This is my first post to Fstoppers! Not thrilled with the composition but I loved the sky. Haven't done much long exposure photography... thought I would give it a try because I love the way it looks with fast moving clouds. I took 7 shots and stacked them in photoshop to achieve this look. Probably going to invest in a filter system soon. Would love some feedback or constructive critiscm on the composition and editing.
Thanks,
Walker Lambert
Hi Walker. a good effort. I am not into much processing of my shots but this is a nice image.Someone else will have to dissect your post work. It is a pleasing image but very different to our King's Canyon In central Australia. I did lots of skate photos too(I looked at your bio) when my kids were young. Keep up the good work.
Hi Geoff, thanks for the comment. Would love to check out Australia one day!
You should come. We have a fine vfx industry in Adelaide. Scenery is unsurpassed(in my opinion). Here is a link to one of my skateboarding posts.
https://geoffthompsonsblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/more-skateboarding.html
Wow, those skate photos are awesome! they remind me of dog town and the Z-boys. When did you take those?
My boys were teenagers then. They are now in their 40's. Probably early 90's or late 80's.The trip to the Prahran ramp was awesome. Christian Hosoi and Tony Magnussen were doing these massive airs.Back in the day my boys built their own half pipes in he back yard and annoyed the bloke across the road with their street skating. I was just a dad recording everything they did. I still do.
thats awesome!
I think I know this area, and I have found it a difficult place to get a good shot. The scenery is compacted with trees and I think there is little access to the lake itself and the wide lake makes it hard to get a leading line. I feel like you wanted to capture all the elements of sky reflection and hills, therefore the vertical crop. However, I also feel that the sky is the most interesting, so perhaps photograph it (or crop post processing) by cutting out a little of the hills therefore photographing more of the sky, therefore moving the horizontal line out of the middle. I love the fact that the colors are compatible and that you took it at the correct time of day or conditions (ie balanced light everywhere). There are some excellent youtube videos of landscape photography and also creativelive.com (the latter you have to keep going to catch them when they are free. BTW you might want to go to the staging area on Canyon (I think it is part of Kings Canyon) at sunrise, it has more leading lines, and I have got some nice shots there, particularly when the fog hangs out.
Hi Loretta,
Yes it is a very hard location to shoot, there isn't really many views of the water because of all the trees that surround the trail. Thanks for the advice on the composition!
Nice shot, I think you got a good effect with the stacked image approach. I do a lot of long exposures with filters, but never in PS. If you hadn't told me, I would have assumed it was done with on camera filters.
I like the composition, I really like the sky (wildfires suck but they make for interesting sky sometimes). Really like that you managed to capture some of the sky color reflected in the water.
If I were shooting this scene I'd probably angle up to emphasize the sky even more. By crouching down and angling up you might get a nice close foreground grass to big sky shot.
Yes I'm getting tired of the smoke everywhere in California but it does create some nice light at sunset. Thanks for the advice, glad to hear the long exposure looks up to par.
Actually, I started to run with whatever weather, smoke there is. I have noticed that when it is sunny and there is smoke you can get an old fashioned painting effect when taking photos of trees water etc. I also prefer clouds than no clouds at all, so winter is good - only it sucks if the trails are muddy!