The Lights of Timberline Lodge

Massive Timberline Light FixtureTimberline Lodge on the south slope of Mt. Hood in Oregon is one of the classic historical lodges of North America.  Built by skilled craftsmen during the 1930’s, the lodge survives today as a living museum.  It’s an excellent hotel, with nicely appointed rooms, and an excellent bar and restaurant.  The entire business is laid out in grand scale – like the stuff was built to last…well, forever.  After 80+ years, it all looks like it just might have a chance.  The attention to detail is persistent  throughout the structure, yet the light fixture shown above, got my eye.  You just gotta ask…Why?  Massive, over-designed, and completely impractical, yet startling beautiful – or at least I think so – and so, I must guess, did the men who crafted the stuff.

I’m still experimenting with the Detail Enhancer mode of the HDR software package Photomatix.  As I’ve mentioned before, this adds a sort of magical quality to images of interiors that I find quite compelling.  The image above was generated using the Nikon D700 and the AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED at 24mm.  Exposures were f/16 and 1/4s, 1/2s, 1s, 2s, and 4s, all at an ISO of 800.  The following mapping parameters were used:

Luminosity:  0

Strength:  90

ColorSaturation:  46

WhiteClip:  0.249450

BlackClip:  0.000000

Smoothing:  Medium

Microcontrast:  10

Microsmoothing:  9

Gamma:  1.000000

HighlightsSmoothing:  21

ShadowsSmoothing:  12

ShadowsClipping:  0

ColorTemperature:  0

SaturationHighlights:  0

SaturationShadows:  0

<pmtm:Method>Details Enhancer</pmtm:Method>
<pmtm:Luminosity>0</pmtm:Luminosity>
<pmtm:Strength>90</pmtm:Strength>
<pmtm:ColorSaturation>46</pmtm:ColorSaturation>
<pmtm:WhiteClip>0.249450</pmtm:WhiteClip>
<pmtm:BlackClip>0.000000</pmtm:BlackClip>
<pmtm:Smoothing>Medium  </pmtm:Smoothing>
<pmtm:Microcontrast>10</pmtm:Microcontrast>
<pmtm:Microsmoothing>9</pmtm:Microsmoothing>
<pmtm:Gamma>1.000000</pmtm:Gamma>
<pmtm:HighlightsSmoothing>21</pmtm:HighlightsSmoothing>
<pmtm:ShadowsSmoothing>12</pmtm:ShadowsSmoothing>
<pmtm:ShadowsClipping>0</pmtm:ShadowsClipping>
<pmtm:ColorTemperature>0</pmtm:ColorTemperature>
<pmtm:SaturationHighlights>0</pmtm:SaturationHighlights>
<pmtm:SaturationShadows>0</pmtm:SaturationSha<pmtm:Method>Details Enhancer</pmtm:Method>

<pmtm:Luminosity>0</pmtm:Luminosity>

<pmtm:Strength>90</pmtm:Strength>

<pmtm:ColorSaturation>46</pmtm:ColorSaturation>

<pmtm:WhiteClip>0.249450</pmtm:WhiteClip>

<pmtm:BlackClip>0.000000</pmtm:BlackClip>

<pmtm:Smoothing>Medium </pmtm:Smoothing>

<pmtm:Microcontrast>10</pmtm:Microcontrast>

<pmtm:Microsmoothing>9</pmtm:Microsmoothing>

<pmtm:Gamma>1.000000</pmtm:Gamma>

<pmtm:HighlightsSmoothing>21</pmtm:HighlightsSmoothing>

<pmtm:ShadowsSmoothing>12</pmtm:ShadowsSmoothing>

<pmtm:ShadowsClipping>0</pmtm:ShadowsClipping>

<pmtm:ColorTemperature>0</pmtm:ColorTemperature>

<pmtm:SaturationHighlights>0</pmtm:SaturationHighlights>

<pmtm:SaturationShadows>0</pmtm:SaturationShadows

dows

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6 Responses to “The Lights of Timberline Lodge”

  1. john says:

    I think that this post is the ideal use of HDR unlike Stuck in Customs the HDR guru whose images are often completly unreal. See http://www.stuckincustoms.com/

  2. Nairb says:

    Great shot! I agree the HDR blending makes for a great looking shot with a magical sense.

  3. Peter says:

    Hi B,

    Thanks for the comment. I’m still experimenting with the Detail Enhancer mode – I’m pretty certain that I like what it does for interiors, but am still not keen on landscapes – perhaps with blending though…

    Cheers,

    P.

  4. Peter says:

    Hi John,

    Thank you for your comment. I’m still experimenting with the Detail Enhancer, but this is not something that I’ll be using much on my outdoor work. I am keen, though, to see what I can get by blending Detail-Enhanced images with conventional images or Tone-Compressed images. Stay tuned!

    Cheers,

    P.

  5. Stunning shot. You nailed it.

  6. Peter says:

    Hi Justin,

    Thank you for the kind remark! I continue to work interiors with the HDRI and will post any interesting results.

    Cheers,

    P.