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went to bed early [at 10PM] for me and naturally enough i woke at 2.30am...
since i was up i decided to go down the waterfront at first light and try and get a flash shot of an old boat with the sunrise in the background.

Problem was the sunrise was way off to the right almost in line with the waters edge so i missed the better colours.
"sunken dawn"...


i did manage to get out on an old unused boat ramp as the tide was low and grabbed this shot at F2.8 so the flash would paint a smidgeon of light on the moored boat.
"broadwater dawn"...

Shane - both shots are great but #2 is ”feckin” awesome or in non expletive language - WOW!

Great stuff Shane. 2nd is the pic. Perhaps you could try a gradient filter at the bottom of that shot to darken the area on the water the flash has illuminated?

that's soooo pretty....

sirhc55 wrote:Shane - both shots are great but #2 is ”feckin” awesome or in non expletive language - WOW!

thanks Chris

Manta wrote:Great stuff Shane. 2nd is the pic. Perhaps you could try a gradient filter at the bottom of that shot to darken the area on the water the flash has illuminated?

i tried to darken it but it looked false so i cropped it...

Pa wrote:that's soooo pretty....

thanks Pa ... just like me

The crop works.

The 2nd is a fantastic shot Shane. And I think the cropping works better than the original. It gets rid of the flash effect at the bottom, but even if the flash effect hadn't been there, the crop works better in my opinion with the horizon on the 1/3.

Cheers
John

johnd wrote:The 2nd is a fantastic shot Shane. And I think the cropping works better than the original. It gets rid of the flash effect at the bottom, but even if the flash effect hadn't been there, the crop works better in my opinion with the horizon on the 1/3.

Cheers
John

agreed the crop look better but i would have liked just slightly less crop.

personally, the lit up boat doesn't do it for me, i'm finding it a little bit distracting from the awesome colours and texture you've caught in the clouds.

Ok, I'm not sure how to say this, but I'll try anyway...

First off, I prefer the #1 image. It's got a nice rage of tones and really good composition. I just liked when I saw it.

Number 2, the most gorgeous of sunsets, has been spoiled during PP I reckon. I find the overall contrast nice and well chosen. However, the image lacks in mid-range contrast. It almost looks posterised, because the mid contrast is so steep. I like my sunset clouds delicate and fluffy and full of gradations.

I guess I took notice merely because I've recently taken issue with my own choice of over-steepening mid-contrast in a lot of my shots.

If you can find the time of re-PPing the sunset shot with reduced mid-contrast, I'd love to see the result. Take this for what it's worth from a rank amateur...

Cheers
Steffen.

Shane,

The crop works, and yes, I agree that you may have cropped just a bit too much.

Here's a question for you: you mention that you used flash to help illuminate the boat. Do you believe that this is what happened? How far away was the boat, and what flash? I'm not criticising here; I'm merely wondering as to whether that actually occurred.

gstark wrote:Shane,

The crop works, and yes, I agree that you may have cropped just a bit too much.

Here's a question for you: you mention that you used flash to help illuminate the boat. Do you believe that this is what happened? How far away was the boat, and what flash? I'm not criticising here; I'm merely wondering as to whether that actually occurred.

I took a pic without the flash but it looked neither here nor there [it just made you look to see what was there and was annoying] so i bumped the aperture up to 2.8 and it lit up enough to see it clearly.

i use the Pentax AF540 FGZ flash which has a guide number of 54 i think.

i was using 16mm on the DA*16-50/2.8 zoom so it was just in range.[20-30 metres ish]

Steffen wrote:Ok, I'm not sure how to say this, but I'll try anyway...

First off, I prefer the #1 image. It's got a nice rage of tones and really good composition. I just liked when I saw it.

Number 2, the most gorgeous of sunsets, has been spoiled during PP I reckon. I find the overall contrast nice and well chosen. However, the image lacks in mid-range contrast. It almost looks posterised, because the mid contrast is so steep. I like my sunset clouds delicate and fluffy and full of gradations.

I guess I took notice merely because I've recently taken issue with my own choice of over-steepening mid-contrast in a lot of my shots.

If you can find the time of re-PPing the sunset shot with reduced mid-contrast, I'd love to see the result. Take this for what it's worth from a rank amateur...

Cheers
Steffen.

i didn't play with contrast at all, just sat to bring the colour back up from the dull way it opened in RAW. pretty sure that was the only adjustment i made to it apart from resize .

im not sure i know what you mean by mid contrast but your welcome to have a play with the image to show what you mean

Awesome shot in the 2nd Shane. The crop works better for me.

geoff

Big Red wrote:i was using 16mm on the DA*16-50/2.8 zoom so it was just in range.[20-30 metres ish]

Ok, thanx. Sounds like it helped. I was curious, 'cos so often you see people using flash units and you just know it's not going to help.

The sombre colours, the composition really do it for me - just love the first shot. Well done Shane.

Cheers, Mick

stunning colours! I look forward to taking some shots like this