Sunsets - Sometimes they are difficult to resist

[Stagecoach]

Having been out with a long lens to see if anything useful could be achieved with this driftwood tree with a high tide I gave up and decided to watch the sunset. As the sun approached the horizon the clouds started clearing, a few clouds turned to yellow and the watchers phone camera flashes started triggering.

As the sun dipped below the horizon all but one of the watchers disappeared, whether he was sat there wondering why I only then started taking pictures or knew what was going to happen I do not know.

Taken with the 80-400 Nikon, Lee .9 Med Grad, Daylight WB and hardly altered in post, NIK Pro Contrast to give some pop and a bit of Viveza Structure here and there. And a very obliging tern posing for me

No 1 - 98mm, f/14, 1/10s - Official Sunset time



No 2 - 155mm, f/14, 8 sec



No 3 - 80mm, f/14, 25 sec


Comments and suggestions welcome as always.

Grahame

[LePetomane]

Grahame, nicely done. Was the ND a reverse grad?

[Wavelength]

Wonderful...really wonderful !!!

[rpcrowe]

Nicely done... IMO. a good sunset/sunrise picture depends as much on the foreground interest as on the spectacular color of the sunset/sunrise itself. I normally don't shoot sunset/sunrise images except as an adjunct to a good looking landscape/seascape view...

[Rita]

Marvellous images.

[Stagecoach]

Grahame, nicely done. Was the ND a reverse grad?

Thanks Paul.

This was a standard grad but a reverse grad is on my shopping list for the rare occasions like this.

[Stagecoach]

Wonderful...really wonderful !!!

Thanks Nandakumar

[Stagecoach]

Nicely done... IMO. a good sunset/sunrise picture depends as much on the foreground interest as on the spectacular color of the sunset/sunrise itself. I normally don't shoot sunset/sunrise images except as an adjunct to a good looking landscape/seascape view...

Thank you Richard.

I fully agree regarding foregrounds. My aim if possible with this scene is to get up close to that log with a wide angle and have a sky similar to this at exactly the right tide level. Problems will be timing and light level on the log.

[Stagecoach]

Marvellous images.

Thank you Rita

[pschlute]

Lovely, just lovely.

[Manfred M]

Grahame - what you have done well is to shot an interesting scene that would likely work well, regardless of the lighting and then added a beautiful sunset to it. That, in my opinion, is why these images work so well.

Shoot just the sunset, as many people do, the image is not nearly as strong.

[Stagecoach]

Lovely, just lovely.

Thank you Peter

[Stagecoach]

Grahame - what you have done well is to shot an interesting scene that would likely work well, regardless of the lighting and then added a beautiful sunset to it. That, in my opinion, is why these images work so well.

Shoot just the sunset, as many people do, the image is not nearly as strong.

Thanks Manfred.

For general info regarding PP with some of these .................................

Some time ago I had read that in ACR there is a greater adjustment range available within the 'Brush' tools than what can be achieved in the normal 'Global' tools, but had not previously bothered to investigate this seriously.

As some of these had obvious red channel clipping in the bright yellow areas closest to the sun, No 1 image as a good example, I undertook some testing.

Opening two copies of the same No 1 raw file in ACR with both selected, I placed a colour picker in the area that was shown as clipped. This would then read the same area of both images when opened independently to allow reading comparisons.

On the first image in the 'global' panel I reduced the 'whites' slider by -100 and this changed the sample figure from 255,159,64 to 246,149,59. A large portion of that area still showed highlight clipping.

On the second image in the 'brush' panel I reduced the 'whites' slider by -100 and then painted this over the entire image at 100% flow and density and this changed the sample figure from 255,159,64 to 201,123,50. The entire area then showed no highlight clipping.

Whilst I'm not sure why or how this is achieved it certainly enables far greater control and adjustment of clipped areas that are so difficult to manage at capture time.

Further investigation has shown that this increased adjustment range is only available with the 'whites' and 'blacks' sliders and functions in both 'brush' and 'gradient' modes.

[selig1656]

Terrific captures and PP done extremely keenly , thus a final image of strength that leaves the spectator in awe.

[Tronhard]

Beautiful shots and with great balance.

[Stagecoach]

Terrific captures and PP done extremely keenly , thus a final image of strength that leaves the spectator in awe.

Thanks Raymond

[Stagecoach]

Beautiful shots and with great balance.

Thank you Trevor,

[Manfred M]

Thanks Manfred.

For general info regarding PP with some of these .................................

Some time ago I had read that in ACR there is a greater adjustment range available within the 'Brush' tools than what can be achieved in the normal 'Global' tools, but had not previously bothered to investigate this seriously.

As some of these had obvious red channel clipping in the bright yellow areas closest to the sun, No 1 image as a good example, I undertook some testing.

Opening two copies of the same No 1 raw file in ACR with both selected, I placed a colour picker in the area that was shown as clipped. This would then read the same area of both images when opened independently to allow reading comparisons.

On the first image in the 'global' panel I reduced the 'whites' slider by -100 and this changed the sample figure from 255,159,64 to 246,149,59. A large portion of that area still showed highlight clipping.

On the second image in the 'brush' panel I reduced the 'whites' slider by -100 and then painted this over the entire image at 100% flow and density and this changed the sample figure from 255,159,64 to 201,123,50. The entire area then showed no highlight clipping.

Whilst I'm not sure why or how this is achieved it certainly enables far greater control and adjustment of clipped areas that are so difficult to manage at capture time.

Further investigation has shown that this increased adjustment range is only available with the 'whites' and 'blacks' sliders and functions in both 'brush' and 'gradient' modes.

When faced with this type of scene, I will often resort to exposure bracketing; at usually +2 0 -2 stops. That gives me enough data to be able to put out the highlights and bring out more shadow detail, should the single exposure not have the detail to do this. I will stack the three images in Photoshop and use a layer mask to reveal the data I am looking for. That way I'm not too concerned about not being able to integrate those areas into my image.

A tripod makes this easy, but I find that even when hand-holding, I can be steady enough to get overlap in the critical areas of the image.

[Stagecoach]

When faced with this type of scene, I will often resort to exposure bracketing; at usually +2 0 -2 stops. That gives me enough data to be able to put out the highlights and bring out more shadow detail, should the single exposure not have the detail to do this. I will stack the three images in Photoshop and use a layer mask to reveal the data I am looking for. That way I'm not too concerned about not being able to integrate those areas into my image.

Generally I do not shoot directly into the sun for my seascapes hence the scene contrast is lower and processing is straight froward. On this occasion it would have been easy to bracket but I overlooked it but it's given me a chance to explore processing at extremes further in ACR.

Today I delved into the ACR brush colour and luminance range masking tool after it was covered in the recent beach/fence posting and have now found that the tree log that I had left in almost full silhouette in the above images is recoverable with a few minutes work.

Not a finished image, just an example of what was hidden under those shadows



As for that tree of which I had been planning the timing for further shots, it's now drifted inshore and sits right next to what was an old drainage pipe

[lovelife65]

just beautiful. you have taken more than just a sunset grahame. thank you for sharing, happy you did. wonderful work!