Capture a complete rainbow in the dark

[Yan Zhang]

The following pictures came from the same one raw file. The first one is just in a panorama form. I took it on this Wed morning, Coogee beach in Sydney.

I went to the beach at 5.30am, it was very dark (it is winter here) and was a bit raining. I planned to wait for a while to see if the rain could stop in a moment. But I saw a white curve stuff over the dark sky (only saw the right side in front of me), I thought it was cloud. So I decided to take a photo of it. In the darkness, no way to focus on any objects even with my small torch on. So I just manually adjusted the focal distance between 1 meter to infinity
(closer to infinity). Then I turned the aperture to f/2.8 to measure shutter speed under ISO 200, and then turned aperture back to f/11. It would need about 8 minutes. So I started exposure with my hat to protect my camera lens. When finished, it turned out to be a complete rainbow.

Shooting information:
ISO 200
Shutter speed: 458 seconds
Focal length 16mm
Aperture f/11

I prefer the panorama one. But don't know what other people think. Thank for your comments.

[Shutterman]

Yan,

I can't see the top one (it's probably my computer at work though) but i'll comment on the bottom one. Just from a viewers perspective, beautiful shot. Amazing that you did this that early in the morning. I love the warm feeling it conveys, and the scale. It has a great perspective, doesn't seem compressed at all, or stacked, and I like that. Congratulations on the capture!!

[Wirefox]

I cannot say I find the rainbow the main attraction. This is a very nice image full stop. Bags of atmosphere and a welcome variation on the land/jetty/sea/sky photographs that used to adorn every photography magazine known to man.

[Colin Southern]

Well done Yan - it's a brave man who bets on a rainbow hanging around for 8 minutes!

PS: I can't see the top image either

[Yan Zhang]

Wirefox, Shutterman and Colin,

Thanks for your encouragement. Let me try to post the first photo again:

[Colin Southern]

Hi Yan,

Personally, I'd crop the right hand side so that the gap to the end post was the same as on the left - and try to increase the saturation of the rainbow (try wiping the saturation sponge over it).

[Rodders]

Hello Yan,

What you have there is a Moon-bow. Its a very nice photo.

[Colin Southern]

Thought of the moment Yan - I've got a bit of spare time later on today - if your keen, send me the *.CR2 and I'll give it a "Photoshop 30 Second Makeover" (TM!) for you.

[Yan Zhang]

Hello Yan,

What you have there is a Moon-bow. Its a very nice photo.

Rodders,

I don't know there is a so called "Moon-bow", this solves my puzzle - as I was wondering
why there was a rainbow on the east direction, where the sun was still under the horizon and about 45 min later, the sun came out from there too. Thanks for your comments.

[Yan Zhang]

Thought of the moment Yan - I've got a bit of spare time later on today - if your keen, send me the *.CR2 and I'll give it a "Photoshop 30 Second Makeover" (TM!) for you.

Colin,

I'll send the raw file to you soon and will leave a PM to you when finishing the upload. Thanks!

[Colin Southern]

Hi Yan,

Sorry - I didn't get as much free time as I thought I'd have - so here's a quick job (sorry, it's a bit rough in places).

[Yan Zhang]

Colin,

Thanks for this. It really looks great! I am wondering if you have done something to saturate the rainbow?

[Colin Southern]

Colin,

Thanks for this. It really looks great! I am wondering if you have done something to saturate the rainbow?

Essentially, once the shot was correctly white-balanced, the sky becomes a neutral gray - so the saturation tool can then be used to saturate the rainbow

Your original shot (above) has a wicked colour cast!

[Dave Humphries]

But it was dawn, it was supposed to be that colour

Now you've made it all dreary like a wet weekend in <insert placename of your choice>

[Colin Southern]

Now you've made it all dreary like a wet weekend in <insert placename of your choice>

I'm sorry for producing such a dreary looking image

*** goes for a walk with tail tucked between legs ***

[Davey]

I love it, the wide one really works for me. I like the wb adjusted one but see what dave means as it's not obvious it's still night really. Perhaps tweaking the wb and other things you could make it look more like a night shot without the orange colour cast.

I'm thinking along the lines of what you get when you take a shot with no sodium glow whatsoever in pitch black night under a full moon which always seems to give images a surreal ghostly blue cast and eerie sky.

[Yan Zhang]

Thanks for Dave and Davey's comments on these two versions.

I asked my 2 kids and wife to tell me their preference between my original and Colin's revision, they seemed more like my original one. But I like Colin's rainbow appearance indeed I'll see if I can get something in between.