End of the Day

[kap55]

Finally got around to processing this - been trying to make it more about the bench than the sunset. Appreciate any C&C.

[Shadowman]

The Sun spot obscures the bench too much in my opinion.

[Brownbear]

Gorgeous colours and light, and beautifully photographed but for me this image is about the sunset.. The sky and the light and the mountains are just gorgeous. Is the middle portion of the image a little hazy?

[kap55]

The Sun spot obscures the bench too much in my opinion.

Thanks - not much I can do about it now but will pay more attention to that the next time an opportunity presents itself.

[kap55]

Gorgeous colours and light, and beautifully photographed but for me this image is about the sunset.. The sky and the light and the mountains are just gorgeous. Is the middle portion of the image a little hazy?

Thanks for your comments. I have a couple more (still unprocessed) without the bench. I'll see if one of them works a little better.

The middle portion is definitely a little hazy - this was taken in December and slash burning is usually allowed from late October on so it can be tough to get clear shots of the valley.

[flashback]

It's a great shot, not particularly bothered by the sun spot but...it looks like a CGI.

[mknittle]

It may have worked better just a bit later with the sun lower and behind the hills. Just a guess as the light changes pretty fast in the morning and evening.
Colors are nice though.

[kap55]

It's a great shot, not particularly bothered by the sun spot but...it looks like a CGI.

Thanks for the input. I think to make the shot more realistic I would have to sacrifice the lighting around the bench. This was a single exposure - I'm hoping to retake the shot with bracketing/multiple exposures.

[kap55]

It may have worked better just a bit later with the sun lower and behind the hills. Just a guess as the light changes pretty fast in the morning and evening.
Colors are nice though.

I did try to capture that - but the clouds were dissipating and were pretty much non-existent as the sun went behind the hills.

[FrankMi]

Hi Brian, this is a beautiful composition!

This is a situation where I would have used bracketed exposures, perhaps 2EV apart. As it is dusk, the lighting of the foreground and near foliage is likely to be OK but can be fine tuned if needed. The bulk of the background would benefit from a lower exposure to minimize the sun's flair. The sky could then handle an even lower exposure to keep the sun from obscuring the clouds, background and water. In post processing you could then align and softly blend the images to reduce the haze and flair and still have a dramatic composition.

Because of all the variables involved and the potential need for blending image with this high an exposure range, I always shoot direct sun and sunsets as bracketed exposures so that, if needed, I can pull the detail from more than one image.

I find that shooting a sun'set' (where the sun has 'set' below the horizon) and shooting directly into the sun that is low on the horizon may require different techniques although the results look similar. If this was a sun'set', I would more likely use HDR tonemapping techniques. As this is a shot taken directly into the sun, I find that I have more control over the result if I merge the images manually as described above.

Ideally we'll be able to control the haze and flair so that we can retain the detail of objects surrounding the sun as in the following image.



Your composition is much more interesting but hopefully this one will help get the idea across.

Hope this helps!

[kap55]

Thanks for your post Frank - lots of good info there. I am definitely going to try some bracketed exposures the next time I get the opportunity.