Thanks in advance for any critiques!
Sony A7R3, 24mm, f/11, 2.5 seconds, ISO 100.
Tricky lighting indeed! To me, the highlights are way too bright.
A beautiful composition … love the role played by the rocks in the fore and mid ground. The glow gives the image an ethereal quality.
This is excellent, Phil. Great composition, tones and atmosphere. Processing looks good except that I agree with Tony that the highlights look a bit hot. I would tone those down just a bit.
Lots to like here, Phil. I think the “steamy” atmosphere works well, and nicely framed. I would probably tone down the the exposure in the lights a little.
The color and saturation look just fine to me and the atmospherics with the mist are magical, Phil. The lighting is tricky, but IMO it still needs to be toned down a little. This scene is well worth a little more time since you are so close.
This is outstanding Phil, the composition here is perfect. I love the moody atmosphere you have achieved here. Obviously a very difficult processing situation, but I think you handled it pretty well, other than needing to burn down the very brightest highlights near the sun. If you want to go for a darker, moodier look I might consider adding a strong vignette to this image. I downloaded it and took a stab at this alternate treatment (and darkened the brightest area near the sun).
So I took a shot at it last night too. I like your adjustment Ed, and it s close to where I came out…I also tried a bit of a vignette but am still not sure about it. Let me ask you this…do you think your adjustment to the highlights goes far enough? As I said, it’s about where I came out but I was quite unsure of whether I’d really addressed the issue. Going further seems to suck the life out of the image thought at least for me.
Thanks much for your time on it!
No I think my adjustment does not go far enough for the very brightest highlights near the sun (which still lose all detail over too large an area), but it was the best I could do working with a JPEG. To fully tame this area probably requires going back to the raw file. I actually like how your original post looks in the mountains and the mist along he shoreline. The trick here is to tame the sun area while retaining the vitality in the misty shoreline. If you use luminosity masks, make a very restricted selection on the brightest highlights near the horizon to pull them down to get detail back. This would require having exposure brackets, or double processing the raw file (with one pulling exposure/highlights way down to get detail back).
The stronger vignette is a matter of personal taste, but i think it can add more drama here. The LRC corner especially needs some vignette, and I think it helps in the sky too.
Phil I think the vignette helps the corners of the images, but i would keep it away from the mist on the shoreline, you want to retain the light feeling there.
Thanks so much! I’ll tinker a bit more as time permits.
Great light in some wonderful conditions. I like the details in the darks here.
Phil,
What a beautiful capture from this iconic spot - I sure wish I had one like this! But alas, despite the popularity here, these conditions just don’t happen every day!
Really hard to be critical here, but will agree about the brightness above center. Granted, we’re talking about the rising sun… but taming that brightness would be an improvement. Otherwise, I’m really enjoying your near/far/composition.
I was just there on Monday… and I will never tire of this place.
Lon
Hi Phil. I love the mist and atmosphere in this image. Good job!
Phil, brightness of the lighting, the touch of fog, and the smooth flow in the river give this a great, ethereal feeling.
@Tony_Kuyper @Chris_Mitchell @Lon_Overacker @Mark_Seaver Thanks for the feedback, I’ve worked on a revised version of the image and I’m just letting it sit a bit before deciding whether it is done (or perhaps overdone).i appreciate your input.
