Sunrise

[Jerry van Dijk]

We had some pretty spectacular sunrises this week, so I decided to take my camera along to work. This is on an estate that I cycle through each morning :S3:. Unfortunately, there were no clouds whatsoever to reflect any color. There was some ground fog, however, that nicely accentuated the sunrays.

Nikon D7000, Nikkor 16-85 @ 22mm, resting on fencepole, ISO-100, f/11, 1/320 sec.
Three image HDR (specs from 0 EV image, 1 EV bracketed) processed with Photomatix in compressor mode.
ACR6.3, sharpening, grad (exposure, color, contrast, clarity), clarity, vibrance, CCW rotation. PP CS5, USM.

[Robert Amoruso]

Hi Jerry,

I am going to suggest a large crop here which I reposted with a ROT grid on it. Here are my reasons why.

1) For me jet trails are a no-no. I never create an image with them. I would rather have a fence in this image then the jet trail. Not to say it is wrong, I just do not like them.

2) I find the drop-off of the treeline on the right unbalances the image. IMO it is better to have a nice line of trees from left edge to right. When I first cropped, I used the whole width of the image but felt the sun's placement was awkward and unbalanced. I then cropped more from left and right to place the sun in the right third vertical line.

3) I felt the large dark area in the image FG drew the eye too much and acted as a negative sink drawing the viewer in too much.

I did regret losing the tall tree on right as I like it. In the field, you can certainly move around for alternate framing considering my ideas above.

I like the starburst effect and the height of the sun in the image. The rays act as leading lines.

[Jay Gould]

I think Robert's RP and suggestions are spot on; very nice!

[Don Railton]

Hi Jerry

My taste would prefer this cropped as a pano (I think...) top & bottom third gone... I don't have time at the moment to confirm my thoughts but I do find the jet trail a distraction to the eye and agree with its removal and I also think the large dark foreground needs to be removed. Apart from that I like the image a lot, its a nice ride to work...

DON

[Jerry van Dijk]

Thanks for commenting! Robert, your remarks and suggestions make a lot of sense. I normally do not like jet trails either, but they seem to be inevitable these days and it introduced another leading line to the sun. I like your crop suggestion because it follows many of the compositional rules, creating a very pleasing image. I do feel that it compromises the feel of the openness and width of the landscape I wanted to capture plus it eliminates some of the leading lines created by the shadows on the ground. I also liked the oval baseline the dark area created, although I agree that there was too much darkness drawing the eye downward. And I liked the centered sun.
Here's a version trying to deal with most of your critisims, while keeping close to the original. It's not ideal, I guess I have to try for another angle next time.
Again: I like your version as much as the wider version, they just communicate different things. I'll keep both of them!

Don, the pano crop wouldn't deal with the imbalance caused by the gap in the trees on the right hand side, which to me seems the biggest drawback of the composition. I did make a few image to stich to a real pano (including a wider area), but I haven't had time to work on them. I'll post it later if I like the result! I add a 5 minute detour to my 25 minute commute just to be able to travel through this place :S3:.

[Jerry van Dijk]

After posting and cutting some off the top with my browser window, I realized that I liked the image with a crop from the top, so here it is.

[Jay Gould]

While I still like Robert's version the final RP is the best of the bunch. Two tiny "thing" caught my eye and I would eliminate them: 1) coming in along the fence line on the right after the 5th tall tree there is a bit of a light spot that I would eliminate, and 2) the black dot on the grass under the 3rd tree from the left.

[Brendan Dozier]

Nice one, Jerry, like the silhouetted trees, and how the light brings out the texture of grass in FG. Like Robert's repost because of ROT and keeps sun off center.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Thanks for the further comments! Jay, I noticed the bright spot as well, but was puzzled about how to get rid of it. The black dot is actually a hare. There are three of them on the grass, can you spot them? Here's a close up from the same site a few years ago: http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/album.php?albumid=232&attachmentid=73037

[Robert Amoruso]

Jerry,

Thanks for the addition reposts. I agree with your assessments on my crop. I did not like the more compressed feeling of it and the lose of some of the shadows. That is why I suggested revisiting the scene since it is local to you. Get this would look killer with snow. :tinysmile_shy_t:

I feel you pain on the jet trails. You should hear my afield when I am making a landscape image and these start to appear. :eek3:

[Bob Miller]

A nice image ! I think I prefer Robert's repost but yours was good as well. Nice to see so many suggestions !