Fishing boats at sunset

[Manfred M]

I'm continuing to go through my images from our recent trip to the Baltic States.

This is a shot of a couple of fishing boats on Saaremaa Island, Estonia. This shot was taken at the evening Golden Hour.

[Rita]

I like the calmness of this image.

Thanks for sharing so many of your images from your travels. It is so enjoyable to view the scenes you have posted.

[lovelife65]

Gorgeous.
What I love:
the sky; wonderful details in some really cool clouds.
The water; beautiful calm glassy water

Perfect colors too.

[Wavelength]

Really a wonderful image

[DanK]

it's a beautifully composed image, but even after viewing it several times, I find my eyes drawn away from the boats to the horizon because of the difference in brightness.

[Manfred M]

it's a beautifully composed image, but even after viewing it several times, I find my eyes drawn away from the boats to the horizon because of the difference in brightness.

Thanks Dan - this is one of those scenes where I wish I had brought my GND filters along. This is one scene where a 3-stop hard grad would have done wonders. I did apply a grad in post, but stacking more than one starts to give the image a very strange look; contrary to what I have read, applying a grad in post does not give one the same result as shooting with a physical grad filter.

I shot this as a bracketed image (+2 +1 0 -1 -2), as I thought that the highlights and shadow details would give me issues. I'm going to have another go at it to see if I can tone down the clouds without making the whole image look too strange.

[Teton Chuck]

Very nice shot. Peaceful.

[MrB]

A captured moment of serenity. (To be left as it is.)

Cheers.
Philip

[LePetomane]

Manfred, how would you have used the hard edge grad ND filter in that photo?

[Manfred M]

Manfred, how would you have used the hard edge grad ND filter in that photo?

Right on the horizon line. This is a classic hard grad shot. The ship's masts / rigging might need a bit of work in recovery, but not much if any. What I often do with this type of scene is take one shot with the filter in place and another with it removed and then blend the two shots in post. I try to do these with a tripod (I did have one with me), which makes all the alignment and multiple shots quite repeatable.

The advantage of my Lee hard grads is that the area above the transition is all the same shade, unlike a grad in PP where it tends to be much more feathered.

[bodi]

Being a person who will never get to the places you've been, I really appreciate your pictures and the accompanying dialog. Thanks again, Bob

[Guzzibob]

Great shot, the sky looks ok with quite a bit of detail so doesn’t bother me at all.