Sublime Sunrise

[Mr Darcy]

I have been inspired lately, by Cam among others, to try my hand at Panoramas again. I tried these a few times, never with any success. I am getting closer, but have decided they need to be printed before I go further.

Anyway, to get some more material, I wandered down to Sublime Point the other week to get some more raw material. Just got around to moving them off camera this morning, and while flicking through them, decided this could stand on its own.
Taken just before sunrise (taken about 06:57. Sunrise was officially 7:03 that morning according to my GPSr)
It was blowing a gale, so there was some camera shake.

Critique welcome.

The intention was actually to get some panoramas including the 3 sisters (due west of here) at sunrise but with the wind chill, it was too cold & I gave up & went home before the sun broached the cliffs.

[CraigVTR]

Great shot Greg. Love the contrast of the fog in the valley and colour in the high cloud.

I have just gone back to some Panoramas as well. I was inspired to buy Autopano pro as Panorama Maker would not stich any panos I did, Autopano Pro does it while I sit back and have a beer. I have resurected 29 panos from a trip I did to the Uk 3 years ago and a couple of pano from Echo Point that I shot last year. Once I get them done I will post up a couple.

[colin_12]

This has lovely soft colour Greg.
I don't blame you for not sticking it out, it has been quite brisk of a morning of late. The wind does not help.

[biggerry]

Taken just before sunrise (taken about 06:57.

looks like a cracking shot - can you link to a larger version? It looks a little soft but this is probably the downsizing...

[aim54x]

Very nice shot...once again proving that the dedicated will get rewarded...it would have been cold up there at that time!

[Big Red]

nice colours as they are ... maybe try a little bit of shadows tool to bring out the cliffs a bit?

[Mr Darcy]

Not sure what the Shadow tool is that you are talking about Shane.
I am using NX2 exclusively ATM. While I have CS3, it is a Windows copy on a Mac, & while it runs, it is a pain as I have to fire up a Win VM (and shut down most other things as it takes most of the memory I have!)
Anyways, I had a go at bringing out some detail in the shadows & left the file at the original size for BigGerry.
I can't say I am happy with the rework. It looks artificial to me.
Note that I started from the original NEF again as I didn't save the old one before resizing; so there will be differences other than the shadow detail..
Here is the link (beware, it is about 4MB)
http://www.swtd.com.au/images/GJK/SublimeSunrise2.jpg

[aim54x]

I have to admit that the original is better IMHO...I hope your getting along with Capture NX2.

[surenj]

I agree with Cameron. I prefer the original.[it could be due to the large size though..I think there you may need to HDR or exposure blend to bring out the dark areas.

Can I ask a newbie question from everyone?
I notice that you are using f4. I know it's a 10mm lens, but would it not be better to use a high f stop to get more DOF or is the focus at infinity so it wouldn't matter? I would assume that the sweetspot is beyond f4?

[Mr Darcy]

I notice that you are using f4. I know it's a 10mm lens, but would it not be better to use a high f stop to get more DOF or is the focus at infinity so it wouldn't matter? I would assume that the sweetspot is beyond f4?

Yes a higher fstop would have been better, but it was low light and on a d200 it's not a great idea to push the ISO, and the gale was sufficiently strong that it was buffeting the camera on the tripod (a Gitzo), so I was after the fastest shutter speed I could get to minimise camera shake. The wind actually toppled the tripod at one point. Fortunately, I caught it & spread the legs further so it was only rocking after that.
Besides at that hour who thinks straight

[Reschsmooth]

Windy at Sublime Point? Who would have thought? I have had tripods and cameras blow over at that point.

I like the original better. Using F4, you can probably get a decent DOF with a 10mm if set to the hyperfocal distance.

[biggerry]

Besides at that hour who thinks straight

Love the contrast of the fog in the valley and colour in the high cloud.

Anyways, I had a go at bringing out some detail in the shadows & left the file at the original size for BigGerry.

There is not alot of colour in the shadows so when you use curves/levels to bring some more light into that area it becomes dull and greyish. On the original NEF, in NX2, by selecting 'Show Lost Shadows' you can get an idea of whether it is worthwhile trying to get light out a dark spot.

There seems to be alot of noise in the image (large version) even though though it was taken at iso 200, I also prefer the original version.

I think this image would be suited to canvas where any lack of sharpness is hidden by the 'bleeding' of the ink and also those colours in the sky would look great!

The wind actually toppled the tripod at one poin

you did well to even stay there - I would have turned around at the doorstep

[Mr Darcy]

I would have turned around at the doorstep

Home is more sheltered than the lookout. It wasn't till I got there that I realised it was as bad as it was.
Here is another from the set. This was taken towards the rising sun rather than away as the first one was. Uncropped this time. The first had the rather unlovely fence in the foreground before I removed it. This time click for larger (If I get the coding right)

[surenj]

Thanks for the info Greg and Patrick. I agree about the brainfreeze though. I recently tried some lightpainting at night and had to give up because I couldn't think straight and was shivering alot. Can't wait for the summer.