Greetings fellow users of the internet.
So a few weeks, or months back (I honestly can't remember), I shared a photo about my attempt to photograph Enoshima Island with Mount Fuji in the background. If you saw that post, then you would know that things didn't quite work out. Despite every forecast telling me it was sunny without a cloud in sight, the was a huge wall of cloud blocking my view of Fuji. The weather for most of February wasn't great, in terms of photographing Mount Fuji from this distance, so I had just about called off attempting this shot until December or next January. However, a few weeks back we got lucky with the perfect conditions, so I headed back to this location and finally got the shot that was in my head for months. In photography, as with many other things, we must deal with failure due to elements out of our control. It's how we deal with this failure to capture these images that matters. With persistence, we can make these shots a reality.
Admittedly, it's not quite as good as I had hoped, although none of my photos ever really are. The insane winds meant I wasn't able to get much of a long exposure during the best part of the sunset, so I had to go with a faster shutter. That being said, between my previous attempt and this one, I upgraded to a D850, so the image quality is a huge step up from my first attempt... oh, and I didn't kick any bushes this time.
200mm
F/11
ISO 64
1/125 sec
The lights on the island were added from a different image taken about 40 minutes later, because unfortunately they don't turn on until after the sun has set, and by that time all of the interesting light was gone, and a lot of Fuji was covered by clouds.
Let me know what you think, and feel free to share any images that took you a few attempts to grab!
I remember your original photo, thought it was cool. I like the vibe, would be tempted to contrast the blues from the water with the sky reds a bit more, and perhaps play with the crop. Definitely a moody shot, water looks kind of menacing here.
I’m glad you like it.
I’m not sure this is the final version, so I’ll play around with the colour a little more and see what happens.
What kind of crop were you thinking? Tighter on the sides and top?
Was thinking something along the lines of chopping a little off the top. I wasn't sure of the color because of the yellow cast but its growing on me, has a unique vibe. I was going to do the same thing Radisa did, but now that I see it, I still prefer the mood of the original photo.
I’ll see how much I can take off the top while still giving Fuji room to breath.
I liked this one the most because of the colour. Some of the later images had more interesting clouds, but I wasn’t a fan of how purple everything looked after the sun stopped hitting the island.
Thanks for the feedback!
I found after a lot of testing that a correct color cast correction can be done in Color Efex Pro in the Pro Contrast section with Nik Colection software. Here's what this tool showed and how could possibly might look like a crop. Of course, such kind of "realistic" variant in most cases is not good and I keep the desired color cast according to my own idea, that is everything towards personal taste. Otherwise a great picture Jordan!.
I’ll try playing around with it a little more in post. The colour in this one looks closer to the later shots I took. I thought they looked too blue/purple, so I went with the image with the most colour.
Unfortunately, I don’t have any of the Nik collection, and last I checked it’s not free anymore, so I’ll see what I can do in Lightroom.
Thanks for the feedback!
Hey Jordan! I am in the same boat with you in regards to not having Nik collection, even though, I probably will end up purchasing it. Found this video on YouTube recently, that shows some really clever native photoshop techniques that allow viewing and correcting color cast. I personally found it quite useful, so I thought, I'll share it here just in case.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snF5G8dnjrE
Your image is really cool!
Thanks for the video, I'll be sure to check it out in its entirety when I have more time. I took a quick glace, it looks like they are using Photoshop CC, so I hope I'll be able to do the same using Photoshop Elements.