Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Landscape & Nature Photography => Topic started by: Enda Cavanagh on February 09, 2012, 07:23:32 am
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Hi all.
Here are 2 photos from my trip to Mayo and Achill toward the end of last year. The light was pretty amazing, both before and after sunset. I managed to get 80 second exposures with the H3D on the Cambo, even though Hasselblad say I should only get 60 seconds. I actually got 90 seconds last week.
(http://www.endacavanagh.com/Enda's%20Images/Images%20for%20Luminous%20Landscape/Sunset,-Keel-Strand,-Achill-1.jpg)
(http://www.endacavanagh.com/Enda's%20Images/Images%20for%20Luminous%20Landscape/Sunset,-Keel-Strand,-Achill-2.jpg)
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They're rather good. I think that on balance, I prefer the warmer tones of the first shot, but would have been happy to ahve taken either of them
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Both excellent, especially the light playing on the rocks. #1 does a good job of avoiding a giant blob of light around the sun, something I need to work on. Are you using a filter or HDR or ...? Scott
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Wonderful location and photographs - thanks for sharing.
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Great shoots, for me #1 is the winner, great tones!
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Enda, superb images..thanks for sharing!
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Enda, I always love and look forward to your photographs appearing here. I'm not a lover of long exposure water shots - mostly because they've been done to death now - but that first one is a stunner and a wonderful illustration of how it should be done. Two superb shots, thanks for sharing
Dewi
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Both excellent, especially the light playing on the rocks. #1 does a good job of avoiding a giant blob of light around the sun, something I need to work on. Are you using a filter or HDR or ...? Scott
Ditto on the "giant blob" question? Any insights would be appreciated.
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#1 is a beauty.
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80 seconds shooting into the sun... you must have a very powerful ND filter!
I too prefer the warmer colour balance of the first one, but they're both well done.
Mike.
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Could it be that for most of those 80 seconds, the sun was still behind those clouds?
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As far as I can remember I had the 3 stop ND on at that stage. As I shoot around that time. I go from the 5 stop to the 3 stop to eventually not using an ND once the sun goes down and the light is very low. I usually only shoot at ISO 50 so noise does not become an issue.
The image consists of 6 captures to cover the full dynamic range of the scene (which was pretty vast). The 80 seconds was for the water and than I kept underexposing until the sun was just a very clear dot. It has to be just a dot or you will get "a blob" in the final image. Don't be afraid to go beyond what you think is just a dot. You can than view it later if it's too dar delete it if necessary.
Such a sky is quite difficult to get right. You have to start at the area just around the sun. Get the 2nd darkest image and lay the darkest on top. Make a mask just around the sun and play with the feathering until you get a seamless affect. You may have to play with the levels and selectively brighten the darker areas to get a match. Than when you are happy get the 3rd darkest and do the same until you are happy with the sky.
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Thanks for the reply on that technique!
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Enda
They are bloody brilliant, as usual. And I don't even like colour photography ;)
John
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It has to be just a dot or you will get "a blob" in the final image.
Thanks Enda!
Scott
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Hi Mike
I forgot to say earlier, in addition to the 3 stop ND I also had the lens centre filter on the 35mm Schneider. That adds another 2 stops and the aperture was f11
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Enda, thanks for your explanation and especially the technique for toning down the brightness of the sun.
The dark cliffs lead us right down to the sun and the wonderful color of that sky! (#1). The mist over the rocks and the effect given to the water is right out of the text books on the usage of ND filters and sunsets, and maybe it has become a common theme, but I still find it effective and it provides a nice contrast and importance to the foreground.
I live along the east coast USA and I am looking for scenes just like this one!
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By the way, I also look forward to trying that blending technique on moon shots when there are high clouds or haze in the air!
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Aesthetically speaking, I like the horizontal version better, but would have appreciated the vertical had I not seen the horizontal. Your composition is well balanced, and your post processing seems to work well. I do like the bluish hues in the vertical version, but something about the foreground bothers me. Not sure, but perhaps the contrast is too high. The horizontal version doesn't leap out as much to me, and maybe that's due to the color, I just don't know. Nice images.