BBC News: Young Landscape Photographer of the Year: Cornwall teenager 'shocked' by win

GaryLaird

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Looking at the BBC news site and saw this report. Amazing shot but just how was this done? It's clearly an HDR which is confirmed in the article but how on earth could the jumping rider be shot in HDR? If it's been stitched in to a landscape background then it's a fantastic job!


BBC News - Young Landscape Photographer of the Year: Cornwall teenager 'shocked' by win
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-45843682
 
Josef reveals he used an "exposure blend" to achieve the perfect finish. It involved taking an "extremely light picture" and a darker more detailed second image and mixing the two.
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Presumably he took one photo with the rider in and another of just the background and blended ... all sorts of adjustments could have been made on either or both of the original images and the final output image.
 
GaryLaird said:
Looking at the BBC news site and saw this report. Amazing shot but just how was this done? It's clearly an HDR which is confirmed in the article but how on earth could the jumping rider be shot in HDR? If it's been stitched in to a landscape background then it's a fantastic job!

BBC News - Young Landscape Photographer of the Year: Cornwall teenager 'shocked' by win
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-45843682
Click to expand...

He has some great photographs in that article but I wouldn't call the winner a landscape by any stretch of the imagination. I don't know enough about digital techniques to be able to tell if it was a composite.
 
Took 2 of the scene, only one inc the rider I'd guess, then a lot of pushing and pulling in post, can see it easily possible. Obviously the rules were pretty laid back on processing, a lot of bigger comps don't allow any blending/merging or even basic cloning - I remember one image in a major competition years back being disqualified because after the winner handed in the original RAW file, they discovered he had cloned out a piece of rubbish on the beach!
 
Right so one 'frame' which included the bike rider and exposed for the bike rider, super overexposing the background then maybe one or more 'frames' of the landscape all HDR'd together to create the final image! Clever stuff and a great shot but agree it's never a landscape.
 
There are ways to make an HDR like image from one raw file provided there are recoverable shadows and highlights to manipulate towards the end processing.

Another way to include the rider would be take the usual 3 or 5 set HDR images but with carefull choice of shutter speed that the one desired frame has the rider in it.

Whichever way he used it does require some degree of both camera craft and PP skills i.e. not a canned process.
 
Box Brownie said:
There are ways to make an HDR like image from one raw file provided there are recoverable shadows and highlights to manipulate towards the end processing.

Another way to include the rider would be take the usual 3 or 5 set HDR images but with carefull choice of shutter speed that the one desired frame has the rider in it.

Whichever way he used it does require some degree of both camera craft and PP skills i.e. not a canned process.
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The sunstars don't seem 'right'. There's a distinct lack of symmetry. Similarly, there's an awkward transition from a wide band to two finer bands. One even seems to appear from nowhere (starting at the biker's leg and protruding to his backpack). There's a lot more post-processing going on in this image than is suggested. I'd go as far as to speculate that the bike rider wasn't even in the original image. The sun's effect on the rear tyre is just completely wrong. The tyre near 7/8 o'clock should be in silhouette. It's not.

I'd love to be proven wrong but I suspect shenanigans.
 
It clearly fits the BBC's criteria for a landscape.
So well done him.

But I still don't know how he did it. I think we would need a little more information.
Perhaps the writer of the article did not catch what he meant?
I could understand it as a fusion of two processings, one dark and one light, from a single raw image.
which would be easy in Tufuse or the like.
 
Terrywoodenpic said:
I could understand it as a fusion of two processings, one dark and one light, from a single raw image.
which would be easy in Tufuse or the like.
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Why not two images blended as the write-up reports him to have said?
Josef reveals he used an "exposure blend" to achieve the perfect finish. It involved taking an "extremely light picture" and a darker more detailed second image and mixing the two.
Click to expand...
 
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You can take a single image. Save a Jpg.
You then move the exposure within PS to +1 and save.
You then move the exposure to +2 and save.
Rinse and repeat until -3 and +3 range of 7 images saved.

You can then merge and create an HDR image.

The camera must have the image taken as perfectly exposed as possible with the image as flat as possible in order to be able to rescue highlights and shadows but it is possible from a single image to cheat an HDR effect.
 
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gramps said:
Why not two images blended as the write-up reports him to have said?
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because he said he used an "Exposure" blend not an "!image" blend. it would not be possible to take to images fast enough to just blend the exposure.
However he could have taken two individual images, one of the background, one of which included the bike and rider, and the other without. but that is not what it looks like.
though as the blacks are degraded it is hard to say what he did.
 
jerry12953 said:
It is a great looking image, and whatever shenanigans..... er....processing was involved, I'm amazed that a 18-year old would be capable of it........... maybe his dad helped.......:bat:
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That is a very ageist remark.......
When it come to technology the young are often the "Masters"
 
Terrywoodenpic said:
he could have taken two individual images, one of the background, one of which included the bike and rider, and the other without. but that is not what it looks like.
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That's my take ... bearing in mind what would be possible with a moving bike and his description of taking 'a light image and then a darker image'.
However it's not just that, there has definitiely been some manipulation as well.
 
Thing is though, to get a good sharp shot of the guy jumping on the bike is going to need a fast shutter speed (or flash) and with any strong back light light or rather the rider in shadow it would seem an impossible small aperture would be required if taken at the depicted time of day. Maybe flash/strobes were used to get the rider frozen.

Or.....maybe images taken hours apart, with camera in exactly the same position. The rider shot taken with the sun to the front of the rider then further HDR images taken once the sun was setting.

Mmmm a real puzzle.
 
Sorry meant 'impossibly large aperture' in my post above!
 
LojikDub said:
Hmm it's an interesting shot but definitely not a landscape in my opinion. The subject is the bike rider not the landscape - it's more of a sports action shot.
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:agree:
 
jerry12953 said:
Yes, I agree but did you notice that his father is a professional photographer?
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No.... I read that he was a "photographer" I have no Idea if he is a professional or how technically involved he is. In any event I would not expect him to "Help" with his sons Competition work, even if he could.
 
I wonder if this could also be done using a powerful flash? Because the shutter speed would be so high for exposing the landscape you wouldn't get any ghosting from the movement of the rider as the flash exposes him. Kind of the opposite of club photography when you are also using the flash to expose the subject and not the camera which is exposing for the ambient.
 
gman said:
I wonder if this could also be done using a powerful flash? Because the shutter speed would be so high for exposing the landscape you wouldn't get any ghosting from the movement of the rider as the flash exposes him. Kind of the opposite of club photography when you are also using the flash to expose the subject and not the camera which is exposing for the ambient.
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Absolutely. A high speed sync portable studio flash like profoto B1 or any of the clones would do just that. It would be a much preferable outcome than shooting with that horrid flare and out of focus foreground.
 
LongLensPhotography said:
Absolutely. A high speed sync portable studio flash like profoto B1 or any of the clones would do just that. It would be a much preferable outcome than shooting with that horrid flare and out of focus foreground.
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It would also destroy that lovely glancing back light modeling and texture.
 
Terrywoodenpic said:
It would also destroy that lovely glancing back light modeling and texture.
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It doesn't have to destroy anything You can place lights anywhere you like - maybe ideally not within the frame - and select any brightness you like. If you fancy only go for a little fill, and certainly not from camera's direction.
 
I should guess that the rider was in the over-exposed shot, and a second more normally exposed shot was used to provide detail in the brighter areas when they were 'blended together'.

As for his dad helping, unless his dad does all his processing then I'd suggest he has post processing chops that exceed those of the majority of TP users. Did anyone scroll down through the rest of his images?
 
Faldrax said:
Yes, and personally I preferred the others, they certainly fit the description of 'landscape' better (OK, perhaps the macro of the fly should be excluded from the landscape list...:D)
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The best one is the vertical seascape with red sky. Almost flawless other than blown out horizon strip. Its better than LPOTY winner in any case :)
 
jerry12953 said:
Yes, I agree but did you notice that his father is a professional photographer?
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He might have learned it from his old man - but like you I suspect the pro has helped his son. I don't have kids but if I had and one of them showed an interest in photography then sure, I would be helping them etc.

Young ones are good on the computers, I have to say, processing is my least favourite part of photography - I like to spend as little as possible time on processing but do as much as neccessary to get mine to where I want them to be. I much rather be out shooting, doing workshops, blah blah.
 
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