Sunrise Contemplation.. Canon 5D Mark II first light!

[iceman (Mike)]

A lone fisherman, contemplating life, work, family – who knows, maybe just hoping he doesn’t get washed off by a big wave, or hoping he gets a nice catch for the morning.

I'm terrible at coming up with names/titles for my photos

Anyway this is first light for my new Canon 5D Mark II.

I headed out to Avoca Beach on Sunday 11th March and met up with Andrew Murrell (hector), hoping for some clear skies for some night scapes followed by a nice sunrise. Unfortunately not everything went to plan; the Moon was still very bright and high in the sky so almost all stars were washed out in long exposures, and as the dawn approached, the clouds disappeared and left a featureless fairly dull pre-dawn sky.

I was just about to pack up and go home, however just like on the 1st May 2011 when I captured Surf Alone, it wasn’t until the Sun was over the horizon that the golden sunrise colours really came out. The only cloud in the sky was in the direction of the Sun and allowed for some beautiful rays to extend through and beyond the clouds. I decided to try one last set of shots of a rock ledge I hadn’t been paying attention to and captured this image, Sunrise Contemplation.

I used my 24-105mm lens, with some stacked Lee ND filters that Andrew loaned me right at the last moment - they really helped this image!

- Large
- Blog

I LOVE the 5D Mark II. The full res version of this shot is stunning - so sharp from corner to corner. Happy? Yes! Yes I am!

[lacad01 (Adam)]

Well done Mike, that's a lovely shot

[multiweb (Marc)]

Beautiful colors.

[Dennis]

Very nice Mike. So the “HDR’ish look” comes from using ND filters? Even though my brain said HDR, the overall feel said no, so that explains my internal dissonance!

The tones do look very smooth, although I guess that its unlikely at this small image size, there would be a significant difference due to the FF sensor?

You have a talent for this genre.

Cheers

Dennis

[Octane (Humayun)]

Welcome aboard.

H

[iceman (Mike)]

Thanks guys.

Dennis I pushed the saturation a lot (I love the saturated look) and combined some high and low exposures in some parts with masks, so I guess it is HDR

[Octane (Humayun)]

It's not HDR. It's exposure blending. Totally different and totally legit.

Without that, and, graduated neutral density filters, life would be way, way too hard.

We'll have to hook up some time and go for a dawn shoot.

H

[h0ughy (David)]

looks hdr TO ME. the foreground dominates the shot, is that the subject or the fisherman, or the sunrise? very colourful though

[gregbradley]

Fantastic shot Mike. Love the framing. Super sharp. The 24-105 is a fabulous lens.

The ND filters controlled the dynamic range nicely and kept detail in the brighter areas.

Greg.

[Octane (Humayun)]

Probably because the filters weren't positioned on the horizon.

H

Originally Posted by h0ughy

looks hdr TO ME. the foreground dominates the shot, is that the subject or the fisherman, or the sunrise? very colourful though

[bloodhound31]

Welcome to the wonderful world of the 5DMK II Mike! Nice shot and lovely processing mate. You've captured some lovely light then applied sound processing skills to do something good with it.

Baz.

[iceman (Mike)]

Thanks Greg and Baz. Now, for some filters of my own

[astronobob (Bob)]

A beauty compo Mike, draws the eye right in ! Dig it ! !