Sun breaking out of a fairly dense morning mist. This was shot a week after Hurricane Michael which dealt 180- 205 mph winds to this area, which is less that two miles from my back door. The old cypress stands took a terrible hit from the storm.
Type of Critique Requested
Conceptual: Focus on the message and story conveyed by the image.
Emotional: Focus on the emotional impact and artistic value of the image.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
I was drifting in a boat, both looking for good compositions and surveying the damage. Given I was shooting from a boat, do you feel a higher ISO to compensate for the low light would have provided sharper details to the limbs, thus making the scene richer in detail, or does the apocalyptic feel come across as is.
Technical Details
D810, 200-500, ISO 400, f/22, 1/40
This is almost SOOC. The only processing I did was in RAW to knock down the whites and highlights to better define the sun’s orb and sharpening and denoising in On1.
Shooting from a boat is super tough, so I can appreciate the challenge here. A few things I would note, personally, as I’m guessing you were shooting in manual?
I find when you’re on a moving boat like this, it’s best to set your Aperture and shutter speed manually and then letting the camera handle ISO on its own in matrix metering. I’m not sure you need f/22 for this scene - probably f/8 or f/11 would have been fine and then you could have had a lower ISO or higher shutter speed… for me the sun is way too blown out and dominates the scene - which is sad for me because these trees are super cool, I think you found a nice composition! I love the mood it conveys with the colors here… so really my only complaint is the huge blown out sun =)
Except, while it is bright, it is not blown out (242). I agree with the aperture/shutter/ISO as I had been shooting my other body and forgot to reset the D810. I have never had particularly good success with Auto ISO as it tends to push higher than I would normally shoot.
Yeah it can be tricky for sure. I used it almost exclusively for a week in Antarctica on moving boats. If you’re finding it going too hot, you can always use exposure compensation to… compensate. =)
Beautiful sunset image. And a great story too - those trees look quite haggerdly and the tipping over of the main center tree really brings the story home - although the calm waters might say otherwise. The “aftermath” captured beautifully.
I get Matt’s comment on the sun - but it is THE Sun after all. I think it works well overall, especially the transition of the yellow to the orange surrounding the sun.
No suggestions otherwise. You did well to tame the saturation in the sky, this looks quite natural.
