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01/08/25 Fall Scene from the Buffalo Red Bluff Overlook

Posted on January 8, 2025 // Leave a Comment

One of the many great bluff/overlook locations on the Buffalo National River is Red Bluff. Actually there are at least two different Red Bluffs. One is this one which is below Gilbert the other below Woolum, closer to Hwy 65.

I tried to find this spot for several years, before locating it in 2022. The spot where you actually stand to take the picture is literally right above the drop off. If you prefer to not have the old twisted Cedar tree trunk in your image, you have to be pretty brave and get to where your feet are hanging off. It pays to remember that the slope behind you is actually about 45 degrees and all loose gravel, so I do not go any lower towards the edge.

I took this shot with an Hasselblad X2D, and 21mm lens, on a tripod, and shot the image in a 3 shot exposure bracket. I have found that the X2D is very selective on exposing highlights correctly and it’s very easy to blow out skies. You do have considerable shadow push at base ISO of 64 but even so if I can, I will always shoot a bracket. The image was worked up in Phocus and then tweaking in Photoshop. As much as I hate Phocus, I have repeatedly found that it give the best color to a X2D file. Lightroom just can’t get the same look for me.

When you arrive at this location, be aware that it’s not going to allow very many photographers to be standing around so you might try to get there as early as possible and not attempt to go there on a weekend. For example, from where I was standing off to the left of center, if another person decided to come down and get below me by the tree, then they would have been in all the shots I attempted to take. This would have made post processing very difficult.

Fall in 2024 for Arkansas was another terrible year. As you can see in the image most of the color is brown. There was some nice color up by the river in many places, but when you went looking for an overlook most of the trees showed up with brown. We were lucky to get an amazing sky on this morning and it added immensely to the overall look of the shot.

Filed Under: Arkansas Landscape Shooting Information, Featured Photography, Hasselblad // Tagged: , , , , , , ,

03/15/17 Fujifilm GFX 50S–An example of excellent Dynamic Range

Posted on March 15, 2017 //

The FujiFilm GFX 50S uses the same 50MP chip that has been used by several camera companies over the years.  Phase One uses this chip in the IQ150,250 and 350, and Pentax used it in their 645Z.  Recently Hasselblad used the chip in the 50c Medium Format back and the new X1D mirrorless camera.

In tests I had made with the Phase One IQ250 and IQ150, I saw that the Phase One implementation provided some excellent dynamic range in the ISO 100 to 800 range, but still seemed to be a bit noisy past this.  Especially when shadows were pushed.  I was hoping to see the same amount of push with the Fuji implementation in the GFX.  I was able to test this on a recent shoot at Calico Rock.  I worked as series of 5 part panos all hand held.  My goal was to only shoot 1 shot for each segment and not have to bracket the exposures since I was hand holding the camera.  The last segment on the far right was a classic shot where half of the image was in shadow and the other half in full shade.  I was metering more to protect my highlights, so the shadows were exposed very dark.  This can be seen in the side by side shot below.

Fuji GFX testing Calico rock

In this side by side view you can see the original shot on the left and where I have pushed up the shadows on the right side.  From this view it’s a bit hard to really tell just how much room there is in the file taken at ISO 200.  So I have taken a few crops at a 100% view.  In this view notice the amount of details that are present in the rock bluff and trees along the bluff.  Also note how well the light green leaves show up.

Fujifilm GFX 50S dynamic range

Shadow push from the Fujifilm GFX 50S

 

In this shot, by far the most impressive, look at how much color and detail were still available.  Look for the green pine needles and the brown fall leaves on the oak.  Also you can see again a lot of finer branch details that were not visible before I pushed the image.  The key here is the image before is basically black, so the amount of push is close to 3 stops total, between exposure push and shadow adjustment.

Comparison for Fujifilm GFX 50s on shadow push.

Comparison for Fujifilm GFX 50s on shadow push.

Not bad!! In fact excellent for ISO 200.

This type of push would easily hold up in a large print.  So what I have learned so far:

  1. The Fujifilm GFX allows easy hand held work with the 120mm lens and 32-64mm lens
  2. There is a huge amount of room in the shadows for push from the base ISO of 100 up to around ISO 800
  3. You can get easily 1 to 1.5 stops of push up to ISO 1600
  4. The files hold up very well with no loss in color saturation, no smearing or excessive noise
  5. By far the best raw converter is Capture One on files where you are attempting to push shadows

 

Filed Under: Cameras, Fuji Cameras // Tagged: , , , , , , ,

08/16/16 A few notes on the Dynamic Range of the Phase One IQ100

Posted on August 17, 2016 //

Early mornings are some of the best times to photograph the Buffalo River. This is from Buffalo Point.

Early mornings are some of the best times to photograph the Buffalo River. This is from Buffalo Point.

I am starting to get a better feel for the Phase One IQ100 and just where the dynamic range of this amazing digital back performs.  You can read a lot more this in a new article I just published over on photosofarkansas.  This article covers some discoveries I have made in regards to handling both shadow details and recovery of highlights.  You can read more about it here.

Filed Under: Phase One Cameras // Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

02/05/16 Somewhere new in Arkansas-White Oak Mountain in the wintertime

Posted on February 5, 2016 //

White Oak Mountain creeks

Some of the huge boulders along a small creek on White Oak Mountain

Some of the best spots for photography in Arkansas are working the smaller creeks up into their headwaters.  This tends to involve a lot of down hiking but the results can be well worth it.  White Oak Mountain, is actually a long ridge that runs east and west near Hector Arkansas.  To get there, you need to drive to Hector, through the town and as soon as cross a small bridge over a minor creek, you will see a dirt road heading up to the right.  Stay on this road for about 7 miles, there will be some turn offs but once you find the right spot, you can hike right down into a great creek valley.  This creek has a nice run which offers several nice smallish waterfalls in quick succession.  If you hike up the far hillside, you can find some much more dramatic waterfalls, but these will only be running after a locally heavy rain.

What I found most interesting on White Oak mountain was the number large boulders that were just laying in the creek.  This reminded me of Richland creek, however the terrain is a bit more open than on Richland.

Once you are done in the creek valley walking is very easy and you can make good headway.  There is a RV trail and a marked hiking trail that will take you down to the creek.  This creek outwardly appears to be about 1/5 the volume of Richland creek, but the unique geography surrounding the creek makes the hike worth a trip.  I would warn anyone that crossing this creek in high water could be a bit dangerous as the bottom is full of large mossy rocks easy to slip on.

I hope to make another trip here in the future to see what the area looks like in Spring with more water running.

To capture this photograph, I used a Phase One XF camera with a IQ260 Medium Format back and 55mm LS lens.  The photograph was taken with a nodal panorama setup and I used the captures to make the one horizontal shot.  To slow the water down I used ISO50 on my camera and a polarizer.  As you can see in the photograph, the light was already marching up the far side of the valley, so I did not need a ND filter.  The raw files were converted in Capture One software and then I used PtGui to stitch the 3 images together.  I then added a bit of Topaz clarity to my liking.

 

Filed Under: Arkansas Outdoors // Tagged: , , , , , , ,