Strange But Beautiful Colour

[John 2]

Just been up in the English Lakes for a couple of nights. Leaden grey skies and a lot of rain for the most part except for a couple of hours late afternoon on the second day and on the evening that we arrived when these were taken. When it brightened up towards dusk, I went down to the lake to see what I could find. The light was just about as it is in the first shot but within five or so minutes, it had developed into an eerie coppery tone you see in the last three shots. You can just see it developing in the second shot. I have never experienced light like that before and dashed around to try and find something - anything worth capturing. Within ten to fifteen minutes it had completely gone and darkness fell.

All Fuji X + 18-55mm lens.

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.

[Wavelength]

Excellent set of images...great hues....nice compositions...

[xpatUSA]

Excellent!

Occasionally where I live, if the sky is clear to the west but there is cloud overhead, the clearing gets suffused with a golden light which lasts but a few minutes at this latitude (29 deg 55' N). Quite eerie when it happens and hard to capture the right moment when it does.

This was well past the peak moment and the light was fading, so I shot the clouds instead in order to capture the source, so to speak:




Sigma SD9, Daylight WB to keep the perceived color, developed in ACR/Photoshop.

[Rebel]

Great set of photos John, we had some very pinkish skies down here this weekend to!

[Manfred M]

Great series John. Sunset and bad weather can sometimes lead to some interesting and beautiful skies. The trick is to be someplace scenic, with camera in hand. Unfortunately for me, this happens all too rarely.

I find the two last shots (#4 and #5)with the boats are particularly effective.

[bnnrcn]

Excellent series John, great compositions and colors

[Geoff F]

Very tricky skies there, but everything has worked excellently.

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[dje]

Very very nice John. You've made the most of an opportunity.

Dave

[Dave A]

#4 just blew me away, love it.

Dave

[mugge]

Great shots #4 and #5 for me.
Cheers Ole

[IzzieK]

Because I am in the study of how to use my UWA, I find #4 to my liking as well...#5 is good too with that little girl to settle the shot. 1, 2 and 3 are equally beautiful...a good study on how the weather condition can change in a just a few moments...all good, John...some of your best here...love the colours.

[JBW]

beautiful

[Dave Humphries]

Hi John,

Nice series.

To be really picky, I might suggest that #1 needs a bit of clockwise rotation, but I suspect doing so might damage the composition with the resulting crop necessary to remove the vacant triangles at the corners this would introduce.

The others are great, especially #4, as many have already said.


For Izzie:

Because I am in the study of how to use my UWA, I find #4 to my liking as well.

I note that John's #4 was shot at 23mm (35mm FF equivalent), so is not really a UWA shot, although it is indicative of what works compositionally for UWA shooting, especially when viewed large in the LyteBox.

I have to say that when I use my 10-24mm lens on a 1.5/DX camera (so think of the angles of view you'd see at 15-36mm on your FF D810), I don't always find myself at the widest angles it offers, many times, I end up composing the final shot in the 18-24mm range (equiv. 24-36mm FF), meaning that anyone with a kit lens could achieve the same results, but I find the UWA encourages me to 'work the scene' more, as I'm sure you are discovering.

[John 2]

Great series John. Sunset and bad weather can sometimes lead to some interesting and beautiful skies. The trick is to be someplace scenic, with camera in hand. Unfortunately for me, this happens all too rarely. ........

Got the T shirt Manfred.

Thanks all for the comments. It was the colour that fascinated me. We get yellows, oranges and crimsons here, particularly over Morecambe Bay but the copper hues and of such intensity, were new to me.

Dave, you're not being picky and I can't argue with you. The shot is at the head of the lake and the far bank is at an angle. This gives the impression of a tilt but if you look at the boat mast in the centre, it is (just about) vertical. That's the dilemma
though. Do you correct for what you know is there or do you correct for perception? I guess the answer is different depending on the image in question.

[xpatUSA]

Dave, you're not being picky and I can't argue with you. The shot is at the head of the lake and the far bank is at an angle. This gives the impression of a tilt but if you look at the boat mast in the centre, it is (just about) vertical. That's the dilemma though. Do you correct for what you know is there or do you correct for perception? I guess the answer is different depending on the image in question.

A problem with boat masts is that they're not necessarily vertical, John. Depends on loading and hull design, don't you think? In the scene the masts are all at different angles slightly and look at paint line on the boat in question. The pier pilings seem to me to have a slight angle; and the left side of the shoreline seems further away than the mid-right, judging by tree height. So it seems that a slight straighten might be warranted. Here's a 1-degree adjustment in FastStone Viewer for example:



Please pardon with my messing with the tones . . trying to bring out the masts.

[John 2]

You could be right Ted. That's what I mean by referring to perception. There is some WA distortion which has the masts at the edge of the image leaning outward but for instance if you consider the jetty in relation to your horizontal grid line, it would suggest that it isn't level - but I suspect that it is. It matters not. The point of posting these images taken in somewhat of a hurry, was to record and show the quality of the light.

[xpatUSA]

You could be right Ted. That's what I mean by referring to perception. There is some WA distortion which has the masts at the edge of the image leaning outward but for instance if you consider the jetty in relation to your horizontal grid line, it would suggest that it isn't level - but I suspect that it is. It matters not. The point of posting these images taken in somewhat of a hurry, was to record and show the quality of the light.

Yes, John, forgive me for drifting off-topic - although I was actually responding to both Dave's comment and your response to it. Since it matters not, we'll say no more about it.

[Brownbear]

Wonderful set, such a beautiful sky and gorgeous light. There is something about #5 that is extra special to me because of the little girl staring out at the scene... (surrounded by ducks, etc)

[deetheturk]

Beautiful set John, the colours are amazing!