Nautilus Tutorial

One of my signature images, explained from start to finish with all-new post processing.

'Nautilus' was taken in Iceland, late in 2011. It features a spiraling ice cave and sunlight shining into it and reflecting off the cave's walls. This image has always been one of my most well-known and most successful images. It's been featured in Iceland Air's in flight magazine and in many others, and it's also sold as a postcard throughout Iceland. 

Producing a natural-looking yet optimized image under contrasty light conditions isn't easy. In this tutorial I explain the way I achieved the unique look of the image, using basic Photoshop tools.

Main subjects covered: 

• Background and location
• Shooting HDR multiple-exposure images in the field
• Manual HDR blending in Photoshop
• Using basic Photoshop tools for enhancing local contrast and selective-color saturation
• Maintaining a natural look using selective processing and masking

Runtime: 35 minutes