I want to revisit the not just blue skies discussion I began earlier, exhibiting how twilight appears when capturing unseen radiance that exists in the sky. Most photographers, as I said before, know that a polarizer can increase contrast and deepen the blue in the sky. One could use Photoshop to do it, but it is unnecessary work. Here is a comparison most can relate with. This pair of photos taken at Bryce Canyon National Park shows the scene without and with using a polarizer.
The contrast not only in the sky is apparent, but the sky radiance is darkened and the exposure range decreased. The slightly longer exposure thus captures more radiance in the shadow, as well as slightly more contrast in the rocks. One could spend time in Photoshop getting all these benefits, but again, using a polarizer is much easier.
Likewise, shooting near infrared is much easier than trying to get the effect in Photoshop. The dark sky, bright foliage and contrast of infrared is a very difficult thing to mimic in software. I've never seen faux Photoshop infrared appear just like a true IR photo, especially the color variety.
Lastly, using particular filtering, one can achieve beautiful skies. A comparison of the sky without filter and captured through hyperceptive filtering is shown below.
With hyperceptive filtering
No filter (admittedly, my WB was off)
Please enjoy more of these skies, taken the last week of April to early May. Only auto-levels, resize and adding a signature are the changes to these shots out of the camera. I hope to capture a thousand of them this month.
And lastly, because it evokes a sense of cosmology, my favorite of the week:
(Look at the sky right behind the trunk of the tall middle tree, and tilt the monitor side to side--it almost looks 3D. Or are my eyes playing tricks?)
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