predawn calm

[Davey]

Took this last month and forgot about it, was few hours before dawn but enough light in sky to look bright enough on 15 sec exposure but without blowing out. Exif for iso/shutter/ap (and acr settings etc if you want them).

[Wirefox]

I was hoping not to be the first to comment on this. Everything about it works for me apart from the reflection of the floods. It is easy to say in hindsight but a lower shooting position may have lengthened the reflections and softened the glare. You do not mention a ND filter and this may have also helped but I will leave that aspect of things to the experts. The colours and reflections are brilliant by the way.

[Davey]

I see what you mean about the flood lights, recapture is prob not possible even with same (or better) conditions as couldn't get much lower unfortunately as was on the opposite quayside. I could use tripod unextended but I'd still be about 9m above water but think the extra metre might make a difference so might give it a try sometime.

Your right about the filters as I don't have any. I might pick some up sometime. I'm pretty clueless when it comes to filters though so any advice on what I'd likely benefit from is appreciated. What would best cut glare from the floods but keep the reflections? All my shots are night ones as I'm otherwise engaged in the day usually (in my coffin ).

[Wirefox]

Davey

Colin is your man for this sort of thing. I would also like to hear what he has to say.

[Colin Southern]

Hi Davey,

To be brutally honest, the cloud at the top and the shadow at the bottom just doesn't "do it" for me. Apart from that, everything else look looks fine, although if you wanted less blown area in the reflections then your only choice would be to under expose by a couple of stops, and then pickup the midtones using the fill light control (I don't think noise would be an issue).

I gave it a "Photoshop 30 Second Makeover" (TM!), and this is what I came up with ...

[wjh31]

id agree in part with colin, the reflection of the cloud has been too softened by the water movement, but i'd keep the real cloud, just croping out the bottom to align the horizon a-la rule of thirds

[jacsul]

Hey Davey,
Out of Curiosity, did you shoot raw or jpeg. and what settings did you use?
BTW, nice shot...

[Davey]

Shot in raw with settings exp=13sec f=4.5 iso=64 , sorry said 15sec in previous post but checked exif and it was 13sec shutter.

Hmmm I like the cloud myself but maybe biased as I'm british and if we didn't have some in built deep seated love of overcast dreary skies, clouds (not nice fluffy summer day cumulus either) and rain then we'd be in touble I tried crop and mild rescale of water to fit rule of 3rds but liked the centred one still although the image still fits into 3 equal horizontal 3rds bands, it's just the horizon doesn't fall on one of the lines as is the norm. Maybe that's why I like the cloud as it defines the top and bottom 3rds (roughly).

Yeah I think maybe with hindsight an underexposed capture whould have been good to hdr merge or manually paint out the blown bits or something. Only prob dropping it and raising mids is noise is always an issue for my sensor, especially low light and also the water isn't actually that calm.