I have been trying to make this shot I took back in June work. It has been a challenge for me to make the dynamics of the light and extreme contrasts pull together.
I have been trying to make this shot I took back in June work. It has been a challenge for me to make the dynamics of the light and extreme contrasts pull together.
Hi Ian,
This is a very well executed shot. I like it. I'm not sure I fully understand what you mean, but maybe cooling the colours down a bit the further you get away from the sun might work in your favour. I see it's already there, the bit of purple around the edges, but I would probably be a little bolder with blue. There's already an element of blue in the cooler sides of the Manhattan buildings, so I think it will work well. Just be sure to do it evenly in the water as well.
About composition, if I may ask, why did you not position yourself equidistant from both rows of wooden posts so that they would form a nice inverted V leading into the Manhattan skyline? You stood a little right of centre, so that skewed the lines a bit.
Sid
Thanks, Sid.
as for positioning, it is a very busy spot so i was a bit crowded. also, to get to the really good lineup you need to cross into a no trespassing zone. I tried to get to it and I was quickly corrected by a park ranger and had to recompose.
for what I meant,
It was a very bright day and with rapidly fading cloud cover over the skyline. The exposure contract from highlights to shadows was very steep and I had a hard time keeping up with my exposure bracketing as the sun went down. I think I got too far into my own head that day and tried to over complicate the shot.
Yes, I've been to that spot, but I took my shot from further left of the V. I understand now what you mean. You used the right word - bracketing. Did you bracket 2 or 3 different exposures? Lightroom has a really good algorithm for generating un-HDR-like HDRs, and I use it quite a lot. It works very well for compressing 2-3 different histograms into one smooth exposure.
The shot here is a completely different setting obviously, but I'm just attaching it to show you what LR can do with 3 brackets. It's actually quite smooth. The light was fading fast, and the waterfall was actually quite dark. I did 3 exposures, one for the water, the second for the background behind it and the third for the sky, then blended them together in LR. Hopefully this will work for you with shots like the one you posted.
Cheers,
Sid
I did a 5 shot bracket. The sun moved so fast that it didnt keep up with how I had it set up. Awesome shot BTW. I know I will get the chance to go back seeing as its only a 5 hour drive.
Yeah, I guess you were trying to recover shadow data from what would essentially have been a one-shot silhouette. How wide did you go on your brackets? You probably could have bracketed in 0.3 EV or 0.7 EV increments instead of 1 EV.
i cant remember, I usually shot .3.
this shot is a good reminder to slow down and clear my head. I knew I was too eager and it cost me.
Ok. Don't be too hard on yourself. Happens to all of us.