While we were scouting locations for our Italy Dream Photo Tour, this was one of our favorite areas, situated at the base of the beautiful little Tuscan town of Pienza. As the sun began to set, we setup our gear and enjoyed a picnic style dinner of local Tuscan wine paired with various regional meats and cheeses. It was the perfect combination as we watched the soft colors dance above the countryside.
Technical Mumbo Jumbo
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: 24-70 f/2.8 (Shot at 38 mm)
Tripod: RRS TVC-33 / BH-55 Ballhead / RRS L-Plate
ISO: 100 at f/11
5 Bracketed exposures
Hardware: 15” 2013 Macbook Pro Retina, Wacom Intuos5 Small Tablet
Software: Lightroom 5, Photoshop CS6, Nik Color Efex Pro 4
3 of the 5 exposure brackets (-2,0,+2) were blended manually in photoshop using a combination of painted and luminance masks. While the sky was naturally filled with color, the foreground was a bit washed out from the bright back light. I used Nik Color Efex Pro 4 to adjust the contrast and saturation accordingly. Further color and light balancing was done in the new Lightroom 5 (which I highly recommend upgrading to).
Espresso: Lavazza Crema e Gusto and some local Tuscan red wine.
