The first image is my edit, the second is the original that featured in the CTC. I have dodged the rock on the left and less so the sky as well as slightly lowering the overall exposure.
I took this back in Jan 2018 and I have had a few goes at editing it as I have become more experienced. It was good to have Lee's feedback as I wasn't 100% happy with my edit but couldn't really put my finger on why. It is a manual exposure blend and I just brought back too much shadow from the longer exposed bracketed image.
Finally I have included one of my way earlier edits of it complete with nuclear colours, uncorrected lens distortion and cleaned up light streak (I prefer it more as it was in camera now, caused by reflectance between the ND filter and the lens I think).
My original description from the CTC for anyone that hasn't seen it;
Accidental light painting with the biggest light there is! Photographing sunrise at Cathedral Cove, NZ with a 10 stop ND filter to smooth the waves and the clouds, I had the shutter open for about 17 seconds (bulb mode) and out of the corner of my eye I saw water rushing in (the tide was going out and had been receding from my vantage point), I quickly grabbed the low tripod and put it on the rock next to the one I was sat on just in time and then remembered to close the shutter after the lucky save.
Later that morning I was showing my images to the lady that we were staying with and realised that this 'accident' might have potential. Especially the way that it curves over the arch that makes this place well known. I blended the light streak with two earlier exposures taken a minute or so before, one that had better clouds and one for more detail in the shadows.
The light streak aside I feel this image is lucky in that I made it to the beach at all, I had planned the visit to coincide with low tide at sunrise however the day before the Coromandel Peninsula had suffered the worst storm for 30 years with roads closed due to flooding and landslips. Apart from torrential rain, thankfully our route there was ok, I woke at 4am, full cloud cover, nearly went back to bed, drove to the car park, full cloud cover, nearly drove back to go to bed, did the 40 min hike to the beach, cloud on the horizon, got set up, had an hour of being the only person there, so incredibly peaceful, bracketed shots every few minutes, then as the Sun started to come up the clouds on the horizon cleared...
Shot at 14mm, as far back as I could get, I wanted to include the Te Hoho rock (left) as well as the arch from this side as it's a composition that I haven't seen often, most people get the rock whilst inside the arch. Quite a bit of skewing/warping was needed to get it to look more natural (I don't have a tilt shift lens yet).
I really like the last shot.
I am an old hippie and nature needs a little help some times. LOL
I’m not a fan of as you call it, nuclear colors. For commercial purpose, it ok to do all the tricks in the book, but for nature photography its important to keep a more conservative approach. So I like the first one the best.
I do prefer the overall color balance of the first shot.