It's a real privilige to live in Aegean seaside of Anatolia. We have one of the most amazing sunsets by the time of this season. Then I decided to capture it. I grabbed my Nikon D750 and great Sigma 24-35 f/2 lens and placed them near by the sea. After a couple of long exposure and focus stacking process I made some color grading in Lightroom. Hopefully, I could capture the moment of nature magic.
i would like to see a straight shot for comparison the top half is a gorgeous color gradient while the bottom doesn't feel like its from the same photo. i don't know if it's from the stacking or just over processed. its eye catching for sure just getting to the tipping point of unbelievable
Upper and the lower parts are from exactly same shot sequence. Lower part has longer exposure to achieve silky water.The whole sequence has 5-6 different exposures for stacking and feel that I want.
nice i haven't tried that yet I'm still in infancy stages of learning long exposure and from what I've seen it can either be amazing or look almost cgi-ish if you know what i mean. i guess because you got the water so "silky" the sky environment didn't completely transfer the same color/feel i think thats where I'm getting the disconnect
The foreground doesn't look pin sharp yet, how did you go about shooting and stacking for the rocks? Also, how long did you expose for? It seems it wasn't for long enough, because there's still detail in the water.
As far as I remember, I had two sec exposures for each layer of the rocks (3-4 layers front to behind). I waited about half an hour to shot the water due to exposure rating. I took 6-8 second exposure for the water. Lastly I waited another 1-2 min to shot the ship. The sky was the first shot. It wasn't a long exposure.
6-8 seconds is a bit short for the effect you are trying to achieve, I'd try 30 seconds. If that's not possible (white clipping), get a 6-stop ND filter.
I'm a bit puzzled as far as the rocks are concerned, stacking should get you razor sharp objects, but it didn't. My advice would be to shoot in live view (if your camera has it) and focus manually after having zoomed in as far as you can. Don't rely on AF.
Unfortunately I don't have ND filter. That's why I tried to plan my shooting times.
I did manuel focus but I think it was less than I need. I should have maybe 6-7 shots because the rocks had some distance between them.
I see. There's a way around that but it would require Photoshop, do you have it?
Yes I have
Excellent, in that case you can "stack" multiple long exposures to make up for the lack of an ND filter, see here: https://expertphotography.com/daytime-long-exposure-photo-stacking/
Thanks for this good advice. I'll consider it for another shot.
After watching the last landscape photography critique video, I feel like this is one of the images they'd have given a 2, because it's way overprocessed. How does it look in real life is the first question on my mind. You say the sunsets are beautiful where you live, but I don't see any of that here. If there is a lesson to learn from the latest critique is that nowadays we overprocess everything thinking it'll please people. It lacks leading lines and a subject matter. I can't tell what's in the back, if it's a boat or Istanbul's blue mosque photoshopped here.
It's a ship and it was actually passing by. I think the reflection over the water doesn't look realistic for the viewers. Because the sky and the rocks are just like they seem. But due to long exposure and slightly rough water it seems unrealistic and color adjustments either. There is no "photoshopping" or copy-paste thing.
Photoshop is my go-to solution for editing, I'd never, ever go back to Lightroom. The term "photoshopping" typically refers to edits made by people who haven't got a clue what they're doing. If used the right way, Photoshop is a powerful tool and blows Lightroom out of the water (and then some).
whats up with all the purple? would be a great image with a more natural color cast!
I never want this photo to be natural. I wanted it to be some surreal as is evident from its name.
That would be called "Fine Art" then ;-)
First and foremost, photography is an art and it's up to the artist to decide what a particular picture should look like (or not), so I don't quite get what the fuss is about.
Having said that, same as with composition there are some guide lines for picking colors that "work" - it's called color theory. There is support for a color wheel built in into Photoshop, if you don't use Photoshop, Adobe also provide an online version here: https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/
Now here's the interesting part: Ozden picked purple and green, now check what the color chart suggests as complementary color for purple. Surprise!
Exactly! Good point and vision.