Tag: HDR Pro

Evanescent — Morning Fog in the Santa Cruz Mountains

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Morning fog breaking up, Looking South, Monte Bello Preserve, Palo Alto, 2017

Evanescent— The Sun is breaking through the high fog over the mountains to highlight the hill tops. “Evanescent” is not a word I use often, if ever, but this is the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge where unusual words are used to try to inspire us bloggers to pull out unusual photos from our catalog.

This photo was taken at the Monte Bello Open Space Preserve as the Sun started breaking through the morning clouds. I processed the photo in Develop Module of Lightroom CC, and finished with the Google Nik Collection HDR Efex 4. The high contrast interpretation of the view seems to fit the moment.

After taking the shot above, I turned northward and noticed that the fog was disappearing, which created another evanescent moment. Wow, two in one day!

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Fog burning off, Monte Bello Preserve, Palo Alto, 2017

This photo was processed in the Lightroom CC Develop module (colors adjusted with the HSL Tab). Please click on the images to bring up a higher resolution view.

Cheers, Carto

The Weekly Photo Challenge is sponsored by WordPress. The entries can be perused, here.

Windy Hill — Fall, 2016

These photos were taken at Windy Hill Open Space Preserve near the trail head in the parking lot off Portola Road. All photos taken with a Sigma DP2 Quattro, and processed with Lightroom, Photoshop and HDR Pro (click image to start slideshow and show camera settings).

In the Woods — Betsy Crowder Trail
Start Here — Windy Hill Parking Lot on Portola Road
Fence and Trail — Betsy Crowder Trail
The Big Oak — Betsy Crowder Trail
Trail Head at Windyhill Preserve, Portola Valley, CA, 2016

Misty Day at Windy Hill Preserve

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Trail Head at Windyhill Preserve, Portola Valley, CA, 2016

Windy Hill Preserve is a great place to walk and photograph— this shot was taken in late Fall at the first rise on the trail from the parking lot off Portola Road.

On this misty day, the trail is damp and there are occasional puddles. The light is subdued by cloud cover. I used a tripod to steady my Sigma DP2 Quattro, and set a high f-stop to get a wide depth of field. Three shots were taken; bracketing exposure +1 and -1 ev. The photos were uploaded to Lightroom CC and then processed in HDR Pro (Photo/Edit In/Merge to HDR Pro in Photoshop). The untouched result from HDR Pro was returned to Lightroom, Developed in the Basic Panel, and sharpened before exporting as a web sized file for this blog.

Cheers, Carto