Muted light

[tbob]

Since January or February I have been going out well before dawn (well not in summer, In summer at my latitude predawn is 3 am) and shooting. I quite like the muted tones. It works really well for dried vegetation as once the sun comes up the grass is very reflective and becomes this horrid, pale shiny stuff which is hard to work with in processing.

I have to be a bit careful bringing up the shadows, can get really quite noisy if I push it too hard.

These were taken the same morning, just shifted position to take advantage of the light (what there was)

About a half hour before sunrise





About one minute after sunrise with the sun hidden in the clouds

[Shadowman]

Nice set, my preference is for the first because of the entrances being so prominent.

[JBW]

#2: the subtle colors are Superb. How about trying for a dusk shot?

[FootLoose]

+1 to John's remarks. The dark openings invite visual investigation.

[tbob]

#2: the subtle colors are Superb. How about trying for a dusk shot?

May be coming to a computer screen near you!

[DanK]

I agree that the first is more interesting, but IMHO, the buildings are so dark that a lot of interesting detail is lost.

So, I tried a quick edit. I did this:

1. I selected the buildings and grass. I applied a curves adjustment, pulling the white point down and adding just a bit of contrast. I used a luminosity blend mode in order not to increase saturation, given that the muted colors were part of what you were after.

2. I lifted the shadows with a global adjustment, but I set the tone range very low (I should have kept track of the number) so as to lighten only the darkest part.

Not a great job, but would this be a useful direction to go in, do you think?

[tbob]

I agree that the first is more interesting, but IMHO, the buildings are so dark that a lot of interesting detail is lost.

So, I tried a quick edit. I did this:

1. I selected the buildings and grass. I applied a curves adjustment, pulling the white point down and adding just a bit of contrast. I used a luminosity blend mode in order not to increase saturation, given that the muted colors were part of what you were after.

2. I lifted the shadows with a global adjustment, but I set the tone range very low (I should have kept track of the number) so as to lighten only the darkest part.

Not a great job, but would this be a useful direction to go in, do you think?

I greatly appreciate your opinion and the version. I did initially have the buildings lighter, however it is a different image overall and plus I was not comfortable with the amount of noise generated by the conversion. I was content with the overall darker version in the end analysis

[DanK]

I did initially have the buildings lighter, however it is a different image overall and plus I was not comfortable with the amount of noise generated by the conversion.

Trevor,

I do a fair amount of night photography, another genre where one often wants the final product to be dark. My unsolicited advice: don't necessarily expose that way. You found the reason: noise. In doing night photography, if the look I would want would entail a dark exposure, I often expose further to the right and then darken in post. Doing this minimizes noise. It's not always possible, of course, e.g., if you have something moving, but it often is.

[Manfred M]

+1 to Dan's comments as this is also my favoured workflow. Low ISO and ETTR gives the photographer a very solid base image (assuming shot in raw), which nails down both the black point and the white point. Playing with the midtones is often where the creativity lies in shots taken at dusk through to the end of blue hour.