HDR and Panorama during Shivanasamudra revisit with cheap CPL filter

Visitors were not allowed to step down during my last visit to Shivanasamudra. That was quite obvious too! Also I had to face ire of our usual travel gang when I went alone :D. Hence time to revisit the falls to have some excursion :-). I carried my cheap CPL filter with me since the day was hazy and believe me, it did very very good job. Almost removed 70% of haze in picture when used 90 degree from SUN axis! I was really excited since sky did not turn white in pictures :-). Most of the pictures which were shot at an angle ranging from 30-90 degrees from Sun's axis had clearly exposed SKY :-). Will share some pictures at some point later in blog.

We had hired taxi to visit Shivanasamudra and Talakaadu this time. I faced wrath of mother when traveled alone in bike last time :D. This time we were four and hence taxi would be convenient and cheap. More than our expectation, we had full fun at Bharachukki falls with water and monkeys :-). The boys enjoyed in water and I enjoyed with camera ;-). I have lot of milky ways too ;-). We had coracle ride close to main waterfall and completely drenched :D.

Back to primary topic ;-). The first is HDR shot of one of our friend watching one of divisions of Bharachukki falls. This is 5 bracketed HDR shot ranging from -2 to +2 in increments of +1EV. The camera light meter was exposing only the water but not our friend and hence I grabbed HDR shot ;-). In composed final image we have both person and waterfall properly exposed! The bright sky is magic of CPL filter ;-).

FRIEND LOOKING INTO THE WATERFALLS!

Settings:

Camera: Canon EOS 550D
Lens: 18-55mm kit lens
Focal Length: 18mm
Focus: Manual
Aperture: f/11
ISO: 100
Picture Style: Neutral
White Balance: Daylight
Metering: Center weighted average
No of images: 5
Exposures: -2.-1,0,+1,+2 (1/30s for middle one)
ML Firmware: v2.3
Softwares: Luminance HDR (Fatal operator), GIMP

While stepping up back from Bharachukki falls, I was tempted to capture full view of Bharachukki falls. Again 18mm was not enough :(. The only option was to take multiple shots and stitch them. This is 6 shot panorama picture. The weird sky is again because of CPL filter! The sky is bit weird mainly because the camera was not at proper angle from which CPL filter could be used faithfully from axis of SUN. Of-course due to changing position, it was impossible too! The final image stitched with Hugin panorama creator did turn out very well ;-). The settings were f/11 (Av mode), ISO 100 and 'daylight' white balance. Hope you will enjoy the image. The image is best viewed in full size.

PANORAMA OF BHARACHUKKI FALLS

In order to know how CPL filters work, you need to know the light physics with electromagnetic waves. There are lot articles in internet if you are interested ;-). I will be using the filter in future extensively after seeing results especially in Kaup beach :-). I did buy it long time back. Just wondering what I was doing keeping it idle. Fortunately at-least I am enlightened now ;-)

Comments and critiques are always welcome.