Pacific Coast Seascape

[dmichaud]

Took this shoot a few days ago at Rodeo Beach, California, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge.


Rodeo Beach Twilight by Dave Michaud

Canon 50D
ISO 100, f/8, 2 sec, at 10mm
I used a Singh-Ray 3 stop reverse ND grad and a Lee .75 ND grad with a Lee filter holder.

Did some basic post processing including curves, sharpening, and some dodge/burn.

I'd appreciate any feedback, especially on post processing tips as I'm still learning Photoshop.

Thanks!
Dave

[rpcrowe]

Lovely and artistic image...

[arith]

fashionable image.

[Wirefox]

fashionable image

Yep. Fluffy sea and rocks.

[Peter Ryan]

Nice colour and movemenr. Well done.

[Colin Southern]

Hi Dave,

Looks pretty good to me. Just be aware than when you use double resin filters you typically get IR leaking through and biasing the colours towards those you see here (which is something you may or may not want) (you'll see the same effect in some of my work).

With this kind of shot (and a UWA lens) you can actually get pretty low to the ground for some agressive perspective shots - something you might like to try (I tend to do it because it gives a perspective that's unusual, and that generally makes for a "different" looking shot. Varying your shutterspeed will also give very different looks.

[dmichaud]

Thanks for feedback folks, much appreciated.

Colin, I thought something was a bit odd about the sky color, although I do like it. What type of bias does this IR leaking create, more magenta perhaps? And what would be the best way to get a more natural color with Photoshop? Also, great point on getting low with the UWA lens, will try that next time.

Thanks, Dave

[Colin Southern]

Colin, I thought something was a bit odd about the sky color, although I do like it. What type of bias does this IR leaking create, more magenta perhaps?

Yes. Probably my best example of this is this image ...

And what would be the best way to get a more natural color with Photoshop?

About all you can do afterwards is play with the colour temp and tint; often (with a big adjustment) you'll get something that looks good, but isn't technically accurate (which is no big deal with landscape). Often it's easier just to avoid using double resin filters - a combination I use far more often is a single Singh-Ray GND or Reverse GND in combination with a Singh-Ray Vari-ND. You really shouldn't need double GND; it's usually sufficient to just use 1 and then reveal the desired degree of shadow detail using ACR's fill light control (the camera captures a big dynamic range; a lot of info that we can't see unless we push the shadow detail up into the visible region). Just push the exposure close to the max (definately a case of Expose to the Right).

Also, don't forget tht it's trivial to bracket your exposures and then combine with a layer mask; so long as there isn't any movement in your transition zone it doesn't cause any complications.

[dmichaud]

Great stuff, thanks Colin!

[dharankk9]

Lovely shot .. Keep it up! Thanks for sharing