Wild Coast Dawn

[Morkel Erasmus]

Captured this one on the rocks at Haga Haga, Eastern Cape, South Africa. A stretch of coastline known as the "Wild Coast" for it's seclusion, lack of commercial development and ruggedness.

Blend of 3 images using luminosity masking. I know some might frown upon the banding in the sky but it's just the effect of the polariser and the direction the sun was rising from, combined with a bank of clouds on the horizon to make the light play some tricks.

Techs:
Canon 7D with 10-22mm USM
f8.0 @ ISO-250

[Dave Mills]

Hi Morkel, I like your use of the foreground with the shoreline acting as a leading line. Not used to seeing such an abrupt change in the skies lighting but the more I look at it the more I like it. Almost appears as if a ray of light is breaking through and hitting an area. The treeline in the backround has a nice feel to it also....

[dankearl]

Nice image. Kind of foreboding, I am not sure about the dark right edge of the sky though.
I think a more standard sky tone would be an improvement.

[Nick Palmieri]

I am thinking the FG rocks are a bit overwhelming... I really like the fog and sky in the distance.

[Morkel Erasmus]

thanks for the comments, gents...
Dave - which trees? There were no trees in the scene, only rocks, ocean and a bank of cumulus clouds in on the horizon :)

[Dave Mills]

Sorry Morkel, I thought the clouds on the horizon were trees...

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Nice image Morkel. Liked the subtle light/glow reflecting off the rocks' surface. The dark presentation suits this scene. Bit unsure about the sky but then as you mentioned, these r some artifacts from CP.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Morkel. love the rocks and the overall scene. Nicely done. I don't mind the abrupt change in the sky, but I think I would still try to make some changes to it so that it isn't quite as abrupt. I know what you mean about the polarizer causing the effect, sometimes I will experiment with grad filters to even things out. I have a 3-stop continuous grad that seems to help in these situations when it is turned sideways. Nice work!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Morkel,
I more with Nick on this one although it does give a sense of desolation. The sky band also bothers me a bit too........so now I will go and spend your money! I think you may be interested in this filter from Singh Ray : http://www.singh-ray.com/reversegrads.html 4x6 for HH is the one I use.....expensive.....absolutely!.....but in situations where you have a flat or relatively flat horizon......this will work much better than the CP. I do think this would have worked better as a blend w/o the CP too.....so just something to keep in mind for next time out.

[Morkel Erasmus]

no problem Dave ;)

thanks for the further comments - Roman, with baby on the way, Lucy will have a LOT of 'splainin' to do for purchasing expensive camera filters :eek::t3
but will check it out!

[Tim Munsey]

A fine piece of work, love to see it real big and let my eyes wonder down the coast.

Tim

[Robert Amoruso]

I with Roman on this one Morkel.