This is a location we have shot for tourism marketing before. The place is beautiful, but due to the wild natural landscaping, the building and site are obscured by 3-6 feet tall plantings that surround the property. A slight elevation cleaned up the feral surroundings, and gave glimpses of the surrounding trails and park loop road that winds through the wetlands.

I took 3 three exposures using the AEB bracketing function (this option helps overcome many of the Sparks dynamic range weaknesses). Once you select it, every shot afterwards automatically takes the 3 exposures (killer!). Exposure was set to Auto.

For post work, I used the HDR app Aurora to merge the three exposures, which is a vast improvement over photoshop, or even NIK HDR Efex Pro 2. The anti-ghosting works much better, and the results can be tamed down to a very non-HDR look if you wish. The image was then finished up with Luminar (both apps from SKYLUM, formerly Macphun). Link to full res here: https://imgur.com/gallery/EWY0H

This incredible National Wildlife Refuge protects more than 47,000 acres of southern New Jersey coastal habitats and wetlands. The refuge extends for 50 miles along the Jersey coast, and the visitor center is located five miles north of Atlantic City. At least 322 species of birds have been observed on the refuge, along with white-tailed deer, wild turkeys, otters and mink.

Stunning image Sassafras4me! It appears AEB is invaluable on the Spark.

Kirbz252 Posted at 2017-11-2 17:35
Stunning image Sassafras4me! It appears AEB is invaluable on the Spark.

Use it every single time. I also highly recommend Aurora for the merging. I did some side by side processing comparisons on a previous job pitting Aurora against a few other programs I have. Aurora did SO much better, especially if you are going for a non-obvious HDR, that gives you the dynamic range without the tonal posterization.

There was a really good post here somewhere with some very useful photographic tips. One of them was about not having to fly too high to get great pics compositionally. We have been shooting side by side launching the Spark while also using our traditional Nikon stuff. Despite the imaging limitations, the Spark is not just a selfie toy. With a bit of post-processing you can get some professional results.

Very nice picture and good editing, very soft, thanks for sharing.

Viking-Pilot Posted at 2017-11-3 09:10
Very nice picture and good editing, very soft, thanks for sharing.

Thanks! Here is a better side by side of three source AEB exposures, and HDR merge and a version form the single exposure using NIK. https://imgur.com/gallery/2kChT

The edits were done on two different computers at two different times. The Spark tends to over sharpen its images, and I did the HDR one first (which was a bit too sharp for my taste). The 2nd version was run through NIK and I used a reversed tonal contrast effect to soften the image a bit more. File sizes are around 30mb for a single image when opened (pretty impressive).

Sassafras4me Posted at 2017-11-3 10:48
Thanks! Here is a better side by side of three source AEB exposures, and HDR merge and a version form the single exposure using NIK. https://imgur.com/gallery/2kChT

The edits were done on two different computers at two different times. The Spark tends to over sharpen its images, and I did the HDR one first (which was a bit too sharp for my taste). The 2nd version was run through NIK and I used a reversed tonal contrast effect to soften the image a bit more. File sizes are around 30mb for a single image when opened (pretty impressive).

Woooow very impresive to see the difference almost side by side of the pictures, the one you have edited almost come alive, great job!

Beautiful picture and edit

Thanks all. I had expected a lot more of a difference between the HDR and the single frame edit. On a previous job we did last week, the HDR was worlds better than the single frame edit (it was shot in dimming light though).

You've definitely done a great job, the image is really beautiful. Thank you for sharing, looking forward to your more works.