Sunrise Lake+repost

Gallery: LandscapePosted September 5, 2010137 views7 comments

As some of you may have noticed few of my images include sky. I can't count the times I've risen at 3 am or earlier chasing a sunrise or hoping to find some of that "magic hour" light of lore, and it just doesn't happen. OK, enough whining.
This image does have some sky although not all that special. The sun was just starting to rise over Tatoosh making exposure a little lop-sided on the far shore. Also still trying to figure out how to balance the sharpening between the smaller and larger file sizes. Comments welcome and thanks for looking. However, please ignore the muddy fg and any other unattractive elements you might find in the image. Just kidding.

Larger version included.

D5000
12-24 @ 18mm w/cp
f/14 @ 1/6 sec
ISO 160
3 stop reverse GND
8-10% crop from the top

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on September 5, 2010 at 5:47 PM

Bruce,

I think this is a nicely composed reflection image. I think the clouds adds some great symmetry and I really like how the logs lead the eye in to the frame.

You might end up kicking yourself for mentioning the "muddy fg." I say that because my first thought was muddy shadows... but I think you mean the piece of muddy ground at the very bottom? That bothers me less than the imbalance of light/dark between the top and bottom. The reflection should of course be at a minimum even with the top, and probably a little darker. I think if you simply selective dropped the shadows and/or midtones in the lower portion of the image (the reflection,) then this would make a very nice image, great. The only other suggestion I have is a slight crop off the top, say 1/4 - 1/3 of the sky above the trees; down to about a 4:5 format.

A couple of easy tweaks and this will be wonderful.

Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments

Comment posted by Chris Chamberlain on September 5, 2010 at 5:49 PM

I don't find anything unattractive here! It's a nice overall shot of a beautiful little lake. Did you use a polarizer? There is a bit of a dark spot in the upper center of the sky. My only real nit is the far shoreline of the lake being so close to centered, and it isn't level giving the image a feeling of being slightly tilted.

Chris

Registered on March 13, 2007, 500 Posts, 8365 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on September 5, 2010 at 9:08 PM

I like the comp for sure with the logs leading me into the frame. Lightwise the reflect clouds see a bit light but I realize that's the NDF at work.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments

Comment posted by Bruce King on September 5, 2010 at 10:35 PM

Here's the repost with the suggested changes. I like the recommendations, I'm just not sure I pulled them off effectively. Verdict?

Registered on January 14, 2010, 276 Posts, 2212 Comments

Comment posted by Morris McClung on September 6, 2010 at 10:06 AM

I think this is a pretty strong comp. I do agree with Lon on the crop making the comp stronger yet. And about the lack of richness in color and needed adjustment to the mid-tones. Still, not much work to get a great shot.

Registered on May 7, 2007, 670 Posts, 19650 Comments

Comment posted by Robin Neville on September 6, 2010 at 11:01 AM

Just wondering what it would look like cropped to almost the shoreline so your view of the sky is just the reflection.

Registered on May 25, 2009, 0 Posts, 25 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on September 6, 2010 at 6:06 PM

Bruce,

Much improved and I like the crop - just what I was thinking.

I think you could take the processing even slightly further, darkening both the highlights and mid tones in the reflection. If you look at just the clouds alone, the ones in the reflection are still slightly brighter than the sky, but much better than the original post.

You're almost there.

Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments