I went hiking in southern France

Lyrt · Post by **Lyrt** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 5:30 am

This week I went hiking with friends in one of the few places in southern France where you can still get lost and flee society.

First we went to a place where nature takes back. It may not be obvious, but in some photographs the trees literally grow on rocks.

Here I was waiting for some elves or unicorns to show up.

Then we went to a very, very small village nearby:

Finally, yesterday, we went visiting the ruins of an old castle. The atheist I am may now believe God exists. I also got fed up with hdr and did not use it for the following series of photographs:

The same with washed-out colours:

Trumperman · Post by **Trumperman** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 7:49 am

Yukio,

Your well composed pictures never cease to amaze me. You have a natural talent that is brilliant.

Thanks for sharing as usual. I know many of us have a real appreciation for your photographic expertise.

Regards,

Bill

JimR · Post by **JimR** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 8:12 am

Words fail me...
I've only been to Southern France once. It is truly one of the most stunning places I've seen, and your pictures only make it more so.

Lyrt · Post by **Lyrt** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 5:01 pm

Thank you guys. I appreciate your appreciating them (though I’m personally more partial to Northern France). The following ones don’t bring much to what I’ve already posted, but oh well:

GregPQ · Post by **GregPQ** » Sun Nov 23, 2008 8:49 pm

Yukio, these pictures are incredible. Your HDR shots are so beautiful they hurt. I like your non-HDR ones in this series. It looks like you made good use of a polarizer filter.

Would you mind describing what camera and lenses you used?

Greg

fallingwickets · Post by **fallingwickets** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 6:55 am

As always, excellent

Clive

Lyrt · Post by **Lyrt** » Mon Nov 24, 2008 9:00 am

Clive, thank you.

Greg, I did not use any polariser filter, though I would have liked to have one to get clearer reflections on the water. As for the camera and the lenses, I used a Nikon D300, an ultra-wide-angle Sigma 10-20mm and my tripod.

Post by **ichabod** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 9:44 am

Definitely a Pan's Labyrinth feel to the first shots.

Lovely photography, comme d'habitude.

2clfrwrds · Post by **2clfrwrds** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:32 pm

By coincidence, my wife asked me last week to show her any new posts from "that guy on the shave forum who makes those pictures, you know..." I knew just who she meant. She'll be delighted to see these tonight.

--Glenn

Chaps · Post by **Chaps** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 10:04 pm

Yukio------Thank you!

Danny

Gatorade · Post by **Gatorade** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 9:59 am

I can't wait for your coffee table book to come out! Actually I would love it if you could post both the raw pic along with the finished one. I don't remember if it was your picture a while back that was something along the lines of a breakfast or lunch that had bread, cheese, jam and some utensils on a table. The contrast between the HDR and the untouched version was amazing.

Thanks a bunch for posting your pics here.

Lyrt · Post by **Lyrt** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 11:08 am

Dominic, Glenn, Danny, thank you very much.

Charlie, I think you’re speaking of that very old pic. Here’s one of the three exposures I used for the HDR image.

And here’s the HDR I made.

Here’s another example:

And the HDR:

Regards,

Amann · Post by **Amann** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 1:35 pm

fantastic stuff.........I love the hdr stuff....I really gotta learn that technique........is it tough to do?

jww · Post by **jww** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 4:32 pm

Amann wrote:fantastic stuff.........I love the hdr stuff....I really gotta learn that technique........is it tough to do?

+1

While I find that it can be a bit over-the-top sometimes, it is a technique that I'd like to learn as well. Might even give me a reason to replace my aging Canon G3 with a DSLR.....

Gatorade · Post by **Gatorade** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 8:56 am

Yukio, that was exactly the picture I was talking about. The HDR one initially made me think it was some kind of other worldly picnic. Like if the Hobbits and such from Lord of the Rings were to have a picnic. Then when you see the raw pic you realize it is a simple picture with nothing out of the ordinary. I mean the composition is great, well balanced normal color and nothing that wouldn't be found in my kitchen as well, but the HDR version really has a pop to it that almost makes it come alive. I half expected the marmalade in the HDR version to move or squirm. I think you mentioned it in the previous tread but is HDR in Photoshop?

Post by **ichabod** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 10:27 am

I just read the Wikipedia entry on HDR, and now I can tell you it's something to do with cameras.

The HDR images knock my socks off, however, I'm so not a photographer I can barely remember to take one photo of something. The hassle of aking three at once at different exposures makes me appreciate Yukio's photos all the more.

jww · Post by **jww** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 11:36 am

ichabod wrote:... The hassle of taking three at once at different exposures makes me appreciate ...

Nice thing about today's DSLRs (and one or two "prosumer" digi-cams) is that some have the added ability of auto-bracketing one single shot so you only actually depress the shutter once to get the three shots.

Lyrt · Post by **Lyrt** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 6:47 am

Amann, Charlie, you can generate HDR files with Photoshop or programs such as Photomatix, but the most important tool is a tonemapper. Photomatix comes with a tonemapper while Photoshop requires you to buy a plugin, which happened to be that of Photomatix (actually, I'm sure there are free plugins around the web).

Wendell, today’s DSLR indeed offer bracketing controls, but you still have to press the shutter button as many times as the number of exposures you want. Or you can use the burst mode and keep the shutter pressed the whole time. Or you can do just like me and use a remote control.

Post by **ichabod** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 4:54 pm

I use a proxy photographer. His name is Yukio...

Blue As A Jewel · Post by **Blue As A Jewel** » Thu Jan 29, 2009 6:43 pm

Amazing work as usual - please keep them coming