This image was taken on the last morning of our June NPN meetup in New Hampshire. On that morning I was shooting with Ed and Mike Lowe, and we had the most amazing display of lenticular clouds over the Presidential Range. The great clouds and light that morning lasted nearly an hour, starting from about 30 minutes before sunrise when the clouds were all purple and red. This image was taken once the sun was well above the mountains, I wanted to get a shot of backlit lupines. This morning was truly the “Gift That Kept on Giving”.
As we were shooting, I heard the Lowe brothers ask each other if they were getting flare. I told them about a technique that I like to use called “Giving Flare the Finger”. This involves bracketing shots and blending them with Photoshop layers. In this case, I took 2 exposures of the sky for dynamic range, an exposure of the land to show the flare in the LRC, and an exposure for the land with my index finger held over the sun to prevent flare. You can choose to use another finger instead if you want to go for the full effect
The flare in the second image would be very hard to clone away, given that it is right over some flowers. I took all the normal flare precautions such as using a lens hood, and not having any filters on the lens, but still got flare anyways. I shoot auto white balance in my camera and find that the finger images result in a slight change in white balance, but this is easily fixed if you shoot raw. You need to keep your finger over the sun, and try to avoid touching the landscape, which makes layer blending easier later. So Ed and Mike, here is an illustration of the technique that we discussed…
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Any comments or critique are welcome
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
Canon 5D MKIV, Canon 16-35mm f4 lens, ISO 100, at 16mm
This is a composite of 4 exposure brackets, 2 for the sky and dynamic range, and 2 for the landscape for dynamic range and to “Give Flare The Finger”
Ah, beautiful, Ed. This is so balanced in that the lenticular cloud on the right is offset nicely with the sun on the left. The distant fog adds so much to the atmosphere of the morning. And of course, the backlit effect on the flowers is very nice.
I have to confess that I often shy away from shooting directly into the sun because it takes a lot of effort to produce something like this (you even need to be ready to give the finger, apparently! ) but it’s so worth it. Thanks for sharing this trick, Ed!
This is very beautiful, Ed. Very well balanced and the backlit lupines add great depth and dimension to the image. Composition and post look great to me… maybe raise the luminosity of the blue in the sky a smidge.
I learned this finger technique a couple of years ago and while it does take a little bit more PP effort, agree that it works great.
Ed, I have used that technique once or twice, but it is sometimes quite a challenge. Thanks for posting this.
This sounds like a great morning, and I’m enjoying seeing all the images from the trip! This one is no exception. I do agree with Dave that the overall brightness of the sky could come up, and especially the clouds above the sun. Those look a little muddy.
The title is so appropriate, Ed. It was a special morning no doubt. I had to laugh when you originally told me about this technique and it is still worth a chuckle. The next time I am in that situation I am going to have to give it a try. The whole scene is quite beautiful with all the many elements working together to create this magical scene. I know I was thankful to be there and witness it first hand. My only suggestion has already been mentioned by Dave. Outstanding image!
Ed, some very fine work with this image overall. The finger trick brought back recall from years back for me as I saw Marc Adamus do the same thing when were in the Alabama Hills.
Your final processed image here is excellent…
This turned out really well. The off-center sun makes for an interesting comp and the backlighting on the flowers creates a nice glow. I’m sure it took a bit of processing to get this all working, but it is indeed working.
Beautiful composition Ed, I love the balance you’ve got with those lenticular clouds in the top right, the sun star in the top left, and the lovely lupines in the foreground.
The only thing that stands out to me is the blending of the sky to the right of the sun. There’s an area where the sky abruptly goes darker to lighter. The brightest part of the sky in the middle, but I feel like it should be brighter near the sun. This is more apparent in the smaller image; it is less noticeable when viewed large. I think brightening up the sky in the top left would help the blending.
@Adhika_Lie@Ed_Lowe@Chris_Rice@Dave_Dillemuth@Paul_Breitkreuz@Tony_Kuyper@Craig_Moreau thanks for all of the comments guys. I agree with those of you that have suggestions for tweaking the blend in the sky, I used 2 sky exposures, and at the same was trying to “fix” lighter and darker blue bands due to using a polarizing filter on a wide-angle lens set to 16mm.
I went back and re-tweaked the sky, to address the muddy ULC, the banding, and to increase blue luminosity in the sky (which originally got out of whack due to heavy handed use of a vignette in Lightroom).
This is just one fantastic classic landscape. You’ve got it all - a solid “rule of thirds” composition (or close enough,) beautiful light on the landscape, great colors, complimentary and beautiful sky. It’s all there - oh, including the sun star. Indeed the gift that kept on giving - at least for a while.
Your repost is gorgeous.
Lon
ps. I’ve known of the finger-flare trick but haven’t had much success using it yet. Of course you might wonder…Lon never has any pictures with the sun in it anyway… and you would be correct. So not many chances to use the technique - let alone perfect it.
Ed, I am late on this one and just wanted to comment on what a beautiful morning you guys had and you took full advantage of it. You had previously shared this finger technique with me but it is nice to see it in practice. Nicely done !
@Han_Schutten@Harley_Goldman@Alan_Kreyger@Lon_Overacker thank you all for your commetns, they are appreciated. Lon, I have to admit that I am fond of including sunstars in my grand scenics. However, these sunstar shots require a ton of post processing time and are not easy to pull off, so I fully understand why some folks stay away from these shots. And to be fair, sunstars can be a bit cliche, however the backlit lupines here looked so nice, and that cloud was too tempting to pass up including.
Thanks, Ed, for sharing the technical stuff - very interesting. Love the final image - the clouds and blues of the sky are a great foil for the backlit lupines. Wonderful sense of space !
