Early Spring Sunset

[Karm Redland]

Sunset is not blown out. Comments welcomed.



Karm

[Donald]

The light on the seed/flower heads of those grasses in the foreground, is wonderful. Would have been great if you could have held off until the sun was farther down so that you didn't get that blown area. But then you wouldn't have had the same light. It's a trade-off, isn't it?

[Karm Redland]

Hi Donald. I liked this sunset's dark feeling with the bulrush catching the last of the evening's light. On Flickr, the image has a bit more structure with a little bit more of a wow factor. Based on Lightroom's histogram the sun is not blown out.

Karm

[Ken Curtis]

Karm.

The sky looks blown out even if the histogram says it isn't. I wonder if you couldn't have moved a bit to the right when you took the photo. I expect you would have captured the "lit up" bulrush, but it would have been against a darker background. My two cents worth...

[Mike Buckley]

Gorgeous scene and mood!

About the bright light in the sky: It is clearly not blown in the sense that all of the light is captured and displayed. Even so, that bright area is devoid of any detail and, for me, is distracting.

The scene seems to be visually under exposed and the histogram confirms that. When I brightened it by lifting the center of the curve, the tops of the grasses sparkled gloriously.

Notice the golden reflection in the water directly below the bright light in the sky. My guess is that you post-processed either or both in a way that results in that incongruity; the color of the reflection should be reasonably close to the the source light, as is in the source and reflected light on the left side of the frame, and it's not.

This photo is well worth trying to put all elements together to take it to the next level.

[Karm Redland]

Hi Mike. You're correct. You're correct. You're correct. You're correct.

I initially processed the photo in a more traditional manner. It looked really nice but lacked a wow factor. I then tried this darker version. From the moment I looked at it I was completely wowed by the image. I just think there is something magical about its dark, moody look.

You are correct about the yellow light. It is an artifact left over from the photo's original lighting. For me it breaks up the monotony of the dark tree reflections.

I will go back and process the original raw image in a more traditional manner and post the result.

Karm

[Karm Redland]

Hi Ken. Making the "blown out" area darker just didn't add anything to the picture. Most of the bulrush are lit against a dark background. This is an area where I can try this picture again. I'll try your suggested angle.

Karm

[mknittle]

Karm, I like it. Like Donald said about the trade off, if you pass up all the less than perfect shots what would you have left?
Besides A good or even a Perfect image is a matter of opinion really.

[Mike Buckley]

Karm,

I just now reread my post and realize that I may have accidentally mislead you to think that the so-called underexposed scene is a problem. It's not; I like the mood of the darkened image. Similarly, when I mentioned that brightening the image makes the top of the grass sparkle, I erred by failing to mention that that is an alternative mood to consider, not necessarily a better look.

Now that I have viewed your image again, you might want to try leaving it mostly as is though with the bright area of the sky mostly replaced by cloned clouds. Doing so would eliminate the bright distraction.

I like the idea of the warm reflection, so you could simply select that color and add it to the bottom part of the area that is currently bright. That would match your source light and reflection.

Whatever you decide upon, I would be willing to bet that you're going to end up with a really remarkable photo.

[Karm Redland]

Thanks Mark. If I see something interesting I shoot. I mostly see holistically. I'm always first drawn by an image's overall look. Some people see trees and some people see forests. I can't but help see the forest first. Once I'm done looking at an image's overall look I then begin looking at the image's finer points. When I take a photograph I often ignore small flaws in my composition that I later regret. This is something I'm trying to correct.

Karm

[Karm Redland]

Thanks Mike.

Karm