Sunset on Lake Vermilion

[Dick Huberty]

This was taken on Lake Vermilion in northern Minnesota. Lake Vermilion is 40 miles (67KM) long and has 352 islands. It was named by National Geographic as one of the most 10 beautiful lakes in the US. Vermilion means red for it's red sunsets. I am always looking for the "best". This was taken with a Canon 5D mark lll using Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 ll. 1/1250 at f/7.1 ISO 1000. It was taken on a tripod in a boat. I upped the shutter speed and ISO to compensate for the unstable platform. ( I might have overdone this, but got very little noise). PP was done in Lightroom 4, NIK and CS5. Cloned out some strange looking reflections around a few of the rocks. This is a blend of 3 photos +/- 3 stops. I am trying to climb the steep learning curve on this very enjoyable hobby so any suggestions/thoughts would be most welcome. Thanks for looking.

[dankearl]

Dick,
very nice scene. Warm colors and nice exposure. I might try to bring up some contrast and color in the rocks and foliage on the left hand side.
Nicely composed....

[Don Railton]

Hi Dick,

I assessed this image in my mind before reading any other comments and came up with exactly the same answer as Dan.. Need the rocks and surrounds to be stronger. I also think a slight crop from the bottom would benefit. I think you have done well for 'tripod in a boat' situation..

DON

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Dick - very nice scene and the low shooting angle of the boat has worked well. I think it feels a bit thin and would look at giving it a bit more punch through a luminosity mask and then some additional mid-tone contrast.

TFS,
Rachel

[Dick Huberty]

Thank you Dan, Don and Rachel for your comments and suggestions... I don't have using a luminosity mask in my bag of tricks. If you could recommend a good tutorial on the subject, i would appreciate it. I really need to improve my PP skills.

Dick

[Rachel Hollander]

Dick - you should have a look at the sticky by Robert Amoruso at the top of this forum and also have a look at some of the tutorials by Tony Kupyer (just Google his name).

Rachel

[Don Lacy]

HI Dick, You have a very nice scene here well composed and with a nice sky and foreground. You say the image is a blend of three exposures was this a manual blend in PS or a HDR image either way the image as presented looks dull with muddy colors. I hope you don't mind but I played around with it in PS and did the following I adjusted the black point with a curves adjustment and increased contrast with another curve adjustment, I also darken the tree line to black with a curve adjustment and layer mask. I then darken the foreground so it was not as bright as the sky if you want the scene to appear natural the sky should always be brighter then the foreground. The problem with your blend was that you created an image that was all of one tonality the sky,middle ground and foreground where all the same brightness with no shadows this creates a one dimensional image with no depth.

[Dick Huberty]

Thanks Don. That does make a big difference. The HDR was in camera. I did not process in PS although i have the 3 shots.
Thanks Rachel. I will check it out.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice scene here Dick...with some good suggestions already received. I do like Don's repost. The leaves top left hand side look a little blurry - even with the high SS you used...did you layer multiple exposures here or is that just from boat shake or even the wind?

[Dick Huberty]

I see what you mean Morkel. When I blow up the leaves in the trees I see what looks like white sploches. There was very little wind as you can see on the water and very little movement in the boat. I don't think it is a focus problem...I try always to focus on something 1/3 of the way into the frame and that was probably the trees (i don't have my computer with me where I can check that out). When I look at the frame that was overexposed (+3), the details even in the leaves where blown out. The in camera processing for HDR probably didn't deal with that very well. When I get back to my iMac I will try to reprocess in PS. I see a lot of people process their HDR shots in Photomatrix. Is that better then PS5?
Thanks for your attention to that detail.

[Don Lacy]

I see a lot of people process their HDR shots in Photomatrix. Is that better then PS5?
While I do not have any first hand experience with Photomatrix all that I have read about HDR processing by others recommend that program above all others.