First Light Repost

Gallery: LandscapePosted December 21, 2010146 views8 comments

Here is a repost of the image of the first light across Resurrection Bay from Seward,AK. I boosted the contrast and upped the saturation. I tried several different this for the black at the base of the mountains, but it all looked unnatural. I could not draw any detail out of them. I did lighten them very slightly.

Canon 30D
Sigma 17-70
Aperture Priority
Shutter 1/30
Aperture f16
ISO 400
17mm
Tripod
+1 Exposure Comp.

Comments

8 comments

Comment posted by Luis Argerich on December 21, 2010 at 3:40 PM

Hi Richard,
The reflection here is very special I love the tones and the format you choose for the photo. Great work!

Registered on December 22, 2009, 91 Posts, 1349 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Schrayer on December 21, 2010 at 5:01 PM

This is a significant improvement over your original post, Richard. The sunset colors and the corresponding colors in the reflection really stand out a lot more but the saturation is still very natural looking.

With the added contrast I do see a few dust spots along the left and right edges that you will probably want to fix.

This kind of image would be a good candidate for exposure bracketing and manually blending multiple exposures to pull out some of the detail in the forested area along the base of the mountains. Sean Bagshaw has posted some helpful tutorials on these techniques on the Photo Cascadia website.

Joseph Rossbach also has a helpful tutorial here.

Finally, you may also find Tony Kuyper's tutorials and actions helpful.

I'm a novice myself at these techniques so I will refer you to the experts.

Registered on May 28, 2004, 114 Posts, 2890 Comments

Comment posted by Lori Kincaid on December 21, 2010 at 5:46 PM

Beautiful scene. Must've been spectacular to be there. I don't think the base of the mountains need more detail.

Lori

Registered on November 15, 2003, 90 Posts, 2033 Comments

Comment posted by Stan Rose on December 21, 2010 at 7:15 PM

Real nice--looks very painterly! I think a longer exposure for the shadows might have been helpful here.

Registered on September 15, 2005, 836 Posts, 17099 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on December 21, 2010 at 10:13 PM

Much improved. The colors and contrast are much better here.

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

Comment posted by Doug Roane on December 22, 2010 at 12:42 AM

a significant improvement!

Registered on December 12, 2008, 213 Posts, 2226 Comments

Comment posted by Howard Cheek on December 22, 2010 at 5:45 AM

Really like the sky & reflections I see Richard, a beautiful scene.
Great improvement, perhaps some blended/bracketed exposures would've helped here?
Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

Registered on July 24, 2008, 1201 Posts, 10758 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on December 22, 2010 at 2:31 PM

Richard,

Nice job on the rework. This looks much better in terms of the contrast as well as color and saturation. I even like that you didn't let the mountain base go all the way to black and there is hint of detail.

There is a remaining suggestion though you might want to address, and that is the ccw slant. Water is the one thing that really stands out when it's not level.

Thanks for re-working and posting the results.

Lon

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