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View Full Version : Sunset over the Cosmos



Morkel Erasmus
04-07-2014, 10:10 AM
Every autumn here in the region of South Africa where I live, the cosmos blooms madly - and this year the pre-autumn rains were particularly good.
I was only able to make one or two decent stands at a local meadow due to other commitments, but I still got some nice images to add to my cosmos collection that grows every year.

Techs:
Nikon D800
Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8 @ 18mm
f22 | ISO-100
Blend of 3 exposures for dynamic range

Don Railton
04-07-2014, 07:11 PM
Hi Morkel

This is a very nice image but its not singing out loud for me.. I am try to figure out what it is and I think its because the flower don't have enough light on them. I think if the green stems were a little lighter and more of the flowers were lit up like those immediately under the sun it would lift the image a lot more. I also might have pointed the camera a little more to the right also to move the sun away from RHS slightly and also to lighten up the LHS. I would keep that full bloom lower left however..

I can see that the clouds were not necessarily your friend here. They help make this shot but will kill the light in 15 minutes time that would have make the flowers sing.. oh well..

regards

DON

Tobie Schalkwyk
04-08-2014, 12:31 AM
Another great one, Morkel! Yea, what would this time of the year be without fields and the side of roads covered in these simple but beautiful plants?

I agree with Don about having the sun a little more to the centre and the flowers (land?) are just a little dark for me. I guess what you needed was another exposure on the lighter side just to increase the brightness a tad. But great contents, regardless!

Morkel Erasmus
04-08-2014, 02:19 AM
thanks Don and Tobie
to the right there were ugly cooling towers from the local refinery - so placement of the sun was best option I could do to keep it "natural"
I quite like the darker feel I went for here - I do have a lighter exposure for the flowers (can simply dodge them too)...will play around.

Andrew McLachlan
04-12-2014, 05:19 PM
Hi Morkel, beautiful field of cosmos and the sun's rays are lovely...my only suggestions is just a smidge bright...not too much though. Nice one!

Rudi van den Heever
04-27-2014, 11:07 AM
Nice Morkel! Such a familiar scene!:w3 F22 gave a great sun burst!