Possibilities

Technically it’s Spring in New Zealand with the weather all over the place; one day it’s almost summer, the next it’s blowing a gale and freezing.

We were lulled into false optimism and recently took off on our boat for a 10 day cruise in Marlborough Sounds. Only two days were civil enough to sit briefly in the cockpit with the rest of the time on anchor and hunkered down in the cabin reading books, while the boat was driven from one direction to another in gusts.

Like the trip, the photography was challenging with few obviously good scenes. The ones with the most promise had to be exposed carefully to record the digital highlights and not block up the shadows. Only a few photos like the sunsets were straightforward and the rest had to be processed with a lot more thought and patience. The strength of digital pixel images is that they can contain a lot of information that is not immediately obvious but can be coaxed into life with good editing software.

Initial editing is in Adobe Lightroom for basic global adjustments; however, a lot of processing is in Photoshop to balance light in specific areas of the scene using selections and masks. A powerful addition to PS selection tools is Tony Kuyper’s “TK 7 Panel” plug-in for selections based on luminance (brightness) and color hue and saturation. This allows for highly effective pixel-based masks for adjusting an image (www.goodlight.us).

This trip was a reminder that if you think a scene is less than ideal but may contain enough digital data to make an effective photo, then give it a try with careful exposure and processing; the results can be surprising.

PS   The Kaikoura Range photo was from the trip home, not Marlborough Sounds: Spring in NZ.