WIRR 2019, September Week 3

Last autumn I found myself on a business trip to Portland, Maine. I had never spent much time there before, and I found it vibrant and fun. One evening, my college friend Paula drove down from Lewiston to meet me for a photo walk and dinner. She took me to Portland Head Lighthouse just outside of town. I ventured out onto wet rocks on the shoreline and noticed a small tide pool. The slimy rocks were quite slippery, but I managed to maneuver myself into position so that the lighthouse was visible in the reflection. This became my favorite image of the week.

Lighthouse Reflection

Fujifilm X-T2, Fujinon XF 18-55 f/2.8-4 R LM OIS at 18mm, f/7.1 at 1/60, 1/55, 1/220, ISO 400.

Digital Darkroom. As you may have gleaned from the shutter speeds listed above, this is an HDR image. I started by combining the three images using Photomatix Pro. The algorithms of that software weren’t quite smart enough, and I was left with a lighthouse reflection that was brighter than the lighthouse itself. That looked just a little bit unnatural since that’s not the way physics works. I used a graduated filter to brighten the top part of the image and restore natural law. I gave the afternoon light some additional warmth by boosting temperature by +8. I finished it up with some tweaks to contrast, highlights, clarity and saturation.

WIRR stands for Weekly Image Rich Ruh. This regular feature on Das Has von Ruh will show and describe my favorite photo created during this weekly period. My weeks start on Mondays, as does the WIRR. I’m hoping to include commentary on the story, the setting, the specs, or the sentiments, depending on the circumstances.