This image had a lot of flare that I tried to clean up with a frequency separation technique for color and texture. I’m not entirely pleased with the result. Any comments welcome. Also can anyone suggest a method for attacking the isolated bright spot in the flare below the sun.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Canon 5DM4 16-35 lens
This is a blended image for foreground and the sky. The foreground image was shot at ISO 100 20 mm f/16 1/20 sec.
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This image works for me. The scene has depth with the shape of the mass covered rocks pointing towards the stacks on the background. And the light only hitting some rocks provides a nice effect.
Personally I would have waited a few minutes so that less of the sun was visible to hopefully avoid flaring and the core of the sun in the frame.
There is also quiet a strong vignette. I’d feather the vignette a bit if this was done in post or equalise the effect if it’s from a polarising filter
I like the low perspective as well as the quality of light on the foreground. I also like how you have positioned the rising sun behind the sea stacks. I would recommend that you try to clean up some of the artifacts from the lens flare. It also looks as though the horizon line has a bit of a clockwise tilt.
This is a nice scene John, it has a killer foreground, the arrangement of the sea weed rocks is very pleasing and dynamic. I also like that you got down low and used a wide-angle lens here. The back-lighting on the seaweed also looks awesome.
In terms of suggestions for improvement, as @Brian_Schrayer noted, there is a slight CW tilt that should be corrected, and if this were mine I would take a crop away from the bottom, to just below the reflection of the rock in the LLC. This would reduce some negative space in the water in the LLC.
In terms of avoiding flare, there is another approach to avoiding it rather than waiting. You could have shot a 3rd bracket, where you place a finger over the sun, this would prevent the flare from wrecking havoc with the foreground. You could then use this bracket for a foreground without flare, and blend it with another bracket of the sky without the finger. I illustrated this technique with another post earlier this year, see the link below.
Thanks for the feedback Ed, Nathan, and Brian. I’m going back to the image and trying some of your suggestions. I also have an image where I did block out the sun with my hand and I’ll see how that comes out in the blending process.
Excellent coastal near/far landscape. The timing of the setting sun is just right (although I’m sorry I can’t help with your flare question! I struggle with these.)
I’m really liking the arrangement of the rocks, the greens and the channel of water leading the eye in to the frame. My only suggestion would be to bring up the luminosity of the upper part of the frame. I mean I understand the time of day and setting sun, but this looks a little more like a graduated ND was used and the balance of light is just a tad dark up top. Otherwise, I think you did a good job with the blend - and handling of the flares as presented.
