During my stay in the Lake District earlier this year I remember one particular night I woke up at around 2 o'clock in the morning and couldn't get back to sleep. I figured that I might as well get up and make the trip from Windermere down to Bowness, where there was a row of boats I had seen a couple of days before, which I thought would make for an interesting picture, given proper lighting.
An hour later I was on my way, with a heavy backpack, as always. I went straight for the boats and found an interesting composition with a rope hanging from a boat acting as a leading line. The street lights on the opposite side provided me with some shadows in the gravel. As you can see in the picture, dawn was about to break already.
And then it happened. The sun was slowly rising and all of a sudden the sky seemed to be on fire. I immediately packed my gear and hurried to a spot where I would have a good view of this spectacle and, ideally, have a reflection, too. I think I did alright, given the limited space of time.
What do you think?
Hi Thorsten great location and great compositions. I actually like the top one better as it is understated.The bottom one looks fantastic but I like a less "worked" image. I am glad in a way that I don't have your skill set because I would be doing that sort of post processing a lot of the time.
We're on the same page then, I like the top one better, too. However, looks can be deceiving. Let me explain.
The first screenshot shows what the bottom picture looked like right after focus stacking (for the foreground rocks), no adjustments applied yet.
Pulling the highlights down and the shadows up then yields screenshot #2 (that's not what I did with the actual image, but you get my point) - this already looks very similar to the final picture, doesn't it?
Now then, screenshot #3 shows what the boats looked like before post processing. It took a considerable amount of adjustments to get the light the way I wanted it, I only had the streetlights to work with and they were quite some distance away.
So although it appears that the bottom picture is a result of heavy post processing it actually is not, whereas the picture that looked quite innocuous is.
imagine the images the great photographers of the past could have done with our technology ...not that they needed it. great shots!
Thanks Joseph! Well, Ansel Adams was into post processing himself, I rest my case ;-)
hahaha yes but dodging and burning in a dark room is waaaaay more skillful than light room or photoshop ...that guy was awesome!!!
Thanks for your explanation Thorsten. I have not yet attempted photo stacking. I have been tempted to do it as there is a husband and wife team who do amazing things with Australian Wildflowers.Stanley and Kaisa Breeden.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/KaisaStanleyBreeden/photos/?ref=page_internal
The other link was not working for me. Try this facebook page.
See my new link Thorsten.