Sunrise @ The Headlight

[Grady Weed]

The morning's sunrise at the headlight started off pale and rather boring. But as the sun's ball popped above the horizon, things picked up fast. I was over the fence at the farthest point possible on the rocks with the waves splashing below our feet. Several sea gulls sat down on the rocks next to us and took in the scenery with us. It was calming, breathtaking and awe inspiringly beautiful. You just can't relate the inner anxiety calming and relaxing feeling of the warm glow of the sun. It is a true wonder of creation. The larger tiff file is sharper, more detailed in the rocks and stronger colored in the ocean and the sun. When I compressed it for web viewing it changed some. It will be a 18x24 print. I slightly changed color balance, contrast, minor levels tweak and thats it. Full frame.

Thanks for looking and have a fantastic day.

Canon EOS 5D, Shooting Date/Time 4/22/2008 06:08:14, Shutter Speed 1/6Sec. Av(Aperture Value) F22, Evaluative metering, Exposure Compensation +2/3, ISO 100, Lens: EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM, Focal Length 28.0 mm, RAW, Flash Off, White Balance Auto, One-Shot AF, Picture Style: Landscape. On the new Gitzo Tripod 5540. And what a sweet tripod it is!

[Robert Amoruso]

Grady,

I played with the JPG to recapture details you mentioned in the TIFF. Curves adjustment with reverse s-curve and aggressive pulling up of the shadows. Background copy with gradient mask pulled from the bottom to top (black bottom - white top and gradient between) to recover details in the sky.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Grady,
Very nice compositionally on the original. As always when tweaking.........you must have something to start with. This is why Robert is the master in PS. He brought up great detail in the jpeg that was otherwise lost...........and now is a very nice shot of Portland headlight. You can't do this unless the original compositionally is there! I can't imagine what he'd do with the original. Very nice sunrise Grady,
Roman

[Grady Weed]

Roman, the original is just like the re-work Robert posted. As I said, it was there but lost in the conversion to jpeg for posting. I just did not have time today to rework and repost.

[Robert Amoruso]

Grady,

No problem. Don't take the repost the wrong way. I did note that I was going for what you had in the tiff. But I didn't finish my critique as I got interrupted. I was going to mention that I know exactly what you are saying about losing the nuanced details in shadows and highlights when going to JPG.

When I do a landscape for posting, I will intentionally, using an old darkroom term, "print it down". What I find is that details close to either extreme clip during the conversion. So I will deliberately make a TIFF version for converting to JPG where I set white point and black point lower then normal for the tiff using a levels adjustment. After conversion to jpg I will sometimes apply a curve to tweak the tonal distribution.

I also forgot to mention that the composition worked out really well. And I was glad to see a more wide-angle view (more FG) then in previous studies from this area. Nice work and keep them coming.

[Grady Weed]

I appreciate your efforts and that of Romans. I was not meaning to be unkind. I use Photoshop 6, it is all I have. It does not have a shadow and highlight feature like CS2 or 3. So when some make adjustments and give the steps my menus will not let me follow those they have outlined. Your re-post is a dynamite one. And it is exactly like my original. It screams details and deep pastels. I am trying to improve with each click of the shutter. And I sincerely appreciate each and every comment left.

I have been on too many sites where they give what Artie calls "back slapping comments" or no what they liked but lots of what you did wrong and no advice on how to be better. I don't think that this site does that. I like it here and want straight forward comments and how to do it better the first time.

Words are so hard sometimes to put into perspective when we cant see the one speaking them. I will sometimes seek clarification in a PM or email if need be. Please feel free to keep up the good work you all do.

[Robert Amoruso]

I appreciate your efforts and that of Romans. I was not meaning to be unkind. I use Photoshop 6, it is all I have. It does not have a shadow and highlight feature like CS2 or 3. So when some make adjustments and give the steps my menus will not let me follow those they have outlined. Your re-post is a dynamite one. And it is exactly like my original. It screams details and deep pastels. I am trying to improve with each click of the shutter. And I sincerely appreciate each and every comment left.

I have been on too many sites where they give what Artie calls "back slapping comments" or no what they liked but lots of what you did wrong and no advice on how to be better. I don't think that this site does that. I like it here and want straight forward comments and how to do it better the first time.

Words are so hard sometimes to put into perspective when we cant see the one speaking them. I will sometimes seek clarification in a PM or email if need be. Please feel free to keep up the good work you all do.

Grady,

Thanks and appreciate your kind comments. It has been awhile since I used PS6 but curves should be there for sure and the gradient mask as well. I always try to say how to do it, not just do it. If we recommend something that is beyond your software's ability, let us know and we will try alternate recommendations. Or if we don't tell you how, just ask. :)

Keep up the good work.