Sunrise at Mrs Macs...

[Remorhaz]

Kath and Gerry joined me for another early morning - this time at Mrs Macquarie's Chair on Sydney Harbour. It was a brisk 5:45AM start and we were left once again with cloud free skies.

We made the best of it as we could - we started to get some smattering of low cloud on the horizon and a tick over 10 minutes before sunrise we started having this crazy pink and blue banding in the sky like a fan or pin wheel coming out from where the sun was about to rise and a minute or so later it started happening in the opposite direction over the city - like huge pink searchlights pointing up into the sky. I don't know exactly what causes this effect but it only lasted a few more minutes so it was a bit of a rush to put together a composition and include the cool sky and here we have (6:20AM with Lee 0.9 ND Grad + Heliopan CPL)...



Unfortunately the rest of the sunrise compositions aren't worth anything...

After the sun rose we tried some panoramics of the city and harbour - I found 12-24 too short (at the long end) and the 70-200 far too long (even at the 70 end) so I settled on my 17-50. This was stitched from 17 vertical captures with approx 50% overlap shot at 45mm at 1/10 sec @ f/11 (although I cropped out the last 4 or 5 frames worth on the right). Frankly I like Gerry's pano better but here is mine anyway



Lastly I switched back to the UWA and borrowed Kaths new Lee BigStopper to give it a run (thanks Kath ). This one looked good even on the back of the camera (even with and possibly because of the natural vignette) and not a lot was required in post to produce this 160 second long exposure (7:18AM with the whole kitchen sink - 12mm + Lee BigStopper + Lee 0.9 ND Grad + Heliopan CPL)

[Murray Foote]

I think the first image is stunning but I don't think the tonalities are quite right. I suspect it would work much better with the foreground rocks and the near harbour darker, as well as the pink clouds brighter.

[Bob G]

Nicely done.
I've seen and photographed these crepuscular rays in the west at Sunrise only once a few years ago.

[biggerry]

Hey Rodney, since i covered to the other two across the pond, i thought i would add a comment to the second image. The biggest gripe I have about this location is those silly 100 year old fig trees, i wish the council would just hurry up and chop them down for a better view jks.

However from a photographic point of view, i personally find these more of a distraction rather than a useful framing element, hence, for the second pano, I think shortening it up (at the expense of cramping things) to remove that tree on the left and have a unobstructed view, in every sense of the term, of the harbour and city skyline would make for a image with more impact. Some content aware fill may help there too.

[Remorhaz]

I think the first image is stunning but I don't think the tonalities are quite right. I suspect it would work much better with the foreground rocks and the near harbour darker, as well as the pink clouds brighter.

Thanks Murray - good points (see below)

Nicely done. I've seen and photographed these crepuscular rays in the west at Sunrise only once a few years ago.

Thanks Bob - it was certainly and interesting and surprising effect

Hey Rodney, since i covered to the other two across the pond, i thought i would add a comment to the second image. However from a photographic point of view, i personally find these more of a distraction rather than a useful framing element, hence, for the second pano, I think shortening it up (at the expense of cramping things) to remove that tree on the left and have a unobstructed view, in every sense of the term, of the harbour and city skyline would make for a image with more impact. Some content aware fill may help there too.

Thanks Gerry - interesting views on the figs I also took another pano sequence which went right around to the figs on the right which I havn't looked at yet - I might process them and see if framing at both ends works - I'm not hopeful because there will be a lot of negative space on the right between the bridge/nth syd and the fig tree but who knows it may work. I'll see about content awareing the left on this pano here

#1 - I took both your's (crop) and Murray's comments onboard and did a few minor tweaks to #1 - what do you think?



I also did some minor tweaks to #3 (partly based on Gerry's suggestion):

[Geoff M]

The reworked #1 works for me, a great image all round. I have never seen those type of rays before, ot atleast not aware if I have! One further improvement would be to have a slightly lower point of view so that the branches of the trees did not interupt the skyline of those high rise buildings and create a frame around them instead.

[biggerry]

I also did some minor tweaks to #3 (partly based on Gerry's suggestion):

minor crop as well? it looks pretty much the same, i am confused, which is not hard but...

[Murray Foote]

The reworked #1 is good. I suspect it could be just a touch brighter overall.

[Remorhaz]

The reworked #1 works for me, a great image all round. I have never seen those type of rays before, ot atleast not aware if I have! One further improvement would be to have a slightly lower point of view so that the branches of the trees did not interupt the skyline of those high rise buildings and create a frame around them instead.

Thanks Geoff - and good idea - might not have been possible in this case - I had to jump out to a small island rock to shoot this from - could possibly have gone a touch lower but not too much without getting camera drowned

minor crop as well? it looks pretty much the same, i am confused, which is not hard but...

very minor crop - the main change was a little warming of the centre band of the image but leaving the blue sky and water as is

[Mj]

Damn... I'm still waiting on my Heliopan CPL !!!
I love the potential of #3.
I actually think that there is just too much noise in composition of #1... a pity as that banding formation is a cracker... I'm thinking that a composition in front of the rocks would have resulted in a cleaner more balanced image and for me the rocks and tree are just getting 'in the way'.

[Remorhaz]

Damn... I'm still waiting on my Heliopan CPL !!!

Hope it comes soon - I can't remember exactly how long mine took but from vague memory it was less than a week?

I love the potential of #3. I actually think that there is just too much noise in composition of #1... a pity as that banding formation is a cracker... I'm thinking that a composition in front of the rocks would have resulted in a cleaner more balanced image and for me the rocks and tree are just getting 'in the way'.

Gerry actually suggested a different crop to #1 which I think is improved, but your point definitely has merit - his pano is probably more like what you're talking about

[Remorhaz]

I also stitched the other set of pano images I had taken which included the view all the way from the fig tree's on the left to the ones on the right so the figs now frame both ends - thoughts?



Yes it's tiny but you should see it when you zoom in 1:1 on this 150 megapixel monster you can just about see people in the windows of the buildings

[Mj]

you can just about see people in the windows of the buildings

Shhh... Google got into trouble over things like that

I quite like the fig framing... gives some balance and provides an 'anchor' relating to your location... it's also an image I've not (that I recall) seen before so that's a big plus.
I took an image of camp cove the other day and then spent a day checking the net that my image was at least in some way different to others I could find... otherwise I might as well just start saving images off the net and not bother with a camera... thankfully I think my image is fairly unique although it's close to some I've spotted.

[stubbsy]

Gerry actually suggested a different crop to #1 which I think is improved, but your point definitely has merit - his pano is probably more like what you're talking about

Rodney - for me that nails it.

[zafra52]

I prefer the first pano. Out of all of them it looks
the most natural. The others all have beautiful
colours and perspectives, but I found them a bit
overdone in the smooth department.