Coastal shots in less than ideal light

[ionian]

Family day trip to the coast yesterday - a wonderful way to spend some time off, and of course the camera came with me. The problem is that family day trips NEVER coincide with good light, and are not photography trips so it's handheld and one lens for me. These were all taken around lunchtime, d7100, 18-140.

Now, I'm keen for ideas to maximise the strength of my pictures in these conditions, as specific trips for photography are incredibly rare for me, working full time and bringing up a young family. I'm not looking for some magic fix to turn overhead sun into the golden hour, but comments on how to play to the strengths of each image and ways to improve (wither on the ground or in post) will be most appreciated.

1.



2.



3.



4.

[RList]

Well, we appear all burdened with pressure that all photos should be at perfect time of a day and with very specific lighting as to be as artistic as possible.
But we need also photos at midday full of sun with or without foreground or bright sky.
So, in case golden hour is missed your friends are clouds as in these photos. It can be also the sky, blue or grayish.
You could try with ND filters and long exposures if you are including water and/or clouds. That may set you free and make an impact.
Nevertheless, good photos just be careful not to overdo with PP but, again, if that pleases you, why not

[ionian]

Thanks Robert - no. 3 is definitely oversaturated in places, and no. 2 has wb issues I think. It looks different on every monitor I use... Must calibrate one of them!

[Shadowman]

Nicely exposed images, clouds are a bit hot but have enough shape to make presentable.

[Geoff F]

These were certainly worth photographing despite the difficult conditions. Which occur so often with seascapes. I had similar issues with some shots taken yesterday, which will be on my Project 52 thread.

Some, particularly #3, seem a bit heavily sharpened which is more apparent on the sea. When faced with this situation, I create a duplicate layer and sharpen that, then add a mask to slightly and selectively reduce the sharpening effect when the layers are combined. But that assumes you have suitable software for layers and masks.

The foreground of #1 has come out slightly on the dark side after exposing for the sky. An adjustment Layer and a mask could be used to slightly brighten those areas, or use an Adjustment Brush. But don't overdo any 'improvements' to such an extent that they start to look 'artificial'.

[Nicola]

Hi Simon,
from my point of view, I would say that a big improvement can come "on the ground" as you wrote. The use of a circular polarizer can increase a lot the contrast between the white clouds and blue sky, resulting in a more dramatic sky. In the pictures #1 and #4, the foreground is in the shadow, waiting for the cloud to pass by and for the sun shine over there, should let the composition be more strong.
Hope it helps.

nicola

[IzzieK]

I prefer #1 here because it looks more subtler compared to the others which has some issues, e.g., I think, sharpness is just too much. At least with #1, the clouds carry the whole shot.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Simon,

Personally, I find the detail in an image more interesting, so bear that in mind when I say ...

#1 is a decent WA shot, I'd like to see more detail, but the WA, to get the clouds, has precluded this - which is not to say that was wrong, just that this isn't my fav. It does have good leading lines and composition.

#2 has plenty of depth levels to it. but suffers, compositionally, from these forming a succession of 'barriers' (across the full width of the image) to the eye moving comfortably around the view.

#3 Nice view, but not quite level and has a WB issue.

#4 I actually found this most interesting for the detail.

I wonder, across the series, whether you lost detail in some highlights due to clipping of whites and might have controlled the exposure in shooting and PP slightly better. That said, I make these comments on viewing, not measuring them only, so I might be wrong.

Rightly (or not), I'd be tempted to sample a WB on the white clouds (being sure not to pick one that's 'blown' though) in one shot, then use that across the series for consistency, although; since you were taking shots in opposite directions, that might not always be wise.

None are bad and all display that you have an eye for a decent/interesting scene.

HTH, Dave

[Shadowman]

Light appeared to work in your favor for these captures, had you been standing closer to some of the structures or people you would have to deal with dark, contrasty shadows; you don't have that issue in any of these images.

[ionian]

Thanks very much for the comments - most helpful. I'll have a go at reprocessing 3 at some point starting from scratch. There's a decent image in there somewhere

I'm currently at a point in my processing where I'm confident with all the features of Lightroom, but have recently started doing more and more in ps and nik with much less success at present. Ps is much more powerful but I'm still learning what to do and, more importantly, when to do it.

Lastly, no4 is my personal favourite as I like the contrast between the light and shady areas. Is this something that is considered bad? I understand about having the foreground in light, but I feel that many landscapes benefit from mixed light. Just my opinion, I'm curious as to what is considered 'correct'. Best to know the rules before you break them!

[Adzman808]

Just a little thought from me... But a ND filter and setting the camera's WB via a card can help in these situations

I'm a pretty big proponent of setting a manual WB no matter what, it makes all the shots the same in post, so any changes are easy to roll out, and generally speaking helps get consistent colours (although I'm not trying to claim it can replace colour mapping)

Of course the flipside is that one really must remember to change the WB if the light changes or if you go inside for example!

There's no easy way around a lack of mid tones in a harshly lit scene, but you can look for scenes that don't really live or die by midtones, which IMO you've done in #1 and #4, but 4 is bit too sharpened for my tastes (but of course you shoot for you, not me )

[ionian]

Edits to #1 and# 3 below. I'm junking #2 and settling with #4 for the moment.

#1 edit - I've done very little except raise the levels of the foreground, being careful to balance the light. Is this better?



#3 edit - I started from scratch. With a correct white balance, the scene was very murky, and adding saturation led to horrid fakery. So I thought again about what the scene is trying to convey, watched a couple of youtubes and felt inspired to throw away 95% of the data (sorry Manfred) and go for a black and white conversion. This retains the detail in the distant landscape, while giving the eye a path around the scene using the bright areas. I finished with local sharpening to the cliffs and castle only. It's different, is it successful?




Following the advice for shooting, my CPL and ND filter kits have been added to my walk-around bag. I have a baby tripod as well, but it takes time I rarely have to get everything set up.

[Manfred M]

Simon - this is a nice series and while some images are stronger than others, I think you have done a decent job with these.

While a lot of landscape photographers I know, shoot pretty well exclusively during blue hour / golden hour, I think you have demonstrate that you can get some pretty decent shots at mid-day. The one thing I have found is that the clouds can be your friend, as most of the mid-day issues are related to the harsh light / harsh shadows brought about by sun high in the sky. Hide the sun behind some clouds and all of a sudden, you have conditions that can lead to some pretty good shots.

[NorthernFocus]

A nice set, Simon. Yes no.3 is the weakest of the lot. There's a good bit of detail to be pulled out in all those lovely clouds. Overall well done.

[rachel]

I like that in nº4 you can see the variation in shadow on the ground. It evokes a bright & breezy day at the seaside and I can almost feel the wind tangling my hair and the ups and downs of temperature as the sun comes and goes.