© Brad Mangas
I have had the urge lately to photograph some of the vast crop fields that cover the lands not only here in Kansas but most all rural areas. Cattle grazing or crops growing are truly the life lines that keep humans alive. Late last month I made a couple hundred mile trip to McPherson Co. to capture the vast wheat fields that cover that area of Kansas. Now sticking closer by it’s evident that corn and beans are the veggies of choice in this area.
This image was taken in mid afternoon, bright skies and puffy clouds lingered above the fields. Many times I will pass on shooting during these times but I’m beginning to think I miss many opportunities simply because the judge the light to be to harsh. Newer processing techniques those including the use of Topaz Adjust help in taming the extreme contrast shots like this have. It especially does a good job in bringing detail back to very bright areas as long as they are not totally overexposed. That’s the case with this shot. the skies in the raw file don’t seem to have much detail in them. I knew some detail was there from the fact I kept the histogram from fall off the far right edge with this exposure. Manual adjustments were made using Topaz Adjust to hold detail in the sky without over doing it in the foreground.
