The month of August is looking pretty busy for me! Unfortunately, I will have no acces to my camera for the few weeks and very limited computer access. Horrible isn’t it? I am going to use this opportunity to try something new on EverydayHDR. I am going to do a series of posts that will showcase some of my favorite photos and techniques. Have no fear, each post will contain helpful tidbits to get you through your photographic endeavors.
So to kick this thing off, I am going to start with my absolute favorite photograph, the infamous Bixby Canyon Bridge near Big Sur California. If you have a keen eye and can put two and two together, you will notice this is also the headlining photograph in the EverydayHDR banner. I photographed this bridge from this spot several times when I lived in the Bay Area, but I never took a shot of it quite like this one. Quite honestly I could never capture it properly without the HDR process. There is a ton of information in the foreground, middleground and background as you stand in this location. A single exposure could never do this landscape justice.
My only regret is that I was not shooting RAW at the time. I was stuck in the, “Oh I dont need RAW” mindset, that was before I discovered Adobe Camera Raw and its true power. Unfortunately I will not be able to make it back to this spot to re-shoot it for quite sometime, if ever agains.
Photo Tip:
While you may be in the mindset to reject RAW due to its complicated and space cumbersome nature, I implore you to give it a shot. Raw will uncover a whole new territory in image editing as it retains so much valuable information. It may take up more room on your hard drive, SD cards, and compact flash but it is well worth it! I would give anything to go back to that spot, on that exact day with my camera set to capture RAW instead of Jpeg.
For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!
I know the feeling well. I have a ton of jpegs shot at the Badlands, Rocky Mountains, and a bunch of other really awesome places. When I (now) know what I can recover just from a single RAW file and I look at all of those jpegs. Such missed opportunities…
Yes, it is a shame, but all is not lost. At least you have something from the location, that is how I look at it. It does still make some wonderful prints even as a JPEG.
Dude – come back. We miss you !
I wish my friend… I wish it were that easy!