I just returned from a 2-week long driving trip to the Southwest.
I started the trip in Phoenix and after driving through Arizona, Utah, Nevada and California, I completed the journey in Los Angeles.
This time, I set a personal record by covering a distance of 5200 km (3200 miles).
I did a similar trip 2 years ago but what made this year trip different was my goal to visit less popular destinations.
If I had to choose a single image that the best represents my latest trip, it would be the photo I took in Valley of the Gods in Utah. The main reason for choosing this photo was the extensive dirt road driving I did during the trip. When I was returning the rental car at LA airport it was covered with the layers of the dust of different colors from various dirt roads of the Southwest.
I took a total of 5700 photos. But, since most of them were bracketed shots it approximately represents 2000 of unique captures.
Loc: 37.274765, -109.806056
Shooting
Valley of the God road is a 30km dirt road that becomes unpassable when it is raining. I entered the road about 90min before the sunset and completed the ride when it was already dark. During the 2 hour drive, I probably stopped 20 times and took a bunch of shots from the side of the road.
I strategically kept the tripod unfolded to save time. All I had to do is to stop the car, open the hatch and grab the tripod with the camera, ready to drive to the next spot only a few minutes later.
Camera:Â Sony a6000
Lens:Â Sony-16-70
Focal Length:Â 16mm
Shooting Mode: Aperture Priority (A)
ISO:Â 100
Aperture:Â F10
Shutter: 1/80s
Bracketing: 3 (-1, 0, 1)
Tripod: FEISOL Tournament CT-3442
Ballhead:Â FEISOLÂ CB-40D
Processing
It was a single RAW file editing.
I used Point Lobos preset from my Landscape Collection as the base for Lightroom Rapid Editing. Then I used TOOLKIT to boost colors and contrast.
The Lightroom Preset Editing Formula: Point Lobos(1, 9, 16, 20, 34)
Photoshop: color correction, contrast, cleaning.
Photoshop Plugins:
- Topaz DeNoise was used to reduce digital noise (sky).
- Topaz Clarity was used to enhance details and boost colors (foreground, mountains).
Really nice shot – great detail in the grass and the rock formation
Nice shot, bracketing captured all the detail really well 🙂
Wow 2000 unique captures though, that’s quite a lot. I like your methods for sorting and post editing pics but how long does it take to go through that many pics and roughly how many do you keep, delete and actually end up editing? Thanks.
Luke,
the process of selecting the best photos goes fairly quickly when you have the system in place. Normally, I dedicate the entire day after returning from the trip for photo selection. This time the volume of photos is high and I do not have much time so I sort photos day by day of my trip. At this point I went trough 4 days out of 12.
If out of 2000 I get 100 decent shots I can post on my blog and 10-12 portfolio pieces it will be a success.
Nice photo, with good tones and details. Looks like a very natural ‘HDR’. Is it fair to say that if your camera’s histogram shows no clipping, then extra bracketed shots are not necessary? (But I do recall another article of yours about the advantages of bracketing even when there’s no need to–something about reduced noise.)