Everglades Sunset
Taken last night. I'm fighting with the top from the middle to the right. would you darken it or saturate it more? Not quite sure where to go with it, but i think it can be improved.
D300, 18-200VR at 27mm, f/25, 1/100s, 0EV, ISO 200
comments and critiques are welcome and appreciated
Hi Harold,
My goal as moderator in this forum is to try and give advice as how to improve in camera. You can almost correct everything in PS.......but it takes time that I don't have or want to spend (unless I'm very close). I have messed with many images and will be buying the NIK filters soon. That being said..........a soft stop split ND filter, 3 stops.........would have been huge in this picture! It weighs a whopping 6 ounces (if that). Your composition here is very nice and you had a spectacular sunset! You can tone down the sky to help this one......but if you only carry one filter.......I recommend that you get a soft stop ND 3 stop filter and carry it with you for situations like this! 6 ounces would have made this a wall hanger,
Roman
Sweet image Harold !!!
I'm starting to re think my filter strategy!!!! Strong point Roman !!!! You are going to succeed loading me down some more :D:):)
I see you found Pine Glades Lake Harold. Compositionally, this is pretty good. I like the leading line of rocks. The lower left corner is a bit heavy and kinda takes away. I don't think that corner would be a problem if brighter.
The two choices, gnd filter, or 2 exposures to help your dynamic range would have helped a lot. This may have been better with two exposures because the sun was exposed and an extra filter increases likelihood of flare. You actually got a bit already.
Anyways, it is a nice image and I hope to see more.
where is this spot? looks like a great photo spot
Roman gave good reasons for using the NDG filters but here is a PS technique to mimic one. Another option here is to process the RAW twice - once for the sky and the other for the ground. Then combined in PS using HDR or blending.
A quick and dirty Photoshop trick to digitally mimic a GND filter:
1. Post process the image normally. This can include leveling, cropping, and adjustment layers
(Curves, Level, Selective Color and Hue/Saturation).
2. Create another Levels Adjustment Layer. Pull the gamma slider (center) to darken or lighten the
image so that the highlight or shadow area is closer to how you want it to appear.
3. With the Levels Adjustment Layer active add a Layer Mask using the icon at the bottom of the
palette if needed.
4. Make sure that you've chosen the default setting for foreground and background color
(White/Black). Remember the white reveals and black conceals.
5. Now grab the Linear Gradient tool and drag in the image where you want the original to
be hidden. In this image it was the bottom one‐third.
The direction you drag the Linear Gradient tool and whether Black or White is on top of the Palette will
determine the area affected. Remember, white reveals and black conceals.
You can affect the amount of change by setting the opacity of the masked Adjustment
Layer itself. A brush can be used instead of or in addition to the gradient tool.
Above technique to image. Using a Selective Color adjustment I added black to the black and neutral channels as this helps to increase the inherent contrast in the FG without increase contrast globally from using a curves adjustment.
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