Ravenglass Sunset

[peterb533]

Shot on one of only two nights in two weeks where this was possible.

[Keith]

Great colours and reflections, I like the way you have cropped it too, a rare moment with the weather we are having again this summer.

Keith

[carregwen]

Very good, Peter. A fine example of the rule of thirds in a composition. Colours are good too.

[Wirefox]

Very nice Peter. I used to live in Whitehaven and this estuary was one of my favourite haunts. Usually leaden skies and drizzle but tremendous atmosphere. This image has a very nice walk in (float in?) quality to it. Too may landscapes are technically excellent but flat as a postcard.


Steve

[CNelson]

Wow! Very nice.

Chuck

[GillR]

Super colours and a lovely composition.

[Dave Humphries]

Brilliant Peter, well done

[Colin Southern]

Hi Peter,

Did you shoot it RAW?

[Alis]

Landscape photography would be the last thing I consider myself expert in but here is what I think about this shot:

Although it has many of the components of a great shot, especially the vivid colors and even good composition, something seems wrong about it. I think it look a little bit "disorganized" and crowded; two boats share the attention, the water in the middle is something between a river and a lake or bay, we can see a lot of detail on the boat which I think is not interesting at all and should be completely dark, a few "objects" in the center of the shot and on the shore, and the fact that there is a lot going on behind the big boat where it should be just water or something that does not obscure the outline of the boat.

Also. the anlge of view of the camera is not perpendicular to the shore, which I think looks sort of weird.

I am not sure if I am describing what I mean clearly. I think it comes very close to a great shot specially the colors and the clouds but when you look at the lower half of the picture, it is just does not make it.

My be another try from a different angle?

My humble opinion, wondering what you guys think about my harsh critique. Unfair?

Cheers,

Alis

[Colin Southern]

My humble opinion, wondering what you guys think about my harsh critique. Unfair?

Personally, I'm hoping to get my hands on the RAW capture, and see what I can pull out of it. I suspect that the right-hand boat could be cropped off, but I suspect theres more colour to be gained by adjusting the WB and playing with the saturation.

[peterb533]

Hi Peter,

Did you shoot it RAW?

Hi Colin,

Yes, it was shot in RAW. My original idea was to shoot three bracketed exposures and produce an HDR from them, but as it was so windy the cloud movement spoiled that, so this was the 'normal' exposure processed with Lightroom and sharpened in PS.

Peter

[Colin Southern]

Yes, it was shot in RAW. My original idea was to shoot three bracketed exposures and produce an HDR from them, but as it was so windy the cloud movement spoiled that, so this was the 'normal' exposure processed with Lightroom and sharpened in PS.

Hi Peter,

Would you like me to have a "crack" at processing the RAW for a bit of fun?

By the way, you can still do HDR when there's movement in scenes like this because the extremes of dynamic range are in different areas, so all you need to do (in principle) is to create a layer mask to transition between the various areas (in practice you may have to bind various adjustment layers to each image which can make it a bit trickier though).

[peterb533]

Hi Peter,

Would you like me to have a "crack" at processing the RAW for a bit of fun?

By the way, you can still do HDR when there's movement in scenes like this because the extremes of dynamic range are in different areas, so all you need to do (in principle) is to create a layer mask to transition between the various areas (in practice you may have to bind various adjustment layers to each image which can make it a bit trickier though).

Why not May have to wait until next week though as I'm at work now and away for a long weekend as its wedding anniversary I know you've given details of how to send RAW file before but I wasn't paying attention then so could you repeat?

Peter

[carregwen]

Hi Peter,

Would you like me to have a "crack" at processing the RAW for a bit of fun?

By the way, you can still do HDR when there's movement in scenes like this because the extremes of dynamic range are in different areas, so all you need to do (in principle) is to create a layer mask to transition between the various areas (in practice you may have to bind various adjustment layers to each image which can make it a bit trickier though).

You can also create three differently exposed versions in ACR and output three TIFFs, then merge those. It's not quite as good as three in-camera exposures, but there isn't much difference. And you don't need to align them in HDR processor.

Peter. The upload link is http://uploading.com/signup/

[Colin Southern]

Why not May have to wait until next week though as I'm at work now and away for a long weekend as its wedding anniversary I know you've given details of how to send RAW file before but I wasn't paying attention then so could you repeat?

Peter

Hi Peter,

Easiest way is to pop along to www.sendthisfile.com and create a free account - address the upload to yourself - and then just copy/paste the link into a PM for me

[Colin Southern]

You can also create three differently exposed versions in ACR and output three TIFFs, then merge those. It's not quite as good as three in-camera exposures, but there isn't much difference. And you don't need to align them in HDR processor.

That only works if there's already sufficient dynamic range in the RAW file, in which case what your describing can make it easier to extract, but if the required range wasn't captured in the first place (ie it contains completely blown highlights or shadow detail below the noise floor) then unfortunately no amount of "exposure adjustment" in ACR is going to recover it - and multiple exposures are required (assuming no DR compression through the use of filters etc).

[carregwen]

That only works if there's already sufficient dynamic range in the RAW file, in which case what your describing can make it easier to extract, but if the required range wasn't captured in the first place (ie it contains completely blown highlights or shadow detail below the noise floor) then unfortunately no amount of "exposure adjustment" in ACR is going to recover it - and multiple exposures are required (assuming no DR compression through the use of filters etc).

What bracketing do you normally use - 1 stop, or 2? I have tried both methods and couldn't see a huge improvement with bracketing - but as you say, it does depend on what is captured.

[Colin Southern]

What bracketing do you normally use - 1 stop, or 2? I have tried both methods and couldn't see a huge improvement with bracketing - but as you say, it does depend on what is captured.

It depends totally on the DR of the scene I need to capture. I shoot with a 1Ds3 that'll fire up to a 7 shot burst over a max of 6 stops (+/- 3EV), but if your talking a more typical 3 shot bracket over a +/- 1EV range then you probably won't see any appreciable difference as it doesn't add much to the typical 12EV DR that most modern cameras capture anyway.

[Alis]

...but if your talking a more typical 3 shot bracket over a +/- 1EV range then you probably won't see any appreciable difference as it doesn't add much to the typical 12EV DR that most modern cameras capture anyway.

So, if that is the case, why most cameras only have the typical 3 stop bracketting? And how would you take more shots over a wider range with a camera like 5D which only has the 3 stop bracketing? You change the exposure time with the shutter release?

[carregwen]

It depends totally on the DR of the scene I need to capture. I shoot with a 1Ds3 that'll fire up to a 7 shot burst over a max of 6 stops (+/- 3EV), but if your talking a more typical 3 shot bracket over a +/- 1EV range then you probably won't see any appreciable difference as it doesn't add much to the typical 12EV DR that most modern cameras capture anyway.

Doh!!! I REALLY must start reading manuals... I always thought that with auto-exposure-bracketing you had to press the shutter for each different exposure, which would lead to camera shake and if it's windy things in the scene may move in the wind etc due to delays in you pressing shutter three times. The 50D and 5D allow you to set AEB (up to 2 stops) and set auto timer - in which case all three shots are taken in sequence very quickly, without you needing to touch the camera. Have not tried it with mirror-lock up or Live-view shooting but I presume they would also work.

I tried the above with a sample set of shots. (I did ask Peter first if I could post these).

I took three RAW shots on AEB using a 5D, ISO100, 1/8 sec. I chose this scene as it had a lot of contrasting light. I used a variance of 2 stops (-2EV, 0EV, +2EV). This is what the 0EV looked like out of the camera.

Shot#1


I used the three in-camera exposures in Dynamic Photo HDR to produce a tone-mapped image with 'Eye-catching' mode.

Shot#2




I then took the 0EV RAW and created two further copis, one at -2EV and another at +1EV. This is the way most people create HDR and it has some criticism, as you said yourself, Colin. I ran these through Dynamic using the same settings. This is the result

Shot#3




I think the 3 separate exposure version is best, so I took that and edited it in CS4 to improve it, and got this...

Shot#4




I also created a BW version for comparison.

Shot#5


I would tend to agree with you Colin, where the camera can record differences it might be better to take three separate exposures.