What's the best way to photograph glaicers in Alaska?

[Steviewonder1]

Also shoot fairly close-up from left to right with overlapping shots. Do not change zoom setting. Then in Photoshop Stitch the picture together. You will get an awesome wide shot of the glacier. I did that at the Mendenhall Glacier and the Camera Guy at the On Ship Camera session went GA-GA on the results. He had been there 4 times and had never done a Stitched Shot of the glacier. Keep your eyes open and ready to shoot that great group of pictures!

[world_traveler_et]

Pierces & Farmer,

For a new DSLR user do you think it would be easier to adjust the exposure setting +1 or adjust the histogram?

 

Thanks again for everyone's help!

[world_traveler_et]

I took these in May 2012 on a cloudy day. It gives you an idea of what to expect when the weather is less than perfect. The blue really stands out in a couple of the pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did you do anything special with your camera settings to achieve these photographs?

[dolfansam]

It sometimes is a matter of timing. When we arrived at the Mendenhall Glacier it was extremely foggy and we could barely see any of the glacier. After about 15-20 minutes, the fog lifted.

 

Mendenhall Glacier on Arrival, a 10 mins later and then what we had been waiting for:

[ikirumata]

Here is a shot I took at Hubbard. It was taken while the weather was cloudy and rainy. I slightly bumped up the blacks and a bit of the contrast in Lightroom.

 

CalvingHubbard by ikirumata, on Flickr

[framer]

Here is a shot I took at Hubbard. It was taken while the weather was cloudy and rainy. I slightly bumped up the blacks and a bit of the contrast in Lightroom.

 

CalvingHubbard by ikirumata, on Flickr

 

 

Here's yours after I worked on it for 60 seconds.

 

 

framer

Edited June 4, 2013 by framer

[world_traveler_et]

Here's yours after I worked on it for 60 seconds.

 

 

framer

 

Framer,

Can you share what program you were using to tweak this photograph? Also can you share what you did to tweak the photograph in 60 seconds.

 

Thanks for sharing!

[ikirumata]

Here's yours after I worked on it for 60 seconds.

 

 

framer

 

Nice! Better than I remember!

[framer]

Mostly increase the exposer about a full stop. Then a touch of saturation. I watched the histogram to not blow out two much and that all. This is a classic light meter error with highkey subjects. I did correct the color balance also. Glad you liked it. Nice picture.

 

Any photoshop type program can do this. I did nothing special Lightroom should work fine.

 

framer

Edited June 4, 2013 by framer

[DebInTN]

I've had good luck using a circular polarizer. Took me some practice, so play with it before you go.

[world_traveler_et]

I hope this helps anyone planning for their trip this summer!

[Gardyloo]

Also don't be bashful about zooming way in - sometimes the details are just as fascinating as the "big picture." Examples from Hubbard Glacier -

 

 

[bornfreenowexpensive]

Its late and I have given up trying to upload pictures here from flicker. I have lots of blue in mine, and I am sure I just left it on the Auto setting. Can someone direct me to upload directions from Flicker.

Edited May 13, 2014 by bornfreenowexpensive

[ikirumata]

Its late and I have given up trying to upload pictures here from flicker. I have lots of blue in mine, and I am sure I just left it on the Auto setting. Can someone direct me to upload directions from Flicker.

 

The way I do it is:

 

1. Click on the picture you want to share

2. on the right, you should see some icons. Look for the icon that looks like a box with an arrow coming out of it. Click on this icon.

3. You should now see a box pop up. There will be some icons along the top of this box that look like the usual social media sharing icons (facebook, twitter, tumblr, email, pintrest). Under those icons, you will see 3 options (Link, HTML, BBCode). Click on BBCode.

4. You should now see a URL/code box. Highlight it, copy it, and then paste it into the cruise critic forum reply. You can choose the size of the image in the dialog just above the link.

 

if you do it correctly, the image will appear when you preview or submit your post. It will look like this:

 

Calving at South Sawyer Glacier by ikirumata, on Flickr

 

There has been some updates to Flickr, so the iconography may be a bit different. Let us know what you find! Good luck! Looking forward to those pictures!

[peety3]

Nice shots... I really want to go on an Alaskan cruise to see the glaciers... hopefully one day... I agree with the other posters, use your exposure compensation +1-2 stops to get properly exposed whites (check your histogram to make your you're not blowing your highlights). For canon users look at using the highlight priority setting to help preserve your highlights.

 

Shoot RAW, you'll be amazed how much more leeway you get out of RAW files. I have tons of CF cards, but I always bring my hyper drive with me as a backup... I copy the contents of each of my CF cards to the drive, and rotate CF cards...

 

Pierces & Farmer,

For a new DSLR user do you think it would be easier to adjust the exposure setting +1 or adjust the histogram?

 

Thanks again for everyone's help!

 

World Traveler, you can't adjust the histogram in the camera (usually). It's a reflection of what the shot really is, "now that the concrete has dried". Do the exposure comp +1 while shooting glaciers/snowy stuff, and zero it out when you're done. That way you don't have to tweak every shot in post. Also, learn how your camera reminds you of the exposure comp, ideally by recognizing something in the viewfinder. Get in the habit of checking that so you can remember to put it back to normal quickly.

[world_traveler_et]

Also don't be bashful about zooming way in - sometimes the details are just as fascinating as the "big picture." Examples from Hubbard Glacier -

 

 

 

Great suggestion and nice photographs. I especially like the glacier shot with the fog rising from the glacier. Thanks for posting!

[scubacruiserx2]

With the Alaska cruise season underway I thought I'd add my 2 cents. We have never been to Alaska but we did photograph glaciers in South America in December of last year. We spoke to a number of people who had been to New Zealand , Alaska and Norway and the consensus was that the fjords and glaciers were best in South America. That having been said , how to best photograph glaciers ?

 

I used jpeg exclusively (for ease of sharing) but would recommend the jpeg + RAW setting if you have one. I presume that most of the the readers are amateur photographers , like me , so I used mostly auto setting and bracketed nice scenes with a landscape and sports setting. Our cruise began with the the Amalia glacier first.

 

 

I like this area where the two glaciers meet

 

 

 

 

To lend a scale to the glacier size , I used a foreground element

 

 

 

And took a video clip

 

 

 

Our next glacier encounters were in Glacier Alley where we saw 5 glaciers in a row all named for European countries.

 

 

The first up was the Romanche Glacier named for a romance language spoken in Switzerland.

 

 

 

Once again , it may best be seen ( with it's waterfall) in a video

 

 

 

In the next 2 photos of the Alemania Glacier (Germany) I used the Saturation tool on my Picasa photo editing .

 

 

 

 

As we passed the glacier you can see a pool of glacial sediment called Till .

 

 

[tommui987]

To really appreciate your photographs, I kept enlarging them to the point where they overwhelmed my monitor - 24"!

 

WOW! Great photos!

 

What sort of camera were you using?

 

I had used a 4x neutral density filter for pictures I took in Alaska to really bring out the blues in the glaciers.

[RoxnDox]

Love the mood and atmosphere in #1 and 2. #3 looks like it would be a real challenge to get exposures right for the dark forested areas, the very bright sunlit ice, and the shadowed hillsides... A very strong argument for shooting RAW+Jpeg and post-processing... Or as you say, bracketing (and then making an HDR). If it's a sunny day, a polarizer would be a good addition as well, to reduce the glare and enhance saturation.

 

Heading up to Alaska in a couple weeks on the Golden Princess, and I hope for either a nice sunny day or some real good "atmosphere" for our day in Glacier Bay! Preparing for both...

 

Jim

[scubacruiserx2]

To really appreciate your photographs, I kept enlarging them to the point where they overwhelmed my monitor - 24"!

 

WOW! Great photos!

 

What sort of camera were you using?

 

I had used a 4x neutral density filter for pictures I took in Alaska to really bring out the blues in the glaciers.

 

Thanks tommui987. I used a Canon SL 1 with a Canon 24-105 L and a Canon T3i with a 70-300 L and a Canon 10-22.

 

 

 

Love the mood and atmosphere in #1 and 2. #3 looks like it would be a real challenge to get exposures right for the dark forested areas, the very bright sunlit ice, and the shadowed hillsides... A very strong argument for shooting RAW+Jpeg and post-processing... Or as you say, bracketing (and then making an HDR). If it's a sunny day, a polarizer would be a good addition as well, to reduce the glare and enhance saturation.

 

Heading up to Alaska in a couple weeks on the Golden Princess, and I hope for either a nice sunny day or some real good "atmosphere" for our day in Glacier Bay! Preparing for both...

 

Jim

 

 

 

#1 and #2 were overcast and subsequent photos on a bright , sunny day (forgot my polarizer). # 3 had a strong shadow on the waterfall so I had to lighten the picture to show the falls. December 6 in SA should be the equivalent of June 6 in Alaska , so enjoy your trip and bring back some good ones Jim !

 

More Glaciers

 

 

For the Italia Glacier , I used a couple of different locations to photograph it

 

 

#1 for color and nature

 

 

 

# 2 for scale and human interest - wide angle

 

 

 

 

After leaving Glacier alley most of the people went inside to warm up but I stayed outside in the aft of the ship - taking pictures.

 

 

I took a regular photo and cropped it to make it look like a panorama

 

 

 

In the next 2 photos , I used reflection and interesting shapes in the water

 

 

 

 

And a panoramic type cropping

 

 

 

 

Next time - Perito Moreno our favorite glacier .

[peety3]

I had used a 4x neutral density filter for pictures I took in Alaska to really bring out the blues in the glaciers.

 

OK, I've got to ask...where'd you come up with the idea of using a ND filter to bring out blues? How were the results? In my head, the ND filter shouldn't accentuate any particular color, hence the NEUTRAL descriptor. ;) I'd think the better way to bring out the blues would be -2/3 stop or -1 stop exposure comp, so you retain color detail in the sky.

[WintrHawk]

Maybe it wasn't a uniform ND but a graduated or split ND.

Edited May 27, 2014 by WintrHawk

[Guera]

All I can say is "WOW" on these pics you all posted. Great inspiration for me! This is why I booked an Alaskan cruise, to experience the beauty of this place and capture it on "film".

[scubacruiserx2]

Our favorite glacier was visited in a post cruise stay in El Calafate , Argentina. The glacier was a 48 mile drive in the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares which is home to 40+ glaciers.

 

It's hard to imagine how HUGE this glacier is but the facts speak for themselves. 2.5 miles wide , 200 ' tall and 19 miles long ! To capture the full width I stitched 2 wide angle photos together using Windows Live Photo Gallery to create a panorama.

 

 

 

 

I used a couple of people viewing the glacier to provide scale .

 

 

 

I thought that the fire bush on the right side made a nice frame.

 

 

 

 

I caught this falling chunk of ice from a video clip and made a still photo

 

 

 

 

We took a boat ride to the glacier and found this beautiful , twisted rock formation.

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't have my telephoto lens with me so I just enlarged the photo of these 10 hikers on the glacier.

 

 

 

 

Finally , don't forget to used your video to capture calving !

 

[Gardyloo]

I used a couple of people viewing the glacier to provide scale .

 

 

This is very important if there's nothing close to the glacier to measure it against.

 

We got fortunate by having another ship between us and Hubbard, to wit -