The Vendanges (Grape Harvest) are a unique moment of the Lavaux in Switzerland
The grape harvest in Lavaux happens every year around end of September and October in Switzerland, and it’s a beautiful and unique busy moment of the year for the Lavaux region. All the winemaker of Lavaux are busy more or less at the same moment, and it creates very intense senes in the vineyard, with hundreds of people harvesting the grapes. The grapes will be used to make white wine, which is quite famous actually in the region. It’s also a very festive moment, when lot of traditional celebrations are held in this region. But the most magic moment is probably the beautiful intense view on the lake, with dramatic perspective on the vineyard, the Leman Lake (Lac Léman, also called Geneva Lake), the Alps mountains chain in the background, and for sure on the front the grapes! We’ve been lucky enough to be invited by closest friends to help them harvesting this year on a weekend, and it was lot of fun and nice unforgettable moments! We started around 7am, which explains the very warm and nice light that the sunrise gave us, which was probably one of the few days where the Lavaux is so crystal clear! We had a long but enjoyable day, with lot of fun and nice talks in the middle of the vineyard! Enjoy the view!
Single RAW exposure HDR in Lavaux Vineyard Terraces, Switzerland (Suisse / Schweiz)
The vineyard of Lavaux are giving very nice results with HDR treatment, making it even more spectacular, especially in fall. I’m particularly fan of using single RAW, duplicating it in 3 exposures in Adobe Lightroom (-2.0 / 0 / +2.0 EV) and then treating it via Photomatix Pro, and finally back into Lightroom for final touchup. This process of single RAW HFR is pretty powerful now that cameras are having very detailed pixel resolution. At the same time, a single RAW exposure also enable you to make HDR of any photo you took, without need to have tripod.
The Lavaux Vineyard (Switzerland) in HDR, shot with Canon 5D MKII and Canon 16-35mm 2.8 L USM in single RAW exposure
The Lavaux Vineyard (Switzerland / Schweiz) Terraces are now protected by UNESCO - Les vignes du Lavaux, Vaud, Suisse
Last weekend was quite fantastic for a walking ballad in the beautiful landscape of Lavaux Vineyard (Les vignes du Lavaux). It was fall and the yellow and orange leafs were still on, shining like fire with the sun. Quite warm for fall, it was a real pleasure to walk in the Lavaux vineyard, with dramatic beautiful view on the Leman Lake (Geneva Lake). It’s actually a pleasure to make photo in the Lavaux, since any place give a very nice view on the vineyard. Definitely a recommended place to go if you pass by the Leman region, between Lausanne and Montreux. Most of the pictures below have been taken between St-Saphorin, Chexbres, Epesses, Dézaley and Rivaz, all small villages of Lavaux. The wine from the Lavaux is actually sold by local producer directly from their cave, and you can have “degustation” wine taste if you simply ask them! Wonderful place, and good white wine too!
View on the Lavaux Vineyard (Switzerland) close to Epesse and Riex
The Lavaux Vineyard Terraces are stretching for about 30 km along the south-facing northern shores of Lake Geneva from the Chateau de Chillon to the eastern outskirts of Lausanne in the Vaud region. There is some evidence that vines were grown in the area in Roman times, the present vine terraces can be traced back to the 11th century.
Lavaux Vineyard Terraces (Geneva Lake, Léman region) shot with Canon 5D MKII, Canon 24-70mm 2.8 L USM and Canon 16-35mm 2.8 L USM - perfect camera and combo for postcard landscape photo
All shot have been done with Canon 5D MKII, Canon 24-70mm 2.8 L USM and Canon 16-35mm 2.8 L USM. I’ve done a bit of correction with Adobe Lightroom 3.0 to ensure the sky highlights get corrected (I didn’t have any polarising filter on the 16-35mm, which doesn’t help with such sunny conditions). I’m pretty happy of the result, let me know what you think and enjoy the beautiful views over “les vignes du Lavaux”.
Voici une autre vue depuis Morges (Suisse) du Lac Léman. C’est en fait une interprétation plus ancienne que j’ai faite de cette scène, avec des couleurs un peu plus saturées et chaudes. J’avais fait cette photo lors d’un test du Sony A700 il y a environ un an. Cet appareil photo délivre des photos avec une gamme dynamique déà très large, ce qui permet de faire du HDR avec un simple RAW démultiplié en 3 expositions. J’espère que vous appréciez la vue, et pour une vue paysage avec des wallpapers à télécharger, alors n’hésitez pas et allez voir mon précèdent post sur la vue du lac Léman depuis Morges (Suisse).
English
Here is another view from Morges (Suisse), on the Leman (also called the Geneva Lake in English). It’s actually an older HDR interpreation of this scenery, with more saturated colours. These picture is actually a bit older, and was part of the test I’ve made of my Sony A700 about a year ago now. This camera actually delivers very nice large dynamic range picture which delivers great HDR with a single RAW exposure. I hope you appreciate the view, and if you want some landscape wallpaper, don’t hesitate to go and download on View on the Geneva Lake from Morges (Suisse).
After visiting the website “Entre réel et numérique”, I’ve discovered a great new tool that was introduced in the latest Adobe Lightroom 2.x: graduated filter. I’ve been playing once or twice with it before, but with no real patience to perseverate to get something that has a pleasant result.
I’ve decided to give a try after watching the below video, which simply convinced me about the relevance of this powerful new tool for editing picture
Then, I’ve started to give a try and test it on a few pictures I’ve made in the last days (see previous post here on JHG Photo about HDR tutorial in Lavaux, Vaud, Suisse). I’ve decided to compare it with what I’d have get from HDR, which is a technique I’ve spent lot of time learning during the last years. I also wanted to compare it here with you so you can also have a side by side comparison and make your own opinion on it.
I have to admit that I’m extremely pleased with the graduated filter option, which is probably something that need more attention from landscape photographers. On the below example, I’ve decided to play it frankly, with 4 filters, from to bottom (blue tones, purple tones, orange tones and finally neutral with increased exposure on the Swiss Lavaux vineyard).
The HDR below has been made with one single RAW in 3 different exposures (-2EV, 0EV, +2EV), treated with Photomatix Pro and then in Lightroom.
I’ve listed here few of the pro and cons I’ve noticed from using both techniques:
Easyness
Graduated filters on Lightroom are very easy to be used by all, and within a few minutes, you can get to something pleasant on your landscapes (or whatever else type of photography). It also simplifies the photo workflow, with non destructive work. It however tends to be heavily CPU intensive, since computer is slowing down after adding the first filter
HDR can be heavy to handle when dealing with several scenes, with many TIFF and exposures, but it’s a proven mechanism and is very simple to follow. Could be time consuming for beginners, but it provides instant results at first try.
Local vs. Full zone
With graduated filters, you can work with local zones and make a quick retouch in a simple quick. To make the entire picture, you will only be able to get half of it, so not necessarily wise to use it if you need to work the entire photo.
HDR is providing powerful results on the entire photography, but is not able to make local touch up. You need to work with curves or selective local zone tools for making it.
Accuracy of results and Quality of the output
HDR with Photomatix provides a very wide range of options for “amazing” type of results, which sometimes is close to design and graphism. This is most of the time what makes the people looking at your pictures saying “waw!”
HDR works very nicely with daylight situations, and makes sure that every single spot on the photo has great lightning and contrast.
HDR is however providing sometimes more “random” results with tricky situations (serious contrast between highlights and shadows).
Graduated filters tend to have very smooth type of results: it provide subtle render, working especially well with the sunset situations.It also tends to prove great results when having very distinct elements on the picture following the rule of third: Mountain on the bottom (2/3), sky on the top (1/3)
Graduated filters, as its name is self mentioning it, are working within half of the zone we draw it, and has opposite impact on the other half: this provides subtle degrade, however it also has an impact on the rest of the pictures which is either before or after the filter. This is very difficult to use in the middle of a picture without impacting the rest of the photo. In this case, you need to work with the Adjustment Brush only which might take you more time.
Overall, I’m very pleased with the graduated filters, and I think I’ll use this technique more and more, especially when having landscape situations with sunset/sunrise or with very distinct zones as you can find in the Swiss mountains. I’d be very happy to read your comments on this, especialy if you have experienced both of them! Here are another few pics using the Graudated filters. Enjoy the view!
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