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Featured Photographs from the Book

"Eternal Curve" by Yiming Hu
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Equipment: Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 16-35mm F2.8 II L @ 28mm, RRS L-plate, Gitzo 3541 Tripod, Markins M-20 Ballhead, RAW files.

Context: I visited Lower Antelope Canyon during a family vacation last Christmas. Although this was my first visit, I had already seen too many images from this location and I determined to create my unique version.

The Picture: I received a "photographer's pass," which meant that I could wander around the place by myself for up to two hours, without the need of joining a guided tour with other tourists. I explored different locations and angles until I saw an opening on the top of canyon showing blue sky. The opening looks like a window and the surrounding curves and colors are simply gorgeous. I knew that I'd found my shot. I setup my tripod and carefully composed the image. There were some technique challenges here, though. The brightness difference between the inside and outside of the canyon is extreme. While our human eyes can see details on the sky and inside the canyon at the same time, the contrast far exceeds the capability of most cameras. We landscape photographers have to deal with such problems all the time, for example, the bright sky and dark ground during sunrise or sunset. Normally we use our trusted Graduated Neutral Density (GND) filters to control the contrast. However in this situation the shape of the "window" is irregular so a GND is useless. I decided to use another commonly used method, exposure blending, which is popular among digital shooters. I waited until I saw some thin clouds on the sky, since they added lots of interests to the otherwise plain blue sky. I then made two consecutive exposures. The camera was set to manual mode. The first exposure was taken at ISO 100, F11, 1/50 second. The sky was properly exposed, but the rocks were severely underexposed. The second exposure was taken at ISO 100, F11, 0.5 second. Now the canyon walls were beautifully rendered, but the sky was completely blown out.

Processing: The two RAW files were opened in Adobe Lightroom and converted to two TIFF files. In Photoshop, the two TIFF files are copied into two layers of a single file. The bottom layer contains the first exposure and the top layer contains the second exposure. I then carefully selected the sky of the top layer exposure, deleted the overexposed sky so the properly exposed sky on the bottom layer showed through, and merged the two layers.

Biography: Yiming Hu is an award-winning photographer specializing in fine art landscape photography and travel photography. His work has been frequently featured in many magazines and other publications such as National Geographic Traveler China, and has been used by companies such as Apple Inc. You can find more about him at his online galleries.

"Life After Death" by Nicolas Marino
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Equipment: Nikon D700, Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8. Exposure: 25", Aperture: f/2.8, Focal Length 14 mm, ISO 1600 . Super light Manfrotto traveling tripod (carbon fiber), cheapo remote trigger.

Context: This photo was taken at the shore of Kyering Tso, a remote crystal clear blue lake on the Tibetan plateau. At the time of shooting, the temperature had plummeted to -12C (10F). It took a massive amount of effort to reach this lake by bicycle. There is no public transportation to reach these far lands, as the roads are completely shattered and they only lead to even more remote regions. Only masochist cyclists, Tibetans on cheap Chinese motorcycles, and very few people with a strong sense of adventure riding SUV's reach this place.

The Picture: There were several challenges technical, compositional and subjective. The technical had to do with the freezing cold and the darkness, the compositional with the huge size of the lake, and the subjective with how extremely tired and cold I was after having cycled an incredibly extreme journey to get there. (By that day I had cycled almost 1200km).

Even though you see a lot of clarity due to the long exposure, it was extremely dark and I was operating everything with my head lamp. The darkness made composing very difficult. The size of the lake was so big that it was not easy to find the right place to lead the eyes into a harmonic composition. After walking the shore I found a place where the shore took a turn and that would be the compositional line that would lead the eyes IN. While walking down the shore I found a dead yak's skull, picked it up, and dragged it over to make it my main subject. The whole scenario became extremely poetic. I was in Tibet where reincarnation is the main belief, I had that massive storm retreating (death had left) and the stars together with the moon would shine (life is back), the skull, the idea of life, death, reincarnation are left to the viewers' imagination.

The technicals. 25" shutter speed allowed for a lot of light to go in the sensor so the ISO can be as low as possible. An aperture of f2.8 was also a must. And the trick to preserving maximum sharpness was to set the camera to manual and focus on infinity.

Processing: In LR I adjusted the WB, the camera had picked up a lot of the yellow of the moon and this was not conveying the coldness of the night. The rest of the editing was within Nik Viveza in Photoshop CS5.

Viveza allowed me to control contrast, brightness, structure and saturation. After globally adjusting contrast and brightness, I selectively added structure to all of the sky; this made the stars pop-up even more. The bottom of the clouds and the space between the clouds and lake has a bit of dodge and burning to accentuate the storm.

Biography: I am a 33-year-old architect and travel the world by bicycle. I am interested in reaching the most remote regions of the world, and photography comes into my life as a result of a desire to portray what I see, for myself, for the people I love, and for whoever is interested in learning about life in places so radically different from ours.

"The Moment of Deliverance"
by Arash Ashkar
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Equipment/Settings:
Camera Model: Canon EOS 60D
Lens: Canon EF: 17-40mm L USM
Aperture Value: 13.0
ISO: 500
Shutter Speed: 0.4
Tripod

Context: This photo was taken in the Vakil Mosque in Shiraz, Iran. The overall area it covers is 5 thousand square kilometers, and it has 48 repetitive columns. This building is one of the most astonishing architectural structures from the Zandid era. From a long time ago, in Iran, religious women often wore the chador (veil) which is usually black or white, before entering the mosque, and sometimes they wore chadors both colorful, and beautiful.

The Picture: I moved towards the mosque on a rainy day. It is located in a busy traditional area of the city of Shiraz. Arriving there, I started looking for a suitable place for presenting what I had in mind. Since this is a tourist center and local people also go there for prayer, I had to wait about an hour so it would be empty enough. After all the people were gone; this lady just stood over there all alone making this stunning situation for me to take this photo. Having had my equipment ready, the moment just came when the sunlight started shining through the clouds, and I just took my picture of the girl in veil who was praying there.

Processing: I always try to be careful about camera setting before taking photos; thus, I usually take raw pictures. Since, my camera is not full frame and I could not have the whole building in my frame with a 17-40mm lens, I had to take a panorama picture, which is why this attractive photo actually is made up of 3 pics. After taking them by tripod (because of the panorama), I turned the photos into one image using PTGUi. Then I entered this photo into Photoshop CS5, making very minute changes in contrast, light settings, and sharpness. After that, I used Nik Software Silver EFEX Pro in order to reach my favorite result, making it black and white.

Outcome: The Presence of that woman in Chador, the half cloudy sky, the stunning light, and the repetitive columns, all of these made a wonderful day for me, making me even much more interested in taking these kinds of photos.

Hints:

1. Always have a tripod if you're going to take a photo of ancient ruins.
2. Be careful in your camera setting (Diaph, ISO, Shutter Speed)
3. Try to complete your ideas before presentation

Biography: I am Arash Ashkar. Born 23 years ago in the capital city of art and culture; Shiraz. I started photography when I was 17, and I have pursued it professionally since I was 19, and I'm truly excited about this kind of art; trying to look for a different outlook. I do suppose I am still a beginner.