Sac Refuge Sunset + RP

Gallery: LandscapePosted December 30, 2017948 views8 comments

This one is from a couple of years ago. I had posted a couple of others at that time, from the same outing. D800e, 16-28 @ 28, f20, 1/1000, ISO 800. The settings are a reflection of my more usual bird photography at this location, as well as having to hand-hold the camera through the car window. Getting out of the vehicle, except in a very few places, is not allowed here. Comments and criticism are very much appreciated.

Comments

8 comments

Comment posted by Preston Birdwell on December 30, 2017 at 6:48 PM

Nice light, and a great sky, Jim. I like the sun peeping through the tree. The large version show the detail, especially in the foreground, much better. You did a nice job with the processing.

--P

Registered on November 1, 2003, 471 Posts, 5188 Comments

Comment posted by Harley Goldman on December 31, 2017 at 6:39 AM

Real nice sky and scene. I might burn down the brghter foreground reeds. They seem a bit bright for the scene and lighting in the rest of the image, kind of like you popped a flash. I really like the sky and shapely trees.

Registered on November 19, 2003, 586 Posts, 11271 Comments

Comment posted by Harry Lichtman on December 31, 2017 at 5:37 PM

Beautiful sunrise - I can see why birding would be so good. Wow, never heard of a place where you can't get out of your car. The bottom grasses appear a little "muddy" to me. Maybe a slight selective adjustment in color balance might help here. An adjustment in the blacks specifically might be the area to try first. Might crop a little off the bottom as well.

Registered on September 17, 2010, 304 Posts, 3507 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on January 1, 2018 at 12:47 PM

Jim,

Beautiful sunset and beautiful colors. Love the sky, the sun thru the trees and all the waterfowl on the beautifully colored water. Hard to go wrong here!

If I had a wish, and not much you could have done differently, but I wish the bottom row of reeds wasn't angled. Of course that's just the way the road and marsh are with respect to the direction of the setting sun. If anything, I guess cropping some off the bottom to eliminate much of the darker areas with no detail in the LR. But that's pretty minor.

A wonderful moment captured and presented.

Lon

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

Comment posted by Igor Doncov on January 1, 2018 at 1:50 PM

What an incredible sky! It was worth stopping just for that. I would burn in the reeds just because of how unnatural they look facing away from the sun. Burn them in but not to total black and desaturate. I think the comp is really good with the 2 trees and all those ducks. There's a real sense of evening peace at such times, particularly in the summer.

Registered on November 22, 2014, 189 Posts, 2733 Comments

Comment posted by Jim Hansen on January 1, 2018 at 5:21 PM

Here is another version based mostly on your comments and suggestions. I have darkened the foreground vegetation and cropped it to 16:9. I am interested if you think this is an improvement. Thanks.

Registered on May 5, 2011, 161 Posts, 908 Comments

Comment posted by Dan Kearl on January 2, 2018 at 12:08 AM

I like the OP better than the repost, the dark bottom anchors the image, the repost looks thin to me.

Registered on September 2, 2013, 209 Posts, 1514 Comments

Comment posted by Mike Ramy on April 20, 2018 at 1:40 PM

Hey Jim,
This is a really cool shot, my vote is for the re-post . . . laugh

Registered on June 16, 2012, 567 Posts, 2809 Comments