DPC | Digital Photography Courses

Clarens is one of the most scenic towns in our beautiful country. Recently we had a wedding there. Unfortunately I was on a tight schedule and had to drive back the following morning.

I didn’t want to let the opportunity slip completely and decided to stand up early and pass through the Golden Gate National Park on our way back. We got to bed in the morning hours (great wedding!) yet still rose up early in an attempt  to get soft light. Sunrise and sunset shots are the way all landscape photographers roll! It was bitterly cold and misty so we missed out on any sunrise shots.

Armed with my camera (obviously), the Canon EF-S 10-22 mm lens with a skylight filter and my Slik Pro DX500 tripod, I made about three stops at the roadside; and within 30 minutes I took about 20 decent photographs. It was literally a “hit and run” and I would definitely stay longer next time to make most of the awesome scenery.

Camera Settings & Post Processing…

I set the auto bracketing to 2-3 stops as to take 3 exposures of each scene. The first shot would be correctly exposed, the second would be underexposed at minus 2-3 EV and the third shot, overexposed at plus 2-3 EV. *

I later overlaid the images in Photomatix *  to create HDR (High Dynamic Range) images. As usual,when taking HDR photos, the camera was set to AV or Aperture Priority * and I used fairly small apertures (around F/11  to F/22). (Aperture priority is vital when taking HDR images to ensure that the depth of field for each photo would be the same for each exposure. Otherwise the images will not overlay perfectly)


Without a remote release I also set the camera’s drive mode to 2-second timer to and ensure that I wouldn’t record any camera movement when pressing the shutter button.

The metering mode was set to Multi-Pattern *  which is ideal for scenic shots.

ISO 100 * was set for low noise and best image quality.

For Post Processing; I used Photomatix’ Details Enhancer to overlay the images and create HDR Images. Thereupon, I opened the images in Photoshop for some basic tweaking, i.e. Noise Reduction as well as my two favourite landscape in Nik Color Effex Pro * (Tonal Contrast and Film Effects/Velvia 100) to enhance the shots.

Keep on checking out this Blog for more detailed walk-throughs on creating HDR images…

Here’s a few of the shots…

Key Notes

* To learn more about HDR photography, visit the Photomatix website, HERE

* At ISO 100, (the lowest ISO speed available on most cameras) the image quality will be best. Low ISO speeds, result in longer shutter speeds. When selecting low ISO speeds, you typically need bright , sunny conditions to hold the camera, otherwise, you will have to use a tripod to avoid blurry images.

* Multi-Pattern Meter Mode is the same as Evaluative or Matrix mode.

* Nik Color Effex is a Plugin for Photoshop. Visit their website HERE