Sunrise over Stradbroke

[Fitzy101]

First attempt at capturing a sunrise. Went out on the boat fishing and bought the Cam along too.



Please let me know what you think

[dje]

Michael I posted a comment on this in the landscapes thread. I thought it was sunset though ! Cheers Dave

[Donald]

Michael

I wonder if maybe you got this one just a couple of minutes too late. What I mean is that the sun is already up. What was it like just before the sun came up over the horizon? I suspect there may have been much more reds and yellows in the sky. Obviously with the sun up, you've got that blown patch. Getting it just before the sun appears avoids that problem.

The other thing I wonder about is the softness on the tree line. Is it maybe the case that there was a breeze (although that's not apparent from the water) and you got a bit of motion blur on the higher branches, or are the trees just a bit out of focus?

[JohnC]

For a sunrise you need to be at your location 30 minutes before the official sunrise time and for sunset stay after it's gone below the horizon for the afterglow.The light at these times, especially the sunrise, changes by the minute but to be fair as you went out to go fishing and just happen to take a camera along then it wasn't a planned sunrise photo trip it was a fishing trip and obviously no tripod (I say obviously but I've seen photos taken by a pro. from a small boat to get to a particular location and he had his tripod with him- such dedication,mind you it was a 600mm lens) so no doubt the motion of the boat, no matter how slight and maybe not even discernible to you, may well account for a couple of points raised by Donald or maybe a breeze was up as he's suggested but I think it's more likely the motion of the boat, it doesn't take much to cause blur and you wouldn't have enough shutter speed with that light to overcome it or if the camera's on auto the shutter opened wide to gather as much light as possible and distant objects wouldn't be in sharp focus - all sorts.Best to go fishing or photographing, not both.

[Donald]

Ah, I forgot to think that you were maybe in the boat at the time (the clue was in your first sentence. Doh!). John's hit the bullseye with his suggestions.

[JohnC]

It's early Donald I really need to crack on with some jobs round here, this forum is becoming an addiction

[Colin Southern]

Hi Michael,

Looks good to me. How's this for a minor tweak? (Clarity, midtones, aspect ratio, sharpening)

[FrankMi]

Hi Michael,

Looks good to me. How's this for a minor tweak? (Clarity, midtones, aspect ratio, sharpening)

Hi Colin, let me see if I understand what you did. I looks like you stretched the image to give it a more panoramic look. Is that what you mean by tweaking the aspect ratio? If so, then that is a technique I had not considered before. Obviously it would only work if the content of the scene lended itself to that approach but in this case I really like the change it made to Michael's image.

[JohnC]

Nice job,Colin.

[Fitzy101]

Thankyou for the feedback everyone. As you have noticed I found it difficult to get the sharpness that I needed because the boat was unsteady. A couple of minutes earlier would have been great unfortunately I was trying to cook some breakfast!

When I go on a trip dedicated to capturing the sunrise/sunset I will take it into mind about being there earlier.

Colin, I like the change in aspect ratio albeit it does look a bit squished in the treeline.

I will go for a sunrise again soon; this was such a great spot but unfortunately you can only get there via boat. Somewhere else local can have some great views in the morning too

[Colin Southern]

Hi Colin, let me see if I understand what you did. I looks like you stretched the image to give it a more panoramic look. Is that what you mean by tweaking the aspect ratio? If so, then that is a technique I had not considered befoe. Obviously it would only work if the content of the scene lended itself to that approach but in this case I really like the change it made to Michael's image.

Hi Frank,

In a word, yes. The technique works well whenever the image already has long horizontal lines - this image was a prime candidate.