 “Wine Grapes HDR“ |
As Nancy and I continue on our “150 wineries in 150 days” tour, we have of course been near a lot of vineyards. A lot of wineries have vineyards right near the parking lot. We were at Pollak Vineyards just as the vines were finishing veraison — the process by which the grapes still on the vine turn from green to blue or purple. Later, the grapes will go to nearly black and then they’ll be about ready to harvest.
We visited Pollak Vineyards in Greenwood, Virginia, on a bright, sunny day in late July. The grapes on the vines had just turned purple — clearly not ripe, but beautiful and promising. (If you look closely you can see the sunlight reflecting through some grapes that are still red, not having completed their transition to purple.) In the bright sun I was challenged to capture the light shining on and through the grapes, bringing out their color while managing the dark shadows and very bright highs of the sunlit vines, grass, and sky beyond. The colors were striking and beautiful to my eye, but I had enormous difficulty getting the camera to capture the full dynamic range I saw. I tried a number of shots, angles, and exposure settings, including one high dynamic range shot (this one). The HDR shot turned out best, giving a true sense of how bright and vibrant those wine grapes were, with the incredibly saturated colors the sunlight brought out.
(Nikon D700 with 24-85mm zoom at 28mm, f/7.1 at 1.80 second exposure. HDR image from nine exposures at ISO 200 to 1250 for an exposure range of -4 to +4 EV.)
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