Seal Rock At Low Tide

This image was taken at Seal Rock. Seal Rock can be found about half way between Yachats and Newport. The best time, I think, to go to Seal Rock is at very low tides. Minus tides are the hard to beat. If you are going to go out exploring and photographing the tidal pools please remember a few things. Wear shoes or boots with non slip soles. Some of the growth on the rocks is very slick. Please watch where you walk. When the tide is out this far you are walking on things that are alive. It can be plant or animal but the odds are it is alive. Try not to kill it. Take a tripod, a CP filter and shoot low. I suggest both a wide lense and one for close work. It is an interesting place to play with macro photography. You can probably tell I didn’t use the CP filter in this shot. I probably did have it on the camera but spun it around so I would get blue from the sky in the pools.

This image had some pretty dark areas in it along with some that were pretty bright so I figured it might be a good candidate for a little HDR play.

First I opened the image in Lightroom and did a few adjustments like white balance and just a few minor lighting adjustments. From there I made two virtual copies of the image. One of the copies I set at +2 on the exposure. The  second I set at -2. From there I exported all three images into Photomatix. Once there I could really tweak away on color and exposure. When I got the image to where i liked it I exported it out of Photomatix and back into Lightroom. From there I could do some cropping, do just a bit of straightening on the horizon and make a few light color adjustments and add a little more sharpening. From there it is one more export to Photoshop elements. From there I can do my final re size, sharpen and add the drop shadow mat.

I will grant you that you get better results using 3 or 5 separate images. If this rain ever breaks I will get the chance to get out and work with that.

Have a great week. I’m off to get some of that work done that pays the bills.