This week I am sharing a photo that has been a long time favorite for me. This photo was shot in Whatipu which is a secluded beach in Auckland.
I love this photo because of the challenging situations it was taken in. I was on top of a sand dune, shooting directly towards a setting sun. As most of you will know, shooting directly into the sun is not easy at all.
Initially I tried to use the graduated ND filters to block out the sun but that did not work – I simply did not have enough filters with me to be able to block out as much sun as I wanted. One option I tried was stacking of the filters to get a strong darkening effect on the sun but that resulted in vignetting.
So I decided to utilise the power of HDR. My 7D has custom modes which I have programmed to allow me to shoot for HDR. One custom mode allows me to shoot at -2, 0, +2 and the other custom mode allows me to shoot at -1, 0, +1. So with click of the shutter twice I end up 5 shots taken at +2, +1, 0, -1, -2. It’s a nifty feature.
In post processing I combined the exposure from 5 shots to come up with the final result. I wanted to keep the HDR effect subtle and I think I’ve managed to achieve that.
As an artist, HDR is a wonderful tool to have in the tool chest. But just remember that it is just one of the tools.
