While shooting along the California coast this past weekend, I stopped by the Pigeon Point Lighthouse. It was mid day and I knew I would not be back at sunset or late afternoon. The light was not great but it was better than it had been earlier that day so I decided to capture HDR sets for post processing later.
The first blog image turned out to be one of my favorites. In part, because it only implies the presence of a full lighthouse without showing the full lighthouse. Maybe the top is missing – you don’t know. In general the viewers mind will fill in the missing piece (a type of auto-completion). This concept is something to keep in mind when composing your images and deciding what to include in the frame. Do you need to show everything or is only a piece needed? The fence and walkway provide a nice S-curve back into the picture where you are left with the mystery. Using leading lines of various shapes add nicely to a composition.
As with some images, I found that I could process them for different looks that were all pleasing to me. I have shared a couple here for your viewing. Feedback on which approach you like better is welcome.
Blog image: Five exposure HDR image processed with HDR Efx Pro. The later was processed with SilverEfx Pro after the initial HDR processing.
