Peter Liu Photography

Sunset in a Hurry!

April 13, 2012 By Peter Liu 2 Comments

Okay… I almost never do this kind of thing, but here I was in the kitchen prepping dinner, and I look out the lanai and see the sun emerge under the clouds over my neighbor’s roof near sunset, and it’s perfect. I knew I didn’t have time to get in the car and race down to the beach, and dinner would have been ruined if I tried, so I grabbed the camera, went out to the lanai, bumped the ISO as high as I dared and shot this in HDR.

So, I apologize that f/8 wasn’t enough to get anywhere past my neighbor’s roof, and that I had to do this in HDR because I didn’t have my P-mount mounted or my ND grads handy, or any number of things that made this shot not work, but dammit, I love it! So there!!

Aloha Friday!

Filed Under: Hawaii, HDR, Maui, Photograph Tagged With: handheld hdr, HDR, kihei sunset, maui sunset

Sunday Sunset in Kihei, Maui in HDR

March 18, 2012 By Peter Liu Leave a Comment

Busy week coming up, so I thought I’d wrap up the weekend with a sunset. It actually fizzled, but I got some HDR out of it. I tried it with a 3-stop ND grad mounted this time.

Filed Under: Hawaii, Landscape, Maui, Nature, Photograph Tagged With: hawaii, HDR, kihei, maui, sunset

Saturday Sunset

March 10, 2012 By Peter Liu Leave a Comment

After several days of rain on Maui, it looked like we were going to get a real sunset, the kind with lots of clouds to frame it in drama and color, so Kathy and I took a drive down to the beach near where we live in Kihei.

Well, it didn’t really develop into anything too interesting by Maui standards, but I took the opportunity to do some HDR work, including a shot of Kathy getting her feet wet while watching the last remnants of the fizzled sunset. Can’t really complain too much when you live on Maui.

Filed Under: Hawaii, HDR, Landscape, Maui, Photograph Tagged With: HDR, kathy becklin, kihei sunset, maui sunset

Iao Valley Photo Walk HDR

November 20, 2011 By Peter Liu Leave a Comment

I recently started Maui Photo Walks with my friend Erik Blair, and we did our first walk in the Iao Valley last week. We started early to get the morning light. Rains rolled through the valley several times during the walk, making us scramble for shelter and creating dramatic textures in the clouds. I started the walk with my ND grads, but switched to HDR to capture those beautiful textures.

All the photos here started in Lightroom, were tone mapped in Photomatix Pro, then came back into Lightroom for the finishing touches. I like using Lightroom to finish the photo as it gives me much more control over sculpting light and shadow in the final image.

Filed Under: Featured, HDR, Landscape, Photo Walk, Photograph Tagged With: HDR, iao valley, maui photo walk, realistic hdr

Lahaina Paradise

July 14, 2011 By Peter Liu 2 Comments

Lahaina Oceanfront Estate, Maui, Hawaii. HDR, 13 exposures, artistically rendered.

From yesterday, at a gathering of good friends and new acquaintances at the Lahaina Oceanfront Estate for the 1st Annual Backyard Food Challenge. Good times!

Filed Under: Hawaii, Landscape, Maui, Photograph Tagged With: hawaii, HDR, lahaina, lahaina oceanfront estates, maui

HDR Study – Ali‘i Kula Lavender

July 11, 2011 By Peter Liu 2 Comments

I’ve developed a new habit. I’ve started shooting for HDR just for the heck of it whenever I can, even when I’m after conventional photographs. I mean, why not? It’s just pixels. I am now collecting work for a new HDR portfolio. Here are some from the weekend. I was at the Sustainable Aloha Summer Fest at Ali‘i Kula Lavender, dedicated to Ali‘i Chang, founder, farmer, and visionary who passed on April 13, 2011.

All of the shots are done in HDR. The only difference is in the rendering—realistic vs. artistic. It’s all in the eye of the beholder.

Ali‘i Kula Lavender, HDR, 8 exposures, realistic rendering.

Ali‘i Kula Lavender, HDR, 8 exposures, artistic rendering.

Ali‘i Kula Lavender, HDR, 8 exposures, realistic rendering.

Ali‘i Kula Lavender, HDR, 8 exposures, artistic rendering.

Ali‘i Kula Lavender, HDR, 8 exposures, realistic rendering.

Ali‘i Kula Lavender, HDR, 8 exposures, artistic rendering.

Filed Under: Hawaii, Landscape, Maui, Nature, Photograph Tagged With: alii kula lavender, artistic hdr, HDR, realistic hdr, surrealistic hdr

Kihei Sunset Two Ways

July 5, 2011 By Peter Liu 2 Comments

The clouds were all set up to flare nicely during sunset this evening, but it didn’t really take off the way I imagined. Still, it’s hard to beat a Maui sunset, and it gave me a chance to do some experimenting. Comments are welcome. Enjoy…

Sunset on a typical day in Kihei, Maui, Hawaii.

Traditional technique, 3-stop hard ND grad.

Kihei Sunset, HDR, 8 exposures, Photomatix 4.0, Lightroom 3.4.1.

HDR, no filters, 8 exposures, artistically rendered.

Filed Under: Hawaii, Maui, Nature, Photograph Tagged With: hawaii, HDR, kihei, maui, nd grad, sunset

Haleakala Crater in HDR

June 28, 2011 By Peter Liu 3 Comments

It is my tradition to go off on a solo shooting trek on my birthday, on land or underwater. I’ve been working really hard the last couple of weeks and woke up tired and uninspired this morning, so I was on the verge of breaking the tradition and just making it a lazy day around the house, but then I looked out of my kitchen window and saw the mountain with the gathering clouds, and decided to see if I could get above them for some HDR work. (I know, I know, I’ve been indulging my HDR kick recently… late bloomer, I guess.)

It goes against every instinct of a landscape photographer to shoot during the noon hour, except when you’re planning to shoot in HDR. You can get some amazing results. Here’s a surreal approach from the summit. If you hate it, blame it on the thin air at 10,000 feet. That’s my story (and my birthday) and I’m sticking to it.

Aloha!

Filed Under: Landscape, Photograph Tagged With: birthday, haleakala, HDR, volcano

Kihei Sunset in HDR

June 20, 2011 By Peter Liu 9 Comments

Just because I couldn’t resist, and I’d been doing HDR all weekend, I had to indulge myself. Here are a few renderings of last night’s sunset at different stages. All of these were done in Photomatix 4.0 and finished in Lightroom 3.4.1.

Which is your favorite?

Filed Under: Hawaii, Landscape, Maui, Nature, Photograph Tagged With: hawaii, HDR, kihei, maui, subst

Lahaina in HDR

June 19, 2011 By Peter Liu Leave a Comment

I was in Lahaina, Maui yesterday morning covering the 2011 Na Kamehameha Commemorative Pa‘u Parade & Ho‘olaule‘a. I arrived really early to make sure I could find parking before they closed down Front Street. As I was walking along the harbor toward Kamehameha ‘Iki Park, enjoying the early morning light, I decided to grab a few shots for some HDR work.