Dreams May Come

Gallery: LandscapePosted June 22, 2013591 views13 comments

I've had several attempts to process this image, but haven't quite attained the result I remember the experience to be. I can remember the early dawn on this morning was filled with amazing light from the sun being diffused by cloud and heavy fog. As the fog began to lift the place erupted in a blaze of warm light. I used several exposures to try and create a blend that came close to how I remember the scene.

I guess most will prefer a less saturated version (?) so I would appreciate your honest feedback about it.

Cheers, Dave.

D80, 35mm lens, f/16, multiple exposure manual blend.

Comments

13 comments

Comment posted by Joseph Campisi on June 22, 2013 at 3:03 AM

Wonderful mood you captured here David! Love that warm soft light. Must have been enchanting to witness.

Registered on November 24, 2008, 304 Posts, 3211 Comments

Comment posted by Gary Reed on June 22, 2013 at 7:00 AM

Dave, Nice capture. I guess I find the burn at the top a little bit too much if I'm being honest. It would look more natural without it. That being said you are the one trying to recreate a mood from memory. So if this is as close as you can get then you have achieved your goal. It almost looks like a scene from a video game... Drake's fortune...

Registered on September 19, 2009, 198 Posts, 1074 Comments

Comment posted by Rick Turner on June 22, 2013 at 8:02 AM

Fantastic composition.. A little too hdr for me but this is a wall hanger and beautiful. Maybe just a little less saturation.
The low angle and the water movement sweet.

Registered on February 18, 2012, 534 Posts, 2755 Comments

Comment posted by Steve Zimic on June 22, 2013 at 8:07 AM

Wonderful title Dave as this image truly is a dream come true. Your manual blending is masterfully done and creates a scene as I imagine a good painter would create it. I'm particularly drawn to the warm sepia colors, perhaps because it's much like the tonality I get from my infrared images. As far as the saturation, I think it's perfect. I see what Gary is referring to regarding the burning of the clear sky (center top) and agree that it's perhaps a bit overdone. Perhaps just changing the color of that area to match the clear sky in the top right would help? Nevertheless and wonderful image and I'm so glad you shared it with us.

Registered on November 23, 2003, 176 Posts, 727 Comments

Comment posted by Tom Hilton on June 22, 2013 at 11:37 AM

Love it... great shot and processing

Registered on September 19, 2011, 68 Posts, 668 Comments

Comment posted by Navin Sarma on June 22, 2013 at 1:20 PM

Gorgeous scene. The heavy hot fog comes through brilliantly here. The colors are spot on, not over saturated to me. I would second the opinion to look at brightening the skies, particularly to the right of the sun.

Registered on July 17, 2011, 233 Posts, 1373 Comments

Comment posted by Genny K. on June 22, 2013 at 3:36 PM

Nice scene, and pretty, but not natural-looking to me. Too much HDR, I think, for me. The saturation may be a little to high, but it's the contrast that seems strong to me. Lovely comp, and well processed otherwise.

Registered on June 5, 2006, 132 Posts, 2001 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Pelton on June 22, 2013 at 4:59 PM

David, I really like it, but am curious what you did in processing. wonderful range of tones, but the colors seem off a little. why?

Registered on November 25, 2003, 380 Posts, 4647 Comments

Comment posted by David Edwards on June 23, 2013 at 12:32 AM

Thank you for the feedback everyone! This sure was one tough blend. It is amazing the range of light our eye can see even in high contrast scenes like this one was. The challenge was to try and recapture what I witnessed, which meant blending six exposures mainly for the areas around the sun. For the blend I used a combo of luminosity masking, blend-if, and straight painting to blend in the correctly exposed layers, all done with low contrast images.

I will work on brightening or re-blending the top sky section to balance that out, so thanks for the feedback about that :-)

Will probably reassess the color and contrast after a few test prints on canvas and gloss paper.

Cheers, Dave.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 142 Posts, 2623 Comments

Comment posted by Bruce King on June 23, 2013 at 1:46 PM

Awesome composition David. An image like this is a nightmare to process, for me anyway but I think you did pretty well. I agree with the dark sky comments but I think the colors are great, not oversaturated at all and since we use the same monitor and calibration system if I remember right I'm probably seeing pretty close to what you see depending on your calibration targets I suppose. Crazy light like this can do weird things to color but the image has a very surreal mood that I like very much. Nice work.

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

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on June 23, 2013 at 1:50 PM

David,

This is indeed very dreamy and a very beautifully captured image. The larger view is wonderful.

Now this may sound contradictory, but I love this image and scene, yet for my own personal taste looks over processed. The saturation isn't too much I don't think, so I'm not sure what it is. The hard part is that I only have this as the reference, but as you mention David, you are doing your best to recreate not only what you saw, but what you felt. And that is as it should be, so to be fair and honest, I have no nitpicks or suggestions for this. I'm just missing the experience, if that makes sense.

Lon

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

Comment posted by Nick Bristol on June 23, 2013 at 2:33 PM

David, What a fantastic mood this has. I'm really enjoying the almost storybook look and feel which I think is wonderful here. A beautiful image that shows us what you saw and felt on this special morning. I think it would be really interesting to see this in a print. Bet it would be wonderful! What a great looking location this is.