Hey Licensee Patrons!

I made this photo this morning from the pedestrian bridge that connects Lafayette to West Lafayette over the Wabash River.

It was pretty much a mad dash to make this happen. I woke up (without an alarm) around 7:15, saw that the sky was on fire (almost literally), grabbed my camera bag and high-tailed it out the door!

HDR

This photo was made similarly to the Wawona “Tunnel” View photo I posted recently.

I used a High Dynamic Range (HDR) technique.

Within the menu system, I found “HDR Mode”…

and selected the +/- 3 EV (exposure value) option.

This tells the camera to take 3 photos (total) at:

• -3 EV (very under-exposed, or dark)
• 0 EV (middle-of-the-road/what the camera thinks is perfect)
• +3 EV (very over-exposed, or bright)

and I made sure my global exposure comp or “Meter” was set to “0” (or, what the camera thinks is a ‘middle-of-the-road’ exposure)

To my understanding, this keeps the camera at those -3, 0, +3 values. If I set my exposure comp/meter to -1, are those values -4, -1, 2?  It could be overkill, but it’s an easy step to complete so I just leave it alone – haha!!

Once I had my camera setup. I made sure I had IS (image stabilization) turned on. (I didn’t bring a tripod with me)

Camera: Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM

Camera Settings:

Horizontal photo: Aperture Priority (Av) | 130mm | f/3.2 | ISO 200 | (+/-) 3 EV HDR

Vertical photo: Aperture Priority (Av) | 180mm | f/2.8 | ISO 200 | (+/-) 3 EV HDR

I normally would shoot at a higher aperture (f/8 or so) and lower shutter speed for landscape work like this, but without a tripod I needed a higher shutter speed – so I had to compromise.

After importing into Lightroom, selecting the matching 3 exposures, I use the “Merge to HDR” feature.

I made sure to select the “Align” option because I was not using a tripod and the minor movements I make in the time between the 3 photos (even though I try to be as still as possible) make the HDR blurry if you don’t select this option.

A few highlight/shadow adjustments, and voila:

Vertical photo: Aperture Priority (Av) | 180mm | f/2.8 | ISO 200 | (+/-) 3 EV HDR

Download

(By downloading this photo, you are agreeing not use them for any type of commercial purpose, only personal purpose – desktop wallpaper, etc)

Horizontal photo: Aperture Priority (Av) | 130mm | f/3.2 | ISO 200 | (+/-) 3 EV HDR

Download

(By downloading this photo, you are agreeing not use them for any type of commercial purpose, only personal purpose – desktop wallpaper, etc)