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Hey Everyone!
Had an opportunity to head to one of Washington State’s nearly secluded beaches (the town we stayed at has a permanent population of 207!), and got one great sunset at the end of our trip. I bolted outside as the sun poked through the clouds (it was raining), and grabbed a set of bracketed JPEGs and RAW files 2 stops apart (-1 EV, -3 EV, and +1 EV).I merged the JPEGs (not the RAW files) in Affinity Photo’s HDR merging program.
Canon EOS 60D
Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
28mm
f/9
1/40
ISO 640, 160, 2500In editor:
Tone Map
Tone Compression 2%
Blackpoint lowered slightly
Saturation was increased
Contrast was increased slightly
Curves were also adjustedSo… whaddya think?
I also attached the un-HDRed and unedited image at -1 Exposure Compensation. Maybe it looks better (aside from the crooked horizon)?
Thanks,
Logan
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Beautiful scenery!
Comparing the edit to the original, I prefer the colouring you’ve been able to pull out through editing the picture. There’s just a couple things that come to mind…
1) In the edited version, there seems to be a “distorted halo” around the sun. I’m guessing that’s due to a colour/saturation correction. Maybe try editing the colour in the photo to avoid that.
2) The lens flare in the left corner is a bit distracting I find…maybe try editing that out or colouring that portion of the image to diminish its presence. Did you use Live View to focus on the sun and then move the camera to compose the shot? I’ve found that the more I move the camera after I focus on the sun, the more lens flares I get.
3) With a shutter speed of 1/40 were you using a tripod or doing handheld? It’s looks like the shot might be a tad out of focus, but it might just be noise from the higher ISO.
4) And on a side note, blurring out the grass a bit more would draw the eye more towards to sun and shoreline. Lowering aperture would help, but might affect the rest of the picture negatively. No sure if you can adjust that post-processing.
Just a few ideas. 🙂
- This reply was modified 54 years, 11 months ago by .
Hey @morganwriter1gmail-com,
Thanks for responding (and great to hear from you since ACTION).
As far as using a tripod… it was raining, I was barefoot (on dune grass—recipe for splinters! fortunately, I didn’t get any), and I wasn’t wearing a jacket… so no tripod 🙂 . It was also pretty windy, so that might explain the motion blur even at 28mm and 1/40.The out of focus lens flare in the left corner are raindrops on my lens. I have photos taken immediately after I wiped my UV filter off, so I could try using one of those to diminish that.
I think the “distorted halo” comes from my HDR merge in Affinity, not the saturation correction. I completely agree with you—that is annoying.
You know, I’m thinking I should try editing my RAW image instead of making an HDR merge out of the bracketed JPEGs. It would take care of the distorted halo, at least. I think I would prefer to keep the grass in focus, but making it darker using a local adjustment would also help to move the focus of the photo to the sky and shoreline. I also think using the single RAW image wouldn’t pop out those raindrops as much (making them more subtle).
Thanks!
–LoganHey @loganlamar,
I had to smile…what we as photographers do from the sake of a picture! 🙂 Glad you were no worse for the wear, and it makes a good background story.
Yes, if it was windy, I think that’d probably account for some of the motion blur then.
You know, I was thinking to myself that was quite the impressive lens flare to have so many “bubbles” like that – rain makes more sense!
I’d say give editing the RAW a try for sure and see what happens. I think I was looking at the first photo instead of the second while writing the grass section…in the first image, the grass is too bright and noticeable. In the second, it adds a framing aspect but like you pointed out, darkening it with a local adjustment would be a good idea, I think.
If you end up playing with the single RAW image, it’d be nice to see what you come up with. 🙂
Happy to help!
-Morgan- This reply was modified 54 years, 11 months ago by .
If I end up pulling out the RAW file, I’ll be sure to post my results.
Oh, and happy 4th, by the way @morganwriter1gmail-com 😉- This reply was modified 54 years, 11 months ago by .
I like your composition, the sun off to the left. It actually brings some emphasis to the distant coast, which though so small still plays a part in the beauty of the image. The color in the sky is absolutely stunning. I’m glad you went for something interesting in the foreground, but I wonder if including at least half sky would be more interesting? I think the hexagonal spots are kind of a neat effect. The ones on the left at least. Perhaps the ones on the right make it look more “muddy” rather than “artistic” so would probably opt for taking some photos with them and some photos without to choose which ones I like better later. Last comment….did the sun stay out long enough for you to run up to the beach and get some reflection-across-the-water shots?
@jamesstaddon (and @morganwriter1gmail-com might want to hear this too)…More to my earlier story… I was shooting on the beach during the slight sunset about an hour before this one (I was playing with my brand-new ND filters and brand-new aluminum tripod I got as a graduation gift) and this gull landed not far from me. I had my 18-200mm attached, so I frantically unscrewed the filter on the front, grabbed the first attached photo (which didn’t turn out sharp, unfortunately), and BOOM!!! It didn’t take too long for me to realize my life was more important than my photo of a gull… (aluminum tripod + huge flat beach + approaching thunderstorm = yeah, get inside NOW) so no on the beach reflections. It was still raining, and I didn’t want to wander far from our beach house (the thunder had subsided, though).
So… I skimmed through my other photos, and unfortunately, I didn’t really consider that the sky might be more interesting than the dune grass. I have one set of bracketed RAW + JPEG images (haven’t totally convinced me yet to go pure RAW, @jamesstaddon, but you’re helping) where the sky is more emphasized as opposed to the foreground. It’s attached below.
I was actually reading a photography article where they suggested spritzing some water on the lens to get those out of focus “bubbles” on the lens. Mine were purely natural, though. I was wet, my camera was wet, my lens was wet… it was great. I think the effect looks kind of neat, when done rightly.
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You know, that’s a pretty good story you’ve got there! Brought more than a few smiles and looks of panic from us Canadians. 🙂
As for the gull picture…I like the look you are going for despite the out of focusness. The colours in the other picture are stunning!
Hmm…I don’t know if I could be persuaded to purposefully spray my camera lens (panic!)…but if it happened by naturally I might not mind as much since it can give it a neat effect. 🙂
As for shooting in full RAW, I did the first half of my shooting career in JPEG-L and the latter half in RAW. Despite the larger file aspect, I’ve enjoyed the RAW opinion better for quality and editing. 🙂
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