Sarah Marino & Ron Coscorrosa

5 PHOTOGRAPHS From Field to Finished

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Sarah Marino & Ron Coscorrosa

We are landscape photographers based in Colorado and we write photography ebooks through our business, Nature Photo Guides.

After tiring of the stress and routine of traditional jobs, we took a nearly three-year break to pursue travel, photography, and a life with more freedom and flexibility. During this time, we traveled extensively throughout the United States, spent more than two months in Iceland, and authored three well-reviewed ebooks.

We are now back on the road again, this time working from an Airstream trailer and traveling across North America for the foreseeable future. Please visit NaturePhotoGuides.com to learn more about us, view our photography portfolios, follow along on our travels, or learn more about our ebooks.

Our Photography Ebooks

If you enjoy this ebook, you might be interested in our other titles:

• Forever Light: The Landscape Photographer’s Guide to Iceland

• Beyond the Grand Landscape: A Guide to Photographing Nature’s Smaller Scenes

• Desert Paradise: The Landscape Photographer’s Guide to Death Valley National Park

• Iceland: Black + White

Connect with Us

Sarah: Facebook · Instagram Ron: Facebook · InstagramBlogs: Photography Blog · Travel BlogEmail: info@naturephotoguides.com

About Nature Photo Guides

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5 Photographs: From Field to FinishedWe are happy to share this complimentary ebook as a small token of thanks to our newsletter subscribers and blog readers.

After receiving positive feedback about the image studies included in our Beyond the Grand Landscape ebook, we decided to pull together five more examples to share with our readers.

In this ebook, we walk through all of our steps, from arriving at a location to processing the final photograph and cover our full workflow including creative notes, technical approach, and the steps we use to finish our photographs.

We hope you enjoy these five photographs and the accompanying essays. And, thank you for your continued support of our photography.

Sarah & Ron

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Stjornarfoss Waterfall by Sarah Marino

Place Southern Iceland

Subject A small waterfall with swirling bubbles at the base

Time of Day Midday on an overcast day

Season Autumn

Technical Info Canon 6D, Canon 24-105mm lens @ 24mm, f/16, 25 sec, ISO 50. Circular polarizer to deepen colors and remove glare plus a 4-stop neutral density filter for a longer exposure

Lessons Using frames as a compositional approach, using a polarizer, and using longer exposures

Creative NotesThis two-tiered waterfall, small by Icelandic standards, looks incredibly charming from the road. The surroundings are impressive up close as well, with the green moss, undulating volcanic rocks, and deep blue pool at the base. As you get closer, however, the compositional options seem to melt away. A taller second tier disappears from closer vantage points leaving bright sky above the falls

(which could work under certain conditions, but not when I visited). The blue-green plunge pool is really deep, making it treacherous to wade in for a close perspective. Some nice cascades are a bit down the river but using them as a foreground means that the waterfall looks tiny when trying to include both.

After trying all these options and almost giving up, I noticed some small bubbles forming a swirl off to the right of the falls. After experimenting with the bubbles, I finally found something to work with. Feeling more motivated, I

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worked to find a more dynamic composition than just the bubbles and waterfall, deciding to use the curved wall on the right as a frame. I knew I could darken the back left wall later to create a vignette on both the left and right sides, completing the visual effect of a frame. I also placed the shore and waterfall on a diagonal to add some visual interest to the composition.

Field NotesAfter I settled on this composition, I focused for the scene (using the edge of the wall as my focus point, about 5 feet away from my camera) and set my attention on the swirls. I experimented with different shutter speeds, liking 25 to 30 seconds the best. I used a four-stop solid neutral density filter to allow me to lengthen my exposure in the middle of the day. Because the swirls in each exposure turned out differently, I wanted to be able to choose from a variety of options after I got back home so I took about 20 exposures in the field. The exposure I selected for processing had the best water motion, with the two main swirls separated by some leading lines of bubbles.

I also used a polarizer which significantly enhanced this scene. I took this photo on a rainy day, so the polarizer removed glare from the rocks and plants, helping to

saturate and deepen the colors. The polarizer also helped the swirls and blue-green water show up better since there was some glare on the water as well.

Processing NotesOverall, my approach to processing this photo included adding contrast and darkening the overall mood to make the scene feel more mysterious. Starting in Lightroom, I processed the same file twice, first to get almost everything right for a base file, with a second file for adding contrast and definition to the water. For both, I fine-tuned the white balance, removed chromatic aberration, rotated the file a bit, and fine-tuned the color of the greens. For the water exposure, I pulled back some of the highlights in the waterfall and used the clarity slider to add definition.

I brought both files into Photoshop and using a black mask on the file for the water, hand-painted white onto the areas where I wanted the water changes to show through.

At this point, I started making local adjustments, like brightening the swirls, darkening the rocks to emphasize the frame and a more mysterious mood, and I cloned out some foam on the left-most rocks. I added an Orton effect layer at a low opacity to add a bit of colorful glow.

Stjornarfoss Waterfall, continued

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Waving Cholla by Ron Coscorrosa

Place Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Subject Cholla cactus, Organ Pipe cactus, and other Sonoran Desert flora

Time of Day Sunset

Season Winter

Technical Info Canon 6D, Canon 70-200mm f/4 lens @ 70mm, f/20, 0.3 sec, ISO 400, no filters

Lessons Use of backlighting, controlling flare, subject isolation, repeating patterns and counterpoints in a composition

Creative NotesThe Sonoran Desert is a beautiful mess. While many think of deserts as barren wastelands, the Sonoran Desert is anything but: there is abundant plant and animal life that thrive in this environment that is less hospitable to humans. Still, this beautiful mess is a challenge to compose. Finding order, even just a little bit, amidst the chaos requires time, exploration, the willingness to experiment, the tolerance to fail, and the perseverance to try again.

When I am at a location, I often try to identify what is unique about it and what separates it from other locations. While the Sonoran Desert is large, the section with Organ Pipe cactus in the United States is actually quite small. I wanted to capture these unique cactus in a photograph.

Compositionally, what attracted me to this scene were the repeating “waving” shapes of the cholla (“choy-ya”) cactus in the foreground and the background. Repetition is a key compositional concept. This repetition is further enhanced by the two cholla being at counter points along

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a diagonal (the lower left and the upper right). The cherry on top is the backlit organ pipe at the end of the diagonal next to a neighboring organ pipe to its left.

This photograph was taken just before sunset on a clear day, where the low angled sun created warm glowing backlight on the cholla and organ pipe. The hillside in the background was in shade allowing the backlit subjects to stand out even more. This is an example of how clear skies can be fantastic for photography. There really is no bad light, there are just different opportunities. As a photographer it is your job to maximize the light you are given, instead of complain about the light you aren’t getting (though we can all be guilty of that at times).

Field NotesI wanted both chollas in focus. At 70mm, this meant having to choose a small aperture of f/20. No aperture would have been small enough for me to get the back hill in focus as well, but creatively, I didn’t want it in focus anyway. I verified the focus and depth of field in the LCD after taking a few sample photographs. There was some slight wind so I increased the ISO to 400 to reduce the shutter speed and freeze the foreground plants.

Backlit scenes like this can be tricky to photograph. In this case, a large red lens flare in the upper right corner was distracting (lens flare can be used creatively for positive effect, but I didn’t want it for this photograph). To address this, I zoomed out a little more than I wanted for the final composition and placed my hand in front of the lens to shade it, physically blocking and thus eliminating the lens flare. This meant my photograph had my big ugly hand in the upper right, but I just cropped it out to my original desired composition.

Processing NotesPart of the attraction of backlit scenes is showing the contrast - leaving the shaded and dark areas dark, and the backlit areas bright. Too much detail in the shadows can detract from the glowing backlit subjects. With this in mind, I kept the shadows dark and the highlights light.

Starting in Lightroom, I selected a color balance, did a small amount of highlight recovery for the brightest spots, cropped out the flare discussed above, and removed chromatic aberration. In Photoshop, I added contrast using a mid-tones luminosity mask and some slight saturation for the yellows on the cholla.

Waving Cholla, continued

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Winter Pastels by Sarah Marino

Place Denver Botanic Gardens

Subject Sedum “Angelina” Plant

Time of Day Midday with a reflector for shade

Season Winter

Technical Info Canon 6D, Canon 100mm L-series macro lens @ 100mm, f/16, 0.5 sec, ISO 100, no filters

Lessons Using simple technical approaches, looking for small scenes, and revisiting locations over seasons

Creative NotesThis plant has always attracted my attention at the Denver Botanic Gardens, as it changes colors throughout the year. In spring, it is bright green. Fall brings oranges and winter brings these pastels. While I like all of these variations, everything finally came together - unexpectedly - in winter. When the plants are growing in the spring, summer, and fall, they are tall and lanky, making them hard to photograph and get everything in focus. When visiting in the winter, a recent snowstorm had compressed and flattened the plants, making them much easier to

photograph for this kind of result. Add in the pastel colors and I was in small scene photography heaven!

For the composition, I focused on the flowing nature of the plants, choosing a section with the individual pieces that were pointing in the same direction so the pattern repeated across the frame. I removed a few bits of debris and a few small rocks; otherwise this scene is completely as I found it. I also checked the edges of my frame, making sure that the individual plants entering and exiting the frame were arranged in a pleasing manner.

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Winter Pastels, continued

Field NotesI posted this photo in an article about seeking out small scenes, noting that this is a single exposure. I received a mini-lecture from another photographer about how I would need to focus-stack* this image to get everything in focus. While that approach might result in a TINY improvement in file quality for photos like this, the extra time spent in the field to get the files for focus stacking and then assembling them later would not be worth it for me.

With careful technique that includes using live view and depth of field preview for verifying focus, some patience, and a careful review of the resulting file while in the field, I find that it is pretty easy to get mostly flat subjects like this in focus with a single file or possibly two files for a wayward part of a plant (like something sticking out a bit too high or too low). While more complex scenes might require a different approach, I would rather use simple techniques when I can and get a files that are more than good enough, as in this example.

With this “simple is often best” approach in mind, I set up my tripod and very carefully focused, testing out different apertures and focus points using live view until I got everything in sharp focus (on my high-quality lens,

I can even go up to f/29 or f/32 in some cases and still get sharp files). After getting the composition and focus down, I used a reflector to shade this section of plants, fine-tuning the exposure settings as I went.

It is also worth noting that looking slightly foolish in public is often a necessary condition when photographing small scenes like this. It looks sort of strange to be kneeling on the ground in an awkward position near a field of dead irises in the middle of winter, taking quite some time to photograph what looks like yet another dead plant.

Processing NotesThe processing for this photo is quite simple. I made some basic adjustments in Lightroom, like fine-tuning the white balance (choosing cooler colors), removing chromatic aberration, and adding a slight vignette. In Photoshop, I used a levels adjustment to add some overall contrast (mostly brightening the photo by bringing in the white point), used a mid-tones luminosity mask to add a bit more targeted contrast, and used an Orton effect layer at a low opacity to add a bit of colorful glow. I also cleaned up some additional debris that I missed in the field. * Multiple exposures focused at different points for later blending in software

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Salt Circles by Ron Coscorrosa

Place Death Valley National Park

Subject Evaporated salt pools surrounded by mud, radiating clouds

Time of Day Late afternoon

Season Winter

Technical Info Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 14mm f/2.8 lens @ 14mm, f/8, 1/125 sec, ISO 100, no filters

Lessons Beauty of afternoon light, benefits of exploration, using abstract shapes as a compositional tool

Creative Notes This particular basin in Death Valley has a variety of salt and mud that changes seasonally due a mix of salty spring water, rain, and evaporation. This mixture creates interesting salt patterns and reflections that change continually. I was attracted to this particular spot because of the discrete and circular salt formations. Many spots in the playa are either all mud or all salt,

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this location had both. Also, circular shapes as obvious as these are often hard to find in nature, much harder than lines and triangles.

I first found the composition and then next waited for some complimentary clouds to form. Compositionally, the circles form a stepping stone-like path from the lower

left corner to the upper right. The salt circle in the lower right, and the salt circle just above the lower left corner also “point” to this path, giving hints to the viewer’s eye. Leading lines (or paths) like this help provide depth for wide-angle scenes such as this.

For the clouds and sky, I wanted an abstract reflection

of the salt circles (as opposed to a literal reflection, like clouds reflecting in water). Here, this means clouds that mirror the shape of the path described above, which allows the eye to continue from the ground into the sky and clouds above. The clouds are also white just like the salt circles. After about 45 minutes of waiting I finally had the clouds I was hoping for.

Photographers of grand scenic landscapes are often told to photograph in the golden hours around sunrise and sunset. However, this is not necessarily the best time for certain scenes. In this case, colorful sunset clouds would not have been as effective, because part of the attractiveness of this scene is how the clouds and salt circles are mirrored, and that includes their shape and white color.

Field NotesWhile Death Valley National Park has a few icons, like Zabriskie Point or Badwater Basin, there are many more locations like this that require hiking and exploration to find. Further, the ephemeral nature of the salt patterns means that the conditions are constantly changing, so spots that were good one year will not necessarily be good another year. Exploration is mandatory to find good subject matter, with such exploration often being rewarded with

Salt Circles, continued

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fantastic finds like these salt circles.

While scouting for salt formations, we brought our GPS to mark good spots so that we could easily locate them later when the conditions were best. With no obvious geographical landmarks a mile or two into a flat salt playa, a GPS is a necessity to find interesting spots on a return visit (and to easily find your car after sunset).

This photograph was taken at 14mm with a 14mm prime lens to include the sweeping sky and foreground. The foreground salt circles were about three feet or so away from the camera. This, along with the 14mm focal length, enabled me to use a fairly large aperture (f/8) and still have everything of interest in the photograph in focus.

Usually, I’m less concerned with photographing at the sharpest aperture for this lens and would use f/11 or f/13 just to be safe (as the lens is still plenty sharp at those apertures). With longer focal lengths such as 16mm or longer, I am more apt to photograph at f/14 or f/16 to maximize my depth-of-field for wide-angle scenes like this. And, I always verify sharpness in the field, using live view and depth of field preview before making an exposure and by carefully reviewing files on the LCD

afterward. While a full explanation is beyond the scope of this ebook, learning to focus at the hyperfocal distance for a given lens and composition is also an important skill for wide-angle landscape photography. Once the basic concept is mastered, apps and charts available to help a photographer select the focus point for a given situation.

Processing NotesI started processing this photo using Lightroom, setting the white balance, removing chromatic aberration, and removing some of the perspective distortion caused by the wide-angle lens. For simple fixes, Lightroom is often easier to use for cropping, chromatic aberration fixes, and perspective distortion so I almost always make those adjustments before moving to Photoshop.

In Photoshop, I focused on adding contrast to the salt circles. I started with a levels adjustment, primarily to set the white point for the full image. Then, I moved on to make localized adjustments, further brightening the salt circles and the slightly darkening the brown mud to accentuate the separation of the salt and mud. I also made some additional minor contrast adjustments in the sky and added a bit of saturation, primarily in the blues.

Salt Circles, continued

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White Sands Sunset by Sarah Marino

Place White Sands National Monument

Subject Hardened ribs in the depressions between the dunes, a colorful sunset, and a sunstar

Time of Day Right at sunset

Season Monsoon season (August)

Technical Info Canon 5D Mark II, 16-35mm f/2.8 lens @ 16mm, f/18, 1/4 sec and 1 sec (2 exposures), ISO 100, circular polarizer for cloud definition

Lessons Leading lines, creating sunstars, and changing aesthetic preferences

Creative NotesOn this trip to White Sands, we visited in August with the hope of catching some wild summer weather and lucked out with a wonderful mix of clouds. Although the weather was very hot, we hiked to our backcountry campsite barefoot, with the cool white sand underfoot. During the middle of the day under direct light, the white dunes look like bright snow. At the edges of the day, they are highly reflective and take on the colors of the sky.

I searched out compositional elements that would highlight the simplicity and elegance of the dunes. In exploring, I found this areas of hardened sand filling some of the interdunal depressions, creating perfect natural leading lines and repeating triangles throughout the composition. After finding an extensive set of these hardened ribs, I moved around to find the best arrangement of lines (being careful not to disturb them for future visitors). I photographed this spot throughout the sunset, preferring this version with the colorful clouds and sunstar because the sunstar provides a strong focal point in the background.

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White Sands Sunset, continuedField NotesI selected a small aperture to ensure that both the foreground and background are in focus. Since I was close to my foreground, I focused at the hyperfocal distance of about 4 feet (a value that can be easily calculated using an app or chart once you understand the concept). Here, the sunstar, the result of a point of light entering the lens, presented no technical challenges. Since the clouds partially blocked the sun, lens flare was not an issue (if it had been, I could have shaded my lens with my hand or taken an exposure using my finger to block the flare, blending in the flare-free areas later). Using a small aperture like f/18 helps produce a nicer, more defined sunstar on some lenses like this one (otherwise, f/14 or f/16 would have worked for this scene). I also bracketed for exposure, creating a file for a base exposure plus an underexposed file for the bright spot near the sun.

Processing NotesWhen I first processed this photo, I strongly enhanced the colors, especially the blues in the shadows, golds where the light hit the ribs, and the sky. At the time, I was trying to fit in with the dominant aesthetic emerging in landscape photography: high drama and bold colors. Over time, this processing started to look more and more garish.

In the time since I originally processed this photograph, I have become more comfortable with my preferences for softer, simpler, and more elegant photographs. I recently reprocessed this photograph to fit better with this current direction for my photography. While I emphasized the colors in processing this time around, I kept them natural to the scene and grounded in reality. The softer rendition appeals much more to my current visual preferences.

In Lightroom, I processed two RAW files with the same white balance, fixed some chromatic aberration, and pulled back some of the highlights to facilitate a simple exposure blend (95% from the base file, 5% from a second file for the brightest highlights around the sun). I brought both photos into Photoshop, starting with an exposure blend for the brightest parts of the sky (I created a luminosity mask to select the brightest parts of the sky for the base exposure and then used that same mask over the darker exposure, allowing a small part of the darker exposure to cover up the blown-out highlights in the base file). After the exposure blend, I used levels and curves to adjust tones and contrast throughout the image and slightly warmed up the area around the sunstar. I also slightly dodged (or brightened) the spots of golden light on the ribs and burned (darkened) the shadows.

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