Sunrise and sunset photography seems to be a realm for beginners. At this level we no longer shoot them. But sometimes there’s an exception.
I had awoken at 5:30 with the urge, a common happenstance for men my age. When I opened the camper door I was just ‘blown away’ by the scene. A predominantly black sky with still a few tinkling stars and light peering through a crack in the horizon. It was a real show. I ran back to the truck knowing how fleeting these moments are and how quickly everything will change to a paler version of all this. It was so dark that I couldn’t read the focus ring clearly but it appeared to be on infinity. The preview and histogram was useless due to the darkness. So I just had to take trial and erase images until I got close to what I was seeing. This all had to be rushed because the light was changing. By the time I got this image the stars were gone but some of the initial feel was still captured.
D810 Tamron 24-70@24mm, iso 400, f/8, 1.6 sec
I was so happy I had upgraded to the D810 from the 6D. Even though there were deep blacks the bright area was virtually at the right edge of the histogram. The 6D would have never recovered the golds as richly as the Nikon.
I was amazed at it’s ability to recover from both ends of the histogram. A recovery of blacks by the 6D would quickly turn to mud, but the 810 recovers and still has a richness of tones and colors. BTW, I finally solved my color issues with the 810 by playing around with the color profiles provided by PS as a starting point.
Beautiful. It was well worth the rush and the early morning wake-up… And masterly rendered. I like the fact that the light is appearing in the dark scene in such a natural way…
Very nice Igor…
Beautiful warm look to it except I might lower the blues at the top…
I also might think about ejecting the vertical stick in the water.
Nice work.
Igor, a beautiful scene well worth the effort, beginner or pro! The sky is the star (pun intended) of the show but the reflection in the foreground is also stunning and edited superbly! Well done!
This is excellent, Igor. The dark rendering with bright horizon works beautifully and speaks to me on an emotional level. Having said that, I could see maybe raising the luminosity of the shadow areas slightly - maybe .1-.2 stops. Also, I’m not sure what caused the small vertical line on the horizon but I would clone it out.
Oh, right. This is I believe an old launch ramp that has been submerged by the tide. There are no true boat ramps here. The locals just pile up some rocks. The rod is what they tie up their boats to when they don’t feel like taking the boats out on shore.
There is a fair amount of clean up work still to be done here but I’m posting this because I don’t consider that to affect the image very much.
Igor I like the dark vignette type effect in this scene, keeping the mountains in pure silhouette is very effective, and serves to emphasize the warm yellow tones at the horizon. However I’m of the same mind as @Dave_Dillemuth, I would increase the luminosity of the shadows, especially in the sky from that first top layer of magenta clouds down to the horizon. With this much light right at the horizon, I would expect to see more luminosity in the magenta part of the lower clouds, and even some of the lighter blues near the mountain. I am okay with the luminosity of the shadows in the water, they look natural. I wouldn’t increase the shadow luminosity a lot, or you will lose the vignette effect, just try to bring it into a little better balance.
This was not just dawn, but the crack of dawn. It was so dark outside that I couldn’t read the camera settings and could see a couple of stars above the horizon. That’s why the image is portrayed in a dark manner.
This was also shot at the day when the snowstorm was approaching Northern California. We got the clouds down here. Those clouds were dense and that’s why the lower clouds were darker than usual. They were denser than what you usually see. This is largely the reason why this morning was particularly dramatic.
You are welcome to change things as you see fit but when I raise the luminosity it starts to fall apart for me personally. Perhaps someone with greater PS skills can do it convincingly.
Igor, I did not witness this sunrise, and I respect your creative intent to process this in a dark manner to convey what you saw and felt on this morning. Without the benefit of having seen these clouds in person, they looked a little darker than what I would have normally expected to see.
While this is subjective on my part (and may not reflect what you actually saw), here is how I would try to re-work this. If I’m going to leave a comment suggesting a possible change, it’s only fair to back it up with an example. In PS I used TK Luminosity masks, made a subtracted selection Darks 2 minus Darks 5, and increased the luminosity of these darks with a levels adjustment layer. I then put this in a group with a mask, and painted the lift in darks into only the lower area of the clouds and sky. Then I played a bit with opacity of this group to taste. This leaves the darkest darks, and the brightest highlights unaffected. This may not be what you are trying to convey, and that’s perfectly fine, but if it were mine, I would try something like this, i think it gives the magenta clouds a little more vitality.
Great work, Ed! It’s certainly beyond my capabilities, even after the explanation. Yes, the reds in the clouds are more prominent and do look better. The truth is I like them both. I like the darkness of the original but the clouds do look better. And enough time has passed that I can’t remember which was closer.
This was actually supposed to be a pano but PS won’t stitch the two images, one on either side. The vision was a broad canvas with light progressively getting darker to pitch black at the corners with a night sky.
I think I’ll retitle this to Genesis to make it more generic. It does have a Biblical look to it.
This is gorgeous Igor. And rather than thinking in terms of beginner photography, I think in terms of like the innocence of a child. At least for me, these moments are pure, much like they when I was a child. No matter our experience, we will always enjoy sunrise, sunsets, falling snow and rainbows…
I really like Ed’s edits, but they are both beautiful as presented.
I was going to mention that vertical in the water; sounds like you’re aware and thanks for the back story.
I am glad you had the urge Igor as we would not have gotten to enjoy your rendition of this lovely sunrise otherwise. You did very well for working in dark conditions. I do like Ed’s small tweaks as they add just a little more punch to this gorgeous scene. Beautiful image. BTW, I like the title Genesis.
