Beauty Creek - Jasper

We had some spectacular skies on this night. Jay's photo from a few days ago is from the same location - but facing in the other direction. He was somewhere on the left in this image - hidden by trees at the edge of the lake. The sun was shining through clouds on the opposite horizon, and just for a few minutes, a golden band appeared on the mountain. So I was hopping back and forth from rock to rock - trying not to end up with the fishes.

I love the reflected light in the water - and those beautiful dark spots of flora at the bottom of the lake add a bit of interest in that corner of the image.

I shot at f/11 and 1/5 sec. I processed a single image three times to find the correct exposure for sky, mountain, and water. This took quite a while, since I couldn't decide on the correct white balance. Is it right? Heck - I've no idea. I usually try to memorize the colors so I can reproduce them later... but I guess my little brain was overwhelmed with color data (too many shots in just a few days!) In the end, I decided this looked as close to real as I could get it... and I combined the three images in Photoshop using our iHDR technique. I'd love to hear your comments on this one. :)

Q and A: How to handle color balance?

Jay and I get lots of emails from other photographers - and we try to respond to all of them (though that's not always easy... and it's getting harder every month). Today, I answered an interesting question - and I thought some of you might also be interested in the answer... so here it is.

S asked: "In several landscape photos - most of which are taken during sunrise and in coastal areas - I see that the foreground water has a cool blue tone, and the sunrise has a strong warm tone. When I try this for myself, I either get one of the cool or warm tones, or get a mix of both. How this blend of cool and warm tones is achieved?"

My response: In wide-angle nature photography, it is very common to have an image that requires different white balance in different regions. In order to handle situations like these, I shoot RAW and process a single images at least twice – once using warmer tones, and then again using cooler tones. I open both versions of the image in Photoshop, and use layers and masks to combine them - creating a final image that is as close to my visual reality as I can bring it.

In the real world, it is rare to find a scene with even light balance overall. Shady areas have a different light temperature than sunny areas, reflected light is different from diffused light, and so on. It is up to the photographer to determine the nearest reasonable color balance for the best possible result. I try to create a final image that is as close as possible to reality as I saw it. It’s not always easy – and my images aren’t always perfect – but I do try. :)

-Varina