Sky is on fire

Gallery: LandscapePosted December 17, 2013134 views16 comments

I am a newbie having had my DSLR a few short months. I have been concentrating on nature photography - mostly birds. The other day, I was shooting at the most magnificent location, the Circle B Nature Preserve in Lakeland, FL. I got there 30 minutes prior to sunset and captured some magnificent shots lighted by the incredible sky. I have zero experience with landscape photography, but I could not resist pointing at and shooting the sky as just a remembrance of that memorable shooting experience in that magic, red light. One example of what I captured that night was a Great White Egret in flight beautifully reflecting the red sky turning his white feathers red. Anyway, for better or worse, I offer this as a quick, not thought snap shot of a magical sky.

When I shot this, my Canon 70D was set up to catch BIF shots - my main mission that eventing. Lens was a Canon 100-400 L set at 400mm, f5.6, 1/1250 ISO 6400.

I humbly apologize to you real landscape photographers, but I do intend to eventually get around to, and learn landscape photography!

Comments

16 comments

Comment posted by Ken Watkins on December 17, 2013 at 10:25 AM

Sandy,

I am not a landscape photographer, but this is a stunning sky, I might crop some from the bottom.

Registered on December 15, 2010, 1537 Posts, 4877 Comments

Comment posted by Morris McClung on December 17, 2013 at 11:49 AM

Definitely worth a shot. Must have been a sight to see. I like the graphic quality of the silouhetted trees.

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

Comment posted by Lucy VanSwearingen on December 17, 2013 at 1:14 PM

There is some noise in the sky, particularly noticeable on the left, lighter area. Also, when faced with this situation, you should think about whether you want to have the foreground all in shadow, as a silhouette.....or whether you'd like to bring out some of the detail. As I enlarged this, you are somewhere in between....with scattered light and green spots in the FG, but no definite shapes.
But, as you said, no one could have resisted taking a quick pic of that gorgeous sky!

Keep on taking photos.

Registered on May 23, 2009, 800 Posts, 2042 Comments

Comment posted by Sandy Scott on December 17, 2013 at 1:18 PM

Thanks Morris, I pretty much left it as it came out of the camera. I had to chose between three shots which all looked totally different in that the sky seemed to be changing rapidly. Anyway, it's quite pleasing that someone likes it!

Registered on December 6, 2013, 85 Posts, 345 Comments

Comment posted by Sandy Scott on December 17, 2013 at 1:20 PM

Thanks so much Morris. The shooting was amazing in this light. I hope it is okay to put up a different picture to make my point. This shot of an egret in flight did not come out tack sharp, but this is what the lighting was doing to my subjects. It took the white feathers and absolutely put them on fire!

Registered on December 6, 2013, 85 Posts, 345 Comments

Comment posted by Sandy Scott on December 17, 2013 at 1:22 PM

Thanks Lucy, great points! I was so anxious to shoot as many birds as I could in that incredible, magic light that this and a couple others I made were of the after thought, point-and-shoot variety with no regards to composition, etc. To me it just recalls that brief half hour of utter magic!

Registered on December 6, 2013, 85 Posts, 345 Comments

Comment posted by Lucy VanSwearingen on December 17, 2013 at 7:23 PM

You know, you can do a quick fix in the "digital darkroom". Just use a noise reducing program, and then darken the shrubbery to silhouettes, and Voila -- a finished photo!

P.S.: I'm not so sure, that I'm a Real Landscape Photographer...but I'm trying....I'm a work in progress!

Registered on May 23, 2009, 800 Posts, 2042 Comments

Comment posted by Sandy Scott on December 17, 2013 at 7:35 PM

Lucy, I'm not terribly adept in the digital darkroom. I sometimes used PSE11, but typically use the simplistic iPhoto. So I took when to edit it in iPhoto, and drug the de-noise bar all the way to the right, and nothing happened with the photo. I'll play with it later with another program. Thanks for the input.

Registered on December 6, 2013, 85 Posts, 345 Comments

Comment posted by Sandy Scott on December 17, 2013 at 7:40 PM

After writing the previous, I went back to iPhoto and saw that I had taken out some shadow so I restored it to the original with no shadow removed and this was the result.

Registered on December 6, 2013, 85 Posts, 345 Comments

Comment posted by Lucy VanSwearingen on December 17, 2013 at 11:40 PM

Pretty cool on the re post

Registered on May 23, 2009, 800 Posts, 2042 Comments

Comment posted by Brian Schrayer on December 17, 2013 at 11:58 PM

Sandy - I hope you will find that this forum is a great place to learn for photographers of all skill levels. You have captured some beautiful light here. The silhouetted trees accentuate the form of the trees and also provide contrast for the sky. Generally speaking when photographing silhouettes you want to avoid having large areas of pure black (however see this image as an example of how you can use pure blacks to draw attention to a subject - for every "rule" in photography there is always an exception

). I think you've done pretty well here although I could see cropping some from the bottom of the frame. One of the most difficult things to master is composition and that only comes with practice. For a first attempt I think you have done very well here.

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

Comment posted by Sandy Scott on December 18, 2013 at 8:47 AM

Brian, in a very short time I have learned so much from this forum with the great input and suggestions of members. Typically I have a reasonable eye for composition, but this was literally a snap shot to capture an incredible sky. As a retired airline pilot, I saw skies over the years that I wish I could have recorded photographically, because if I had done that, one would think some of them were manipulated they were so spectacular and unusual!

Registered on December 6, 2013, 85 Posts, 345 Comments

Comment posted by Sandy Scott on December 18, 2013 at 8:50 AM

Fascinatingly, here are two more shots of that very same sky in that part of the fascination to me as the sun went down was how it displayed itself in three distinct, amazing displays.

Registered on December 6, 2013, 85 Posts, 345 Comments

Comment posted by Sandy Scott on December 18, 2013 at 8:50 AM

Registered on December 6, 2013, 85 Posts, 345 Comments

Comment posted by Lucy VanSwearingen on December 18, 2013 at 4:20 PM

I echo Brian's sentiments exactly. You're doing great.

Registered on May 23, 2009, 800 Posts, 2042 Comments

Comment posted by Sandy Scott on December 18, 2013 at 4:26 PM

Thanks so much Lucy!

Registered on December 6, 2013, 85 Posts, 345 Comments