Morning has Broken

[Richard Waas]

Shot this at sunrise @ Fairchild Tropical Gardens with my Canon 40D. This is a 2 shot vertical panorama stitched in PS. ISO 200, F/8.0, 1/250 sec, -1 EV, EF 24-105mm F/4L, 24mm, sRGB, Pattern Metering, Auto WB, Auto Exposure.

[Alberto Oria]

Cool Richard, you have to teach me how to do that!!
Me gusta

[Gus Cobos]

Richard,
Very nice image buddy...I like the sun light trying to peek through the clouds...my only beef is that the water line is lopsided. Need to run the ruler in Photoshop...:D

[Gail Spitler]

Really dramatic Richard. Love the backlit clouds and the light beaming up.
Since the assignment for these two weeks is extreme dof, when I first opened the image I thought it was just one photo. Did you try it that way; or maybe it was a stitching image from the beginning?
I think Gus is right about the water level.

Gail

[Richard Waas]

I set the grid overlay and it is off such a small amount. Good eye Gus. I think that the banks not being even (one on left is much more forward of the one on the right), makes it look more crooked than it is. I shot several single shots then I shot this as a vertical pano on purpose. I need to remember to check the level on panos. Sometimes it distorts the image.

[Richard Waas]

The only way I could straighten it up was by the reflections of the trees. Is this better? It was only off a hair.

[Gail Spitler]

Richard
Interesting ... to me it looks like the water is draining off to the left still. I think you have a good point about the two banks being positioned differently and that eye to brain connection may be distorting the water horizon, but when I put a ruler up to the apparent water level, the ruler drops down to the left.
Gail

[Dave Slaughter]

All I can say is, Wow! Very, very dramatic.

[Oscar Zangroniz]

Excellent capture Richard. Love the reflection and the clouds.
Congrats,

[Lance Peters]

Hi - I like - made a few changes hope you don't mind.


I opened the shadows up a little with the shadow/ highlight tool - just looked a little dark for me.
Also straitghed the horizon - using the ruler tool. (2.3 Degree shift)
Had to crop then.

Any Better

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Guys !!!! To make sure you horizon is straight when there are reflections you have an easy way !!!

Draw a vertical line form the tip of one of the palm to its mirror reflection It should be straight !!! Just like the horizon but might be easier to judge. Use the same ruler tool and arbitrary Works !!!

Straighten image and used my strange shadow/highlight settings already mentioned. btw I think some of the problems with having the horizon straight has to do with lens distortion. Had some excellent ideas here Richard !!! Vertical panos are not all that common but sure like this one !!!

[Nicki Gwynn Jones]

Me gusta too - with the water straightened out!!!

[Richard Waas]

Thank you everyone for all your help. I guess I was right using the reflections to make sure it was straight. The bank lines not being even do play havoc on your brain. I'm going to go go back to the original RAW images and rework with all of your suggestions. What an invaluable group of family members we have on here!! Thanks.....

[Arthur Morris]

This is spectacular. I love the light radiating from behind that cloud. I like the darker versions better. As for leveling this one, it is tough because half of the trees are cockeyed... Notice that if you do not work extra wide on the initial capture and you have to rotate later (always use a Double Bubble if you are on a tripod...) that you rish losing something of value; in this case, the reflection of the top of the tree left center is lost to the leveling crop and this is most unfortunate as that was a powerful element of the COMP.

[Richard Waas]

I still had the original photos and remerged leaving the reflections intact when straightening. Also, I love my original darker version, remember this was daybreak.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Richard,
I will try to address a few things no one has mentioned.........when I pull the ruler on the second tree from the right..........the reflection lines up right on........so I would not rotate this at all.........because as Artie pointed out.........you lose the palm reflection and that is an unacceptable loss IMO. Something no one has mentioned but a reason everyone wanted to lighten the shadow areas (again.......there's a reason Artie liked the darker version).........is the FG was lighter than the BG. Because of your stitch......even though correctly exposed.......you made the FG lighter than the BG........that is unnatural..........our eye always sees reflections darker than the BG subject. I know as a ND grad can do the same thing. Darken the FG slightly in your original so that it is darker than the BG..........then the drama of the clouds would unfold even more and seem more natural to our eye. Now for a crop.......I would remove a bit off the right (look for the palm fronds in the reflection poking in on the edge of the frame) and then play with the left side (remove the bright spot in the LRC completely) and this would remove some of the heaviness and yield a very dramatic comp. This is a very strong, dramatic image........all the recommendations are tweaks to a very nicely composed image.

[Richard Waas]

Roman, as always thank you for your suggestions. I want to print this one and hang it, so I really appreciate the critiques (some I agree with and others see it differently than me). By the way, got my Singh-Ray grad 3-stop ND. Can't wait to use it.......

[Arthur Morris]

I like the final COMP and leveling but it looks as if you made it even darker than the ORIG post...