Whale Beach Sunrise...

[Remorhaz]

I figure I'd better get in first before the "real" photographers do

I was fortunate enough to attend the Whale Beach Sunrise shoot on the 3rd of July. First of all I must give a huge thanks to the forum and the folks who both organised this and looked after a newbie like me . This was my first ever group outing and my first seascape/sunrise shoot. I enjoyed my time both scrambling over the rocks in the darkness, the company, the shooting and the chat afterwards at breakfast.

That said here are a couple of my shots - now I don't have a Grad ND Filter so I basically had to make do - which essentially meant my methods were to either post adjust a shot in Lightroom via exposure, recovery, fill and the simulated graduated filter (my first ever play with this feature) or to bracket a number of exposures (generally at 0, -2 and +2 EV) so that I had shots that at least half attempted to expose either the sky or ground somewhere near correctly and then either merge the multiple photos using HDR techniques or by layering of the different shots and blending them.

This first shot was taken pre dawn during morning twilight (it was basically still very dark to the naked eye – 6:30AM). It was taken with my Sigma 8-16mm Ultra Wide Angle lens at 8mm to include both the moon (top left) and the hint of sunrise on the middle right and involved the blending of three shots:

30 sec at f/11, ISO 200, 8mm


The next shot is an HDR taken pointing up Devils River – it’s 6:42AM – again with the Sigma 8-16mm lens at 16mm this time using three shots at 3, 0.5 and 10 seconds:

3 sec at f/16, ISO 200, 16mm


This is Devils Cauldron itself (6:52AM) - the sun is still not over the horizon and is just to the left of the frame, a HDR with the same lens @ 16mm at 1/4, 1/20 and 1 second:

1/4 sec at f/16, ISO 200, 16mm


This is on the walk back to the beach – I stopped to try a 360 degree panorama using 8 vertical shots taken at 45 degree angles (50% overlapped) on a tripod - it’s 7:41AM – again with the Sigma 8-16mm at 8mm:

1/60 sec at f/8, ISO 200, 8mm


Rodney...

[surenj]

looked after a newbie like me

You may be one, but you photos and techniques don't reflect that!

Grad ND Filter

#1 and #3 would have suited a reverse grad ND.

The compositions in general are good. The only thing I can suggest would be to accentuate the foreground as the background is not as strong (lack of clouds etc). You could try getting very low. Especially the devils cauldron shot.

You next step should be trying to remove the signature photomatix sort of effect and use it to build your own look.

How long have you had experience with photography in general? [film or digital]

[biggerry]

Good to meet you on saturday morning Rodney, sorry I could not hang around for breakfast.

Looks like you got some nice images - the first one appeals to me most, its a different look and makes the most of that blue cast, which can sometimes be horrible. The horizon on this if a fraction off, but that could be me. I would like to see the frame adjusted (obviously hindsight) so that the moon is at the 'powerpoint' (intersection of the thirds), nonetheless nice.

Good perspective on teh second and nice cloneage of the crowds The sky looks a bit off, I suspect the bracketing was not enough to capture the whole range and you possibly have some blown highlights in your -2ev image.

360 degree panorama using 8 vertical shots taken at 45 degree angles (50% overlapped) on a tripod - it’s 7:41AM – again with the Sigma 8-16mm at 8mm:

my eyes went into that pano at the left and came out the other side about 3 light years later...holy crap thats a wide lens, I am surprised you don't need to clone your feet out

seriously tho, I see two hills and some water in the middle, the scene is lost due to the small resolution of the image, I imagine it would look nice on a dual monitor setup spread across the two.

now I don't have a Grad ND Filter so I basically had to make do

I hear your pain...

This was my first ever group outing and my first seascape/sunrise shoot. I enjoyed my time both scrambling over the rocks in the darkness, the company, the shooting and the chat afterwards at breakfast.

will see ya at the next one...

[aim54x]

Good to see more photos from you Rodney.

#1 looks great

[Remorhaz]

my eyes went into that pano at the left and came out the other side about 3 light years later...holy crap thats a wide lens, I am surprised you don't need to clone your feet out

seriously tho, I see two hills and some water in the middle, the scene is lost due to the small resolution of the image, I imagine it would look nice on a dual monitor setup spread across the two.

Yes - unfortunately that small slice just doesn't do it justice and the 800 pixels in one direction restriction sort of limits this.

I have however created the QTVR interactive pano version (1280x640 window) which is a much better way of interactively viewing the scene as it were (and also how much detail you actually get in the higher res stitched pano - it's still not the original 10K x 3.1K image file but it's much better). When I've uploaded it and setup the entry page I'll post the link.

[Remorhaz]

You next step should be trying to remove the signature photomatix sort of effect and use it to build your own look.

How long have you had experience with photography in general? [film or digital]

Yes I'm finding with HDR over time (not that I've done many - perhaps only thirty or so) I've been trying to go for a less processed look rather than more - to try and get the colours and intensity to look more like it was to my eye rather than the sureal look.

To that end I'm noticing I'm going (in the tone mapping stage) for less strength, much less saturation (even reducing the shadows saturation) and something new I might have discovered after this shoot is playing with things like the highlights smoothness which seems to give me back more of the normal sky from the 0EV shot rather than the muddy HDR sky.

Any other HDR tips from those in the know - towards getting it to be more "real" rather than sureal?

I dabbled with photography (film) when I was in high school - black and white darkroom at home, etc. When I went to uni in the late 80's I basically stopped and when digital came out I've basically just had a progression of P&S's which I essentially just used in Auto mode (but did at least attempt to frame shots with some purpose) and did some panos when they first came out. I've always been interested in photography but it wasn't until I finally bit the bullet and made the move to the D90 that I've really gotten back into it (I so should have done this years ago ).

[surenj]

towards getting it to be more "real" rather than sureal?

What I do is use the HDR (usually slightly overprocessed with textures as a base image) to build up the final image from the individual bracketed shots.

Also try and remove all color casts/ flare/ CA before you start to process.

Does anyone have any other ideas??

[biggerry]

Does anyone have any other ideas??

bleeding obvious but i screw this up on a regular basis - the bracketed shots need to cover the range missing data in the highlights or dark areas just equates to bad things, especially with photmatix.

[Remorhaz]

Here is the much larger QTVR version of the pano that you can scroll around in and zoom in and out of with mouse/keyboard.

http://www.rc.au.net/pano/20100703/