Monday 2 August 2010

Sunset

Last night was the first time for quite a while that there has been a sunset where the clouds reflected the lovely oranges and reds as the Sun dipped below the horizon. This gave a photo opportunity and a chance to experiment. I used the Lumix TZ7 and tried several different settings. Also I was able to try out a plugin which gives HDR like effects on single photographs.

The first pair are looking towards the setting sun from my back garden.
First as taken by the camera:
P1010339

Secondly the same file after processing:
P1010339 processed

This pair are looking to the South:
Again, as taken by the Lumix:
P1010338

Once again the same file after processing:
P1010338 processed

I was astounded how much detail there was to be found in the deep shadows using the RE-Dynamizer HDR plugin. There are quite a few controls to tweak and these were just a first trial to see what it could do. RE-Dynamizer is not free but the trial version is fully working and just adds its name to the top and bottom of the picture when saved. It is a standard Adobe type file and should work with any program which can handle them. I use Paintshop Pro X2.

The Lumix does not have the facility to take RAW photos and it was obvious, especially on the second pair of photos, that it introduces some noise on JPGs. It will be interesting to see what it can do with RAW files.

15 comments:

  1. John very impressive even using Phtomatix it is best to convert Raw to Tiff prior to loading. Speeds the job up noend. Noise is a problem and gets worse when one sharpens. Topaz have a good plug in but I've not made the trial versions work well enough to justify the expense. they get rid of noise but also soften the image. I guess it's a matter of waiting for the next generation of sensors.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Adrian. I could see that RAW would take quite a while to process. Some noise would have been on the original as the Lumix was set to auto ISO and would have chosen 400 by that time of day.

    At $16 it looks a wothwhile addition to the armoury for processing shots with dark areas.

    It can be found here if you want to give it a try:

    http://www.mediachance.com/plugins/redynamix.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great images John, love the effect it's had on that first one.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I really like what you have done with those two images John. Great work and a challenge for me - and others! - to do a little more experimenting.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Fantastic results from that John. I might have a look at that myself.

    ReplyDelete
  6. There have been some great sunsets recently. I took some pictures last week where the sun set over the ocean. There is supposed to be some sort of blue flash when it dips beneath the horizon, but I didn't see it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Gorgeous! I can see that beautiful sunsets are something we share, but unfortunately I wasn't able to capture the brilliance of the fiery red sun on camera...however, it was beautiful to see.

    I loved your little froglet on the previous post, and I'll glad he was saved from croaking ;)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Really superb sunsets, I can never get enough of seeing some really good Sunset photos.

    Well done John.

    John

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you Paul. It is always hard to try to reproduce sunsets / rises.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thank you Mick. I am usually disappointed with the way cameras, film or digital, capture orange and red in the sky so I thought I would give it a helping hand. Landscapes, seascapes and skyscapes sometimes seem to benefit from a little tweak.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thank you Keith. For $16 it looks a good investment to me. I still marvel at the way this piece of software can selectively change the contrast levels.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hello Matron. There have been very few colourful sunsets here this year - very disappointing as they are always a challenge to reproduce.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Far too few here Glo. This year anyway. So often clouds coming across the country from the Atlantic reach us around sunset time. Yes, so often photographs end up washed out and the colours end up very pale.

    I'm wondering if it was the same little frog I saw a while ago. It would be nice to know that several of the tadpoles made it to froglet stage.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Lovely images John.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thank you John. Don't seem to have had many nice sunsets here so far this year.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

Related Posts with Thumbnails