Posts in Category: sunset
3/3/2009
Hebrides Sunset Loch: click image for larger views at SmugMug
We arrived on North Uist in the Hebrides, via the ferry from Skye, in the long long sunset. That far north it seems the sun hangs on the horizon for about 3 hours. As we drove down the island toward our B&B, we were just about pulled off the road by scenes like this. Just a little unnamed loch, with a fishing pier.
The light of the sun from behind the low clouds was clearly the subject, and always a challenging one. I exposed a variety of shots, metering on the foreground, the sky, the horizon, etc. To change the metering, my quick and dirty approach is to center the area of interest and use the exposure lock (half press the shutter release), then to reframe for composition. By including more or less sky in the metered position you and dramatically bias exposure, and you can immediately see the approximate effect on the LCD. This version was exposed primarily for the sky and the foreground was brought up in post-processing: though I have others were the sky is even more dominant.
I also cropped out a significant section of dark sky to aid the composition.
[I should mention that this is a Hebrides sunset. The sun was 30 minutes to an hour above the horizon and the color is from the low clouds. In the Hebrides, the sun hands at and just below the horizon for what seems like hours. It did not get dark for at least 3 hours after this shot, so the challenge of bringing the foreground up to natural levels was particular to the scene. Even this does not show the foreground as bright as it was in reality.]
Sony DSC H50 at about 800mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
Besides the Fill Light and Curves necessary to bring up the foreground, I applied some Vibrance and Clarity in the Presence panel. Because the foreground and high clouds (away from the sun) was dark in the original, I had quite a bit of noise once the curves were set, so I used Lightroom’s noise reduction sliders to smooth out the color.
See more of Scotland in the Scotland gallery.
PS.
After some discussion on one of the digital photo groups, I decided to go back and do some dodge and burn on the image using Lightroom’s Adjustment Brush. I selectively darkened the sky half a stop, and brought up the midground hills about the same, while bringing up the foreground rocks almost a full stop. I also increased the contrast of the foreground rocks, and the saturation of the midground hills on the right. This was a quick and dirty experiment. I would work much more carefully for a keeper.
Lightroom dodge and burn
And here it is using Lightroom’s Graduated Filter effect.
Graduated Filter effect.
2/23/2009
Southwest Sun
This is my last day in Albuquerque. I am heading home to a late winter snowstorm and all that comes with it, so…
One more sun and hot chile shot. Just a corner of a building glimpsed down a passage to small interior plaza off the main streets in Old Town, but the typical riot of New Mexico color and form. I especially like the flower head molded into the adobe. This is another sunset shot, the lower floor of this building was already in shadow, and the warmth of the light adds to the character of the image.
[Dan from Albuquerque tells this story about the flower shape, which is apparently a common Albuquerque decoration. It is made by repeatedly pressing a watermelon into the still wet adobe. This makes it an interesting visual pun, since the original Spanish immigrants to the area named the mountains that dominate the Albuquerque skyline “Sandia” (watermelon in Spanish) because the color of the range in the sunset reminded them of watermelon. Interesting! Thank you Dan for the story.]
Sony DSC H50 zoomed out to about 140mm for cropping. F4.0 @ 1/160th at ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, I added Clarity and Vibrance in the Presence panel, and used the Sharpen landscapes preset. I also, since this is really about color, pulled the black point up a bit and added just a tiny amount of saturation.
From Albuquerque.
2/22/2009
Old Town Detail
The southwest, and Albuquerque in particular, produced some of the most interesting iron work of any region of the country. This is another Old Town detail, from a second trip, when the sun was all but level on horizon. This is a second story window. Street level windows were already in shade.
I like the strong verticals which contrast with the curves of the iron, and I like the doubling of the iron curves through their shadows.
Sony DSC H50 at just under 200mm equivalent. F3.5 @ 1/125 @ ISO 160. Programed Auto.
Standard Presence processing in Lightroom, and some cropping on both the left and right.
From Albuquerque.
2/5/2009
Jetty Point
Another from that intense afternoon at Jetty Point in Arcata California. The light was spectacular. The seas ahead of the squall were amazing. The wind took your breath away. And that literally breath-taking experience is what I attempted to capture. The standing stone of the Jetty dominates the foreground and anchors the image. The sweep of the violent sea behind provides the energy. The sunset touch in the clouds warms the scene just slightly and pins it in time.
Sony DSC H9 at 31mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/250 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
Some color temperature adjustment was required in Lightroom to eliminate a slight blue cast from the cloudy light and to bring out the colors of the beginning sunset. Some Recovery for highlights. Clarity and Vibrance for Presence. Sharpened slightly.
From Northern California.
1/19/2009
Pelican Sunset
I am in Florida, and will be out and about taking pics over the next few days, so here is a transition shot from a trip to Destin FL last winter.
A friend had a tip from a local about this harbor at sunset, so we left our convention and drove down to see what was to be seen. The pelicans against the sunset offered lots of opportunities. This shot also catches a boat moving in the harbor behind the outer dunes. Composition is critical here, with the pelican carefully placed…even though “he” is facing the wrong way in the frame. Swinging him to the other side would caught hotels on the outer dunes. Still, I think it works.
Exposure was another issue. I exposed for the clouds and sunset, which left the pelican too much of a silhouette. To me silhouettes too often look unnatural…dramatic, yes…but in nature there is almost never a true silhouette. We see some detail even against the sun, or the sunset in this case. I knew while taking the image, just home much “fill light” I could apply in post-processing to bring up at least some detail in the pelican.
Sony DSC H9 at appoximately a 100mm equiv. F4.0 @ 1/200 @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
Processed in Lightroom. Moderate Recovery, Clarity, and Vibrance to bring up the sky color, then a good deal of Fill Light for the pelican. Standard sharpening.
The image is in the Emerald Coast Gallery.
12/6/2008
New Year Sunset Tree: Parson's Beach, Kennebunk ME
White snow, orange sunset. Shot at moderate telephoto, 125 mm equiv., to set the tree and bushes against the sky. Pretty straight-forward. Programed Auto. F5.0 @ 1/500 @ ISO 100. Exposed for the sky, so it required post-processing to bring up the foreground. Mainly a lot of Fill Light in Lightroom. My standard added Clarity and Vibrance. Landscape Sharpen preset. Some noise reduction to compensate for the Fill Light. I had to desaturate the blue channel in Saturation/Luminance/Hue controls to control excessive blue in the snow.