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Thread: Devon Sunset

  1. #1
    ChrisH's Avatar
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    Devon Sunset

    I would be grateful for your comments on my Devon Sunset. This was made on my recent trip to the west country and shows an amazing sun set over Dartmoor after a day of high wind and torrential rain.

    The original suffered from a lot of noise in the dark foreground, which I have removed to the best of my ability. I tried using Neatimage first, however the process paled the colours dramatically, which could not be repaired in Photoshop. In the end the best job I could do in removing the noise was with Lightroom.

    Your comments would be gratefully received.

    Devon Sunset

    Aperture: f/4.0 Shutter Speed: 1/500 ISO: 400
    Last edited by ChrisH; 18th May 2012 at 10:26 AM.

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    WJT's Avatar
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    Re: Devon Sunset

    Hi Christopher, nice shot with great colours. You can hand hold this sort of landscape at 1/30, so this would mean theres no need to have an ISO setting of 400. A 100 ISO will take care of the noise issue. It could also allow for more DoF which may help the photo with that foreground puddle. The image could also be tilted anti clock wise a pinch. Nice scene, well done.

  3. #3
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    Re: Devon Sunset

    Hi Chris, I agree with Wayne. I know shots like this need to taken "when you see them" without the opportunity to plan them but under ideal circumstances I would have shot this with a tripod, aperture f/9 or f/11, ISO 100 and a GND filter. I would have also tried multiple shots with different exposure for HDR blending. This would allow the shadow areas to be brought up as much as desired without noise problems. And I think for this shot where the shadow areas take up about 2/3 of the image, it is important that they are not too dark.

    Dave

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    Moderator Donald's Avatar
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    Re: Devon Sunset

    Chris - The noise doesn't come, in my opinion, from the fact that you were at ISO400, but from the fact that the dark areas are underexposed. If you had been able to expose to get more detail into the dark areas, you wouldn't have had the same noise problems. But to do that I think you needed more than a lot of GND strength on the lens. You actually needed the sun to be much further down and for there to have been less dynamic range.

    I don't know what circumstances you had at the time. Maybe you couldn't have hung around there fro another 30-45 minutes. But if you had been able to and the sun had gone down, I think you would have given yourself a better chance.

  5. #5
    dje's Avatar
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    Re: Devon Sunset

    Hi again Chris.

    In light of Donald's comments, I should clarify my comments. The basic difficulty is that because the sun is so bright compared to the rest of the image it is difficult to get sufficient exposure on the darker areas. A GND would not have solved this problem but if you used say a 3 stop GND that would have allowed you 3 more stops of exposure on the darker areas. My comment about ISO referred to the situation where you compensate for the under-exposure of the shadow areas in pp - either with the Shadows/Highlights adjustment or a selective brightness adjustment. When bringing up the exposure of the darker areas in pp, the lower ISO should help with noise.

    Dave

  6. #6
    WJT's Avatar
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    Re: Devon Sunset

    And for me the ISO comments are more related to the need for a 400 ISO, there wasn't a need so you could have used a 100 ISO and had a better quality image. I would generally spot metre with a shot like this and find a focal point in the softer light to assure that the camera didn't over compensate for the glare of the sun. This would deal with the dark shadows and allow more detail.

  7. #7
    ChrisH's Avatar
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    Re: Devon Sunset

    Thanks Guys for your comments and advice. The 400 ISO was a mistake as I had used this setting earlier to film farm buildings in low light and forgot to reset it.

    As an exercise I created five images with different exposures ranging from -2 to +2 and merged them in Photomatix to produce an HDR version. I have to say I prefer the silhouette version - this one further exposes the noise problem.

    Devon Sunset

  8. #8
    ChrisH's Avatar
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    Re: Devon Sunset

    One final attempt of creating something out of my Devon Sunset. I have cropped out a chunk of the foreground to produce a "letter-box" style image. This is my final attempt as I suspect I am trying to produce a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

    Devon Sunset

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    WJT's Avatar
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    Re: Devon Sunset

    Quote Originally Posted by ChrisH View Post
    One final attempt of creating something out of my Devon Sunset. I have cropped out a chunk of the foreground to produce a "letter-box" style image. This is my final attempt as I suspect I am trying to produce a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

    Devon Sunset
    I've done that too may times with the ISO setting so I know its an easy thing to do. I like this crop and think the shot still has more than a sours ear. To me great colours are always a winner.

  10. #10

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    Re: Devon Sunset

    Personally, Chris, I would leave the brightness alone, as in the first image, then crop closer at the bottom. Possibly finish with a 2 x 1 ratio, approx.

    I think you could afford to lose a little from the right edge if necessary.

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