Joshua Tree Sunrise

[Diane Miller]

After shooting the lunar eclipse with the great luck of a break in clouds at the best time, I decided to see if the early morning would have some color. Of course the clouds had mostly cleared out by then, but I found a few shots.

Canon 5D3, 24-70 f/2.8 at 27mm, ISO 800, f/5.6, 1/200. There was wind and I was using the small bushes as accent pieces in the various compositions I found (largely because it was about impossible to avoid them) so used a higher ISO than I would have preferred. But the 5D3 handles it well with proper exposure.

This is basically just from LR with minor adjustments (Highlights down to -35 is all) and a crop from the bottom -- into PS to clone out a couple of unattractive small clouds and did Nik Dfine while there, although noise was minimal. Could have squeaked it down in LR, also.

[Don Railton]

Hi Diane.

The sky is nice although just a little dark for me.. I would also crop a bit more off the bottom to take 'weight ' out of the image..

DON

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Diane - Beautiful colors in the sky. I do find myself wishing that more of the tree trunk was visible. I think Don is correct in that the black bottom of the image just feels a bit too heavy. There also seems to be some haloing along the highest peak.

TFS,
Rachel

[Diane Miller]

Thanks for the comments. I had a look at the original and can't see any haloing so it must be from the JPEG conversion, although I don't see it. I had neglected to a lens correction and doing that gave a more even tone to the upper sky. I had tried an HDR but it didn't work due to wind. I did layer on an area at reduced opacity around the trunk which brings out a little more detail in the trunk and lets it stand out a little from the BG.

I might have persevered on the HDR, looking for a break in the wind, but I was loosing the color in the sky by the minute and wanted a couple of other nearby shots.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hi Diane
Lovely silhouette, and I agree with the comments above. I would have liked a very very low position close to the base, with the tree jutting into the sky? I wished to see more of the trunk in your OP but having brightened it I think you cut off too much of the visible FG in camera and would leave it like it is in the OP, save for brightening the sky.

[David Cowling]

I like the silhouette effect of the OP. I feel that by brightening it just a touch I am wanting to see even more detail, which leaves me wishing that you had included more of the bottom of the trunk. Lovely colours in the sky but a little too dark for me. I love the shape of those Joshua Trees, just made for photographing. TFS.

[Diane Miller]

This image presented a dilemma of how to balance the tree, whose silhouette caught my interest, against some BG elements. I didn't want them to shrink much smaller by getting closer to the tree. It was quite dark, before sunrise, so there wasn't much detail to capture on the tree, even with HDR. But I do agree the trunk coming out of the hills isn't ideal. What caught my eye was a graphic composition of shapes against ht sky.

There is more of the image at the bottom. This is about the top 2/3 or 3/4 of the frame. I did capture the base of the tree but it was growing in a sandy area that was light enough to register some exposure, and it proved to be an awkward and unattractive shape when included in the frame. In the first post, I had cloned a little bit of it at the bottom. I could add back more at the bottom and probably clone the lighter sand without it being obvious.

I'll play with it some more and RP.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Diane...I too wish to see the sky a little brighter and a low perspective would have help...looking forward to the repost...it is a beautiful scene and with a few tweaks it will be perfect :)