Chris is right, I was using one of my GNDs. In this case, a 3-stop hard-step. I love the hard-step filters for this kind of imaging with a flat horizon where there aren't obstructions.
Cheers, Chris! Look forward to you processing yours, too.
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Originally Posted by Omaroo
Humayun was using one of his multiple Cokin filters at the time I recall - it was still dark so I couldn't see what he was doing too well.
Im pretty sure that he did, because here's one of mine - without filtering, straight off the camera and downsized. The sun was beautifully soft that morning, but it is more prominent in mine than his. Cokin filters are on my list now.
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Leon,
No need to apologise at all, kind sir! Not every image is to everyone's tastes, and, I appreciate you saying so!
However, I must reply.
Would you believe that there is the very bare basic processing applied in this image? Chris can attest to that because he saw me polishing my images on my MacBook Pro when we got back to his place. My processing involves distortion correction, and disabling vignetting correction (I really love dark corners as it helps to frame the image by drawing the eye into the middle) and, it's just a bit of a cool effect overall. That's the first step out of the way. The second step is to sharpen the RAW and apply the appropriate white balance setting. Auto white balance sometimes gets it right, but, where there's scenes with lots of dynamic range and bright lights and soft lights, it often gets it wrong. Fixing the white balance also has the added bonus of often warming up the scene or cooling it as all colours in the image are shifted appropriately.
The scene here is also warmed as I was using a circular polariser to help cut the glare off the water on the rocks in the foreground. This helps to add a little flatness to the image but at the same time helps to pronounce the sparkle on the edges of the rocks. The sparkle would otherwise be lost in the glare coming off the brightness in the rocks in the foreground.
Slight levels/shadows and curves adjustments are then made to slightly bring out the whites and darken the blacks, without losing detail in shadow regions.
Lastly, we are so used to seeing images taken during the daytime where the sky is often over-exposed to account for exposing the foreground. To this end, as mentioned above, I use neutral density filters which hold the sky back, and allow you to expose correctly for the foreground. In this instance, perhaps the sky is just a tad too dark, and could have been brightened by using a softer filter. However, personally, for me, it works, because we get to see the beautiful glow around the sun. Normally, you would expose for the foreground, and then use the appropriate stop filter to expose correctly for the sky.
Example:
Your foreground object exposes correctly (0 EV) at a given f/-ratio and ISO value, at 4 seconds, but, your sky exposes correctly (again, 0 EV) at 0.5 seconds. That means, there are 3 stops to account for:
0.5 -> 1
1 -> 2
2 -> 4
You would then whip out your 3-stop filter, and expose correctly for 4 seconds, but, the sky would be held back as if you were exposing it for 0.5 seconds.
In recent years, you would have noted the HDR craze which tries to mimic in software, what neutral density filters have been doing for 30 years or more. It's a lazy way of trying to capture a large dynamic range in a scene, but, it doesn't work. That, looks fake. Check out the I Hate Your HDR link in my signature to see what I mean. The images on that blog could have been decent images but were ruined by being run through the clown vomit filter that HDR is. This is just my opinion.
My personal feeling is that this is one of the better images I've taken. As I was saving the file in Photoshop, I pressed 'F' and hit Tab to hide the menus/bars, and just admired it on a black background. I can't wait to print it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by leon
IMHO, and it is only mine, although it is a great scene, and obviously well taken i think you have lost the impact factor by over processing, it, to me it seems a bit artificial, and plastic looking.
Sorry, but you said criticism was also welcome, and i don't mean to offend, but it is not one of your better ones,
Leon
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Chris is right, I try to avoid spending hours processing images. Better to get it right in the camera and make fine adjustments afterwards, than to get it wrong first and then spend all night trying to fix it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Omaroo
Not sure that it's processed too much after the capture stage at all Leon. He's very good at filter selection and use. I know Humayun and he hates processing post-camera beyond the minimalist necessities - but goes to great lengths to make sure the light we wants going into the camera is what he is after first - a real pro at it too. Straight into DPP, basic tweaks such as white point adjustment, sharpening and not much more. The scene was just like this that morning. Surreal and misty. Quite beautiful!
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Jeanette,
Thank you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jjjnettie
Beautiful!
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Thanks everyone for your interest.
H