52mm equivalent), f/18, (2/3 and 1 1/3 sec exposures), ISO 100

Panasonic GF-1, Panasonic 14-45 f/3.5-5.6 lens, 23mm (46mm equivalent) f/8, 8 sec, ISO 100

Panasonic GF-1, Panasonic 45-200 f/4.5-5.6 lens, 132mm (264mm equivalent), f/8, 1/13 sec, ISO 100

  • 2 Comments

Michael Rupp: Mahesh, this is great! I am trying to learn how to do photograph. Where did you learn?

--> Mahesh: Hi ya, Mike! Great to hear from you, and thanks for the kind words. I'm what you call a self-taught man. :D I've had no formal training, but I have spent countless hours on the internet studying great photographs and reading articles on photography and photoshop. I also participate in several photography forums on the web. Some great ones include dpreview.com, fredmiranda.com, and dgrin.com.

UW Cherry Blossoms, Take Two

Written on March 15, 2010 Posted in Photography Locations


I was on call yesterday (Sunday) and it just so happened to be the first day of Daylight Saving.  I woke up extra early and looked out my bedroom window.  Noticing the nice quality of the developing light, I packed my gear and headed back to the University of Washington’s main campus.  I arrived just after sunrise and pretty much had the place all to myself.  The colors were excellent, and I snapped away happily.  By 45 minutes, I was satisfied with what I captured and headed to Children’s Hospital, refreshed and “eager” to start call.  That last part is probably stretching it a bit.

Anywho, here are a couple of shots from the outing.  If you look carefully at the first image, you can see the Space Needle in the distance.  I really love the pink hues on the blossoms.  I hope you do also.  Let me know what you think.

Panasonic GF-1, 14-45 f/3.5-5.6, 20mm (40mm equivalent), f/8, ISO 100, (1/15, 1/30, 1/60 second exposures)

Panasonic GF-1, Panasonic 45-200 f/4.5-5.6, 45mm (90mm equivalent), f/8, ISO 100, (1/8, 1/4, 1/2 second exposures)

  • 4 Comments

Robert Livingston: Glad I am on your mailing list.

Katie: You are a magician. It's amazing to get to see what you see. It must be fascinating, and perhaps frustrating, for you to watch other people see your vision, and see how they interpret your vision. SO many times, when I've looked at many of your photographs, I've not just seen but also felt a moment in time. Captured but freely happening. Other senses are pulled in because the visual effect is so striking, real, imaginary, and perfectly arranged. I think I occasionally see some of those moments in time like I should, but I can't replay them for others by photographing, writing, speaking, showing, singing, or dancing (the singing and dancing could be particularly disturbing). So wonderful for you to be able to show your work to others, so they get a chance to see through your eyes. Please start making a book. You could even create a system in which people you trust can create an ibook by you, choosing their favorite masterpieces, the ones that speak to them. This would be an incredible treasture.

--> Mahesh: Bob, thanks for the comment. I'm glad you haven't asked to be taken off the list. :D

--> Mahesh: Katie, Wow! Just saying thank you seems woefully inadequate to the eloquent compliments you gave me. You have such a way with words. I read your response several times with a grin on my face that extended from ear to ear. I love your idea of an ibook. I'll have to see how feasible that is. If you belong to Smugmug, they have what's called a "collect" feature which allows one to grab favorite images from other Smugmug members (if those members allow it, that is) and sequester them in a virtual on-line album/gallery. That may be a good first step toward creating an ibook.

Colorful Sky and Night Skyline

Written on March 15, 2010 Posted in Tips and Tutorials


Introduction

Have you ever seen a photograph of a city skyline?  Of course you have.  When done right, it can be extremely beautiful and awe-inspiring.  For me, the most memorable skyline photographs are those with a colorful sky and well-lit buildings.  This combination, however, is almost impossible to capture in a single exposure, because the sky is typically most colorful just after sunset, whereas the buildings appear well lit sometime later.  The artificial building lights are most conspicuous after some of the natural ambient light has vanished.  So, how do we capture the beauty of a vibrant sky while maintaining a nighttime look to the skyline?  Read on, and I’ll show you how I do it.

Before we dive into the tutorial, let me first briefly mention the two programs I use to organize and “make” my photographs:

  • Adobe Lightroom 2.6
  • Photoshop CS4 (Version 11.0)

I use Lightroom to organize my photographs and make minor adjustments such as exposure, clarity and vibrancy.  For major edits requiring layers, I use Photoshop.  By the way, I’m using a Macintosh computer running OSX, version 10.6.2.

In the Field

Arrive at your location with plenty of time to set up and find your favorite spot.  Make sure you’re using a very steady tripod.  I can’t stress this enough.  Pick your spot, compose the image, and wait.  A cable release is highly recommended, so you don’t have to actually touch the camera to take a picture.  If your camera has a mirror lockup feature, enable it.  This will minimize tiny vibrations from the camera’s mirror movement.  If you haven’t figured it out already, the goal is to have the camera as steady as possible.

I typically bracket my exposures 1 1/3 to 2 stops on either side of 0 and shoot in RAW.  This “protects” me if exposure and white balance aren’t “perfect.”

With everything set up as above, autofocus (or focus manually if you prefer) on your scene.  Once you’re happy with your focus, switch the camera to manual focus.  The reason is, once light levels fall off and ambient contrast decreases, the camera might “hunt” for focus.  This can happen if you leave autofocus on.

As the sun begins to set, take pictures periodically to capture the changing colors in the sky and clouds.  It’s difficult to judge when the sky colors are “just right.”  So, don’t be stingy with your memory.  Click away!

Typically about fifteen to thirty minutes after the sun has set, the buildings’ lights will begin to stand out.  Take a few more exposures.  When you’re happy with the nighttime look to the skyline, you’re done.  Pack up and head home to process your masterpiece.

The Digital Darkroom

Typically, I import images into Lightroom and then do the major edits in Photoshop.  Below are the two images (fig. 1 and 2) I used to make my final shot (the one at the beginning of this blog).  The two shots were obtained 15 minutes apart.  The first shows a beautiful sky but not much definition in the skyline buildings.  The 2nd offers a brightly lit skyline with good shadow detail, but lacking an interesting sky.  Below are the steps I took to arrive at the final photograph.  For the sake for clarity, I’ll refer to the colorful sky image as “sky” and the night skyline images as “night.”

Fig. 1, "Sky"

Fig. 2, "Night"

Step 1:  Open both images in Photoshop, and make sure your top window is the “sky” image.

Step 2:  Select and copy “sky” to the clipboard:  Command-A followed by Command-C

Step 3:  Select the “night” image to make that the active window.

Step 4:  Paste the “sky” image on top of the “night” image:  Command-V.  If not already displayed, make sure you can see the “Layers” pallet.  The layers pallet should now show the “sky” thumbnail on top of the “night” thumbnail.  I recommend you change the names of the thumbnails to “sky” and “night” corresponding to their respective layers (fig. 3).  You can do this by double clicking on the text adjacent to the thumbnail in the layers pallet.  Double click the text, NOT the thumbnail itself.

Fig.3, Layers Pallet with thumbnail names changed to "Sky" and "Night"

Step 4:  Change the blending mode for the “sky” layer to “lighten” (fig. 4).  The resulting image should show the buildings’ lights “shining through” to the “sky” layer (fig 5).  Examining my image, I’m still not completely satisfied with the look of the sky or the “hazy” appearance to the skyline.  Too much of the uninteresting sky from the “night” layer is showing through, and the skyline doesn’t appear dark enough.  If you are similarly troubled by your image thus far, follow the steps below.

Fig. 4, Change blending mode to "Lighten" (black arrow)

Fig. 5, Intermediate image after step 4

Step 5:  Select the “night” layer by clicking on its thumbnail in the layers pallet.  Then, under the “Layers” menu, select “New Adjustment Layer” –> “Levels…” (fig 6).  In the dialog box that appears next, be sure to check the box next to “Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask” (fig 7).

Fig. 6, How to get to "Levels..." in Menu

Fig. 7, Layers dialog box. Be sure to check the box next to "Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask" (black arrow)

Step 6:  Make sure the “Adjustment” window is visible.  If it’s not, make it visible by selecting it from the “Window” drop down menu.  Adjust the center gray triangle until the desired effect is obtained.  In fig 8, I’m including both the Adjustment window and the Layers pallet.  For my image, I set the gray triangle value to 81.  Note the increased conspicuity of the colorful sky and darkening of the buildings, exactly the effects I wanted (fig 9).  At this point, I’m pretty much done.  To arrive at the final image (the one you saw at the beginning of this blog), the only additional steps I performed were cropping, flattening the layers, and a little bit of sharpening.  As a summary, I’m including all the steps from the “History” pallet (fig 10).

Fig. 8, Adjustment and Layers Pallet. For my image, the gray triangle value is set to 81 (black arrow). The number for your image may be different.

Fig. 9, The resulting image after step 6

Fig. 10, All the steps from the "History" pallet

I hope you have found this tutorial helpful.  If I have been unclear in any way, please ask your questions by responding to this blog or sending me an e-mail.  I promise to answer your questions as soon as I can.  Happy shooting and have fun!

  • 8 Comments

Eric: Very nicely done. Do you actually work with all the links above? Never heard of some of them. We need to chat more...in San Diego perhaps.

--> Mahesh: Eric, thanks for the comment once again, my friend. I do use several of the social sharing icons listed above, but not all of them. However, I know many who do. That's why I included all of 'em. We'll definitely chat more in SD.

Conrad Tan: Mahesh I thank you for taking the time to post this tutorial. I appreciate the time it took for you and will hopefully be creating some post worthy images of landscapes soon!

--> Mahesh: Conrad, buddy...no trouble at all. I'd promised this to you a while back. I finally got my lazy butt in gear and put together this tutorial. :D

Rolf: Dear Mahesh, I've seen your tutorial as mentioned above, it is very helpful. Thanks a lot for this. But I've one question that is not answored in the tutorial. You told you bracket your exposures. Which picture do you then use in Photoshop? One of those three that fits, or an HDR of these three?

--> Mahesh: Rolf, great question! I didn't go too much into the details of bracketing in this blog. I'll save that for another day. :D However, to answer your question, I almost never use the traditional "HDR" blends as I find the look to be drastically different than what I'm going for. If I know I'll be doing a colorful sky and night skyline combo, I use bracketing mainly as a "safety net," so there are no big mistakes in exposures. Typically, I end up choosing the uncompensated ("0") image from a bracket set for both the colorful sky and night skyline. That being said, there's nothing stopping anyone from taking the bracketed images for "sky" and "night", creating HDR versions for each set, and applying the techniques outlined in this tutorial on those images. I hope I've answered your question.

Joel: Great new web site Mahesh. Excellent tutorial. One wish, which may not be practical to grant, is that I had similar pictures to try out the technique you describe here. If you had some pictures you didn't mind sharing by posting them on the web, perhaps some you "protect" by modifying or putting your banner through the middle of it, we could try out your technique immediately and see how well we do.

--> Mahesh: Joel, thanks for the comment and great suggestion! Actually, there's nothing stopping you from downloading the sample images from this blog and following along. In any tutorial I write about, the reader will be able to download the "preliminary" images and follow along. Does that sound like what you're "wishing" for? :D

Cherry Blossoms at UW Main Campus

Written on March 14, 2010 Posted in Photography Locations


We had a little break in the weather this afternoon, so I decided to visit the Quad at UW main campus to photograph the cherry blossoms. If you’re thinking of visiting, the blossoms are at full bloom now. Tomorrow calls for an overcast day, which I think is perfect for photographing the blossoms. There won’t be any contrasty light to play havoc with your exposures. The gray skies will look dull, so I’d try to keep as much of it as possible out of my frame. Even if  there isn’t a lot of light, I would still utilized a polarizer. It helps to minimize glare from the surface of the pathways, blossoms and benches.

The blossoms this year are more white than pink, but still unbelievably beautiful! They have not bloomed everywhere on campus yet but are spectacular at the quad.

I had my little Panasonic GF-1 camera and the kit 14-45 lens with me. I’m amazed at the quality I’m getting out of that combo. I took 3 bracketed exposures, then combined them in Photoshop to get the “perfect” exposure. I played around with Channel Mixer to get the b&w tones looking a little contrasty.

Below is an image I made this afternoon, along with a Google Map of where I was standing when I took the shot. (The green arrow points to my exact spot.) I hope you enjoy the image.

Panasonic GF-1, Panasonic 14-45 f/3.5-5.6 lens, 25mm (50mm equivalent), f/8, (1/5, 1/8, 1/13 seconds), ISO 100

View Larger Map

  • no Comments


Thank you for visiting the new and improved StarvingPhotographer.com. If this is your first visit, welcome! If you’ve been here before, you’ll notice a drastic change in both format and content. This website has been completely revamped, hopefully making it more user friendly and informative. Here’s a list of the major changes I’m really excited about:

• A brand new “look” to the entire website
• Addition of this blog section
• Better organization of photos, complete with categories, keywords and geotags
• Easier gallery navigation, with ability to see images at various sizes
• A robust search function
• A streamlined ordering process, with many more options for print sizes and merchandise

For this first blog, I wanted to briefly mention my recent foray into bird photography. I’ve made a not-so-insignificant investment in a new camera body and a large telephoto lens. Landscapes will always be my first love, but I’m beginning to be wooed by bird/wildlife photography. Here’s an image of me behind my “monster” gear:

Canon 1D Mark III, 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS lens, (100mm, f/6.3, 1/400 sec, ISO 800), Photograph by Ray Still

And here is what I was photographing:

Canon 7D, 1.4X Extender, 600mm f/4L IS lens, (f/5.6, 1/640 sec, ISO 200)

In the coming weeks and months, I will be blogging about interesting and photogenic locations, photoshop tips/tutorials, upcoming arts and crafts shows I’ll be participating in, and just about anything remotely related to photography. So, please have a look around and stop by often. Feel free to leave comments or ask questions, and I promise to respond as quickly as I can.

  • 8 Comments

EJS: hopefully you're not starving anymore ; )

Conrad Tan: Terrific website Mr M! Well laid out and easy to navigate! Stunning images as always.

--> Mahesh: Eric, thanks for the comment and chuckle. No, indeed...not starving anymore...just starving for beauty. :D

--> Mahesh: Conrad, always appreciate your comments, bud! I can't wait till I'm in SF with you and Ant! Let's keep our fingers crossed for the weather and birdies. :D

Larry Ridgeway: I love the "cleanness" of the layout and artistic design. Of course your photos are awesome and a palate to soothe the soul. Works fine on Safari for me. Thanks for the beauty.

--> Mahesh: Larry, thanks a ton for your kind words. I also appreciate your taking the time to explore the site with Safari. I'm on Mac OSX myself using Safari, and didn't find any problems, but it's nice to get that verified. :D

Jude Perera: Thanks for the tutorial Mahesh. Very informative and nicely explained. Jude

--> Mahesh: Hey Jude (I always wanted to say that. :D), you're more than welcome! I hope you can put it to good use one day.