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This dramatic sunrise was photographed from one of my most favourite places, Penmon Point on the isalnd of Anglesey, and illustrates the type of lighting that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end!
However, I've never quite been able to do justice to this particular photo, which is one of my favourites.
When I took the original photo, way back in 2007, I'd only just started shooting with digital and was still thinking film, trying to fit the entire dynamic range of the scene into one exposure. Well, even with a 3 stop ND grad filter that was impossible in this case, with blown out highlights in the sunbeams, and blocked out shadows in the foreground.
I wish I'd known back then what I know now, and taken multiple bracketed exposures to use in a Photoshop blend.
However, I did the best I could and the image on the left, 'island-sea-rocks-01', was the result.
Fast forward a few years to today and the increasing use of HDR techniques to control excessive contrast. I decided to revisit this image to see if using my improved knowledge and software could get anything better than my original.
I did a cheat HDR rendition, using five different exposures of the same RAW file, and using new Photoshop techniques I'd recently learnt from reading books by Alain Briot, I was able to produce the image on the right, 'island-sea-rocks-02'.
To my mind, this new image brings out the mood of the day and the drama of the scene much more clearly than the earlier version and I'm happier with it than I was previously.
It just goes to show that it's worth learning new tricks, even at my age!
Filename - island sea rocks 01.jpg, island-sea-rocks-02.jpg
Camera - Canon 5D
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 40mm
Exposure - 1.3secs @ f11, ISO100
Location - Penmon Point, Anglesey
This image - 584x800px JPEG
Conversion - ACR & PS-CS2
Comments - Shutter speed chosen to slightly blur waves.
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2024 unless otherwise stated.