Sunset on Falls Lake - C&C Requested

karlabbott

So the other night I headed out to the lake to capture the sunset. My chosen location was temporarily closed and so I had to think fast and find a second location to shoot from as the sun was setting and the colors were already starting to be vibrant some 25 minutes before the sunset itself.

Here is what I was able to capture -- c&c is definitely appreciated

Hikin' Mike

Great shooting on the fly....so to speak...! Well done!

Doug Solis

What a dramatic sky. Its great to have a setting like this to get a great reflection. My on nic is the sky seems too pinkish red, makes it look a bit unnatural. A reflection is usually about a stop or so darker than the sky but in this case its lighter but more toward a natural hue. Did you select the sky to work on seperately?

karlabbott

Doug Solis wrote: »

What a dramatic sky. Its great to have a setting like this to get a great reflection. My on nic is the sky seems too pinkish red, makes it look a bit unnatural. A reflection is usually about a stop or so darker than the sky but in this case its lighter but more toward a natural hue. Did you select the sky to work on seperately?

Not in post -- I used a .9 and .6 ND Grad stacked on the front and probably compressed the scene a bit too much given that bit of information. Very good to know that the reflection is usually darker -- what I've observed in using nd grads is that if you graduate the top and not the reflection, the reflection is usually overexposed. Considering the graduation gets darker the further up the filter you go, I probably have the sky darkened just enough to make them equal.

Concerning the color -- I processed this in the ProPhoto color space and have not been able to convert to rgb and maintain the colors that I really wanted to see in the sky. If you look at this image with the ProPhoto color space on a calibrated monitor, the pinks are a bit more subdued and don't stand out as harshly as they do in this image. Color Management is something that I've been playing quite a bit with lately. I'd like to pull that back down to more where I see it in the color managed space, but haven't given the how a lot of thought until now. I suppose I could go in and do a color correction on that pink. I think I'll try that after my photo backup has finished.

Cheers,
Karl

denisegoldberg

karlabbott wrote: »

Not in post -- I used a .9 and .6 ND Grad stacked on the front and probably compressed the scene a bit too much given that bit of information. Very good to know that the reflection is usually darker -- what I've observed in using nd grads is that if you graduate the top and not the reflection, the reflection is usually overexposed. Considering the graduation gets darker the further up the filter you go, I probably have the sky darkened just enough to make them equal.

You may or may not be interested in another filter, but...

I have some reverse graduated ND filters that are darker in the middle, very good for sunrise / sunset shots. When I first saw them (named) my immediate reaction was if I want the filter reversed I'll just turn it the other way, darker part on the bottom. But that wasn't the point, it's the graduated section that is reversed. These are the filters I have - http://www.singh-ray.com/reversegrads.html.

--- Denise

karlabbott

denisegoldberg wrote: »

You may or may not be interested in another filter, but...

I have some reverse graduated ND filters that are darker in the middle, very good for sunrise / sunset shots. When I first saw them (named) my immediate reaction was if I want the filter reversed I'll just turn it the other way, darker part on the bottom. But that wasn't the point, it's the graduated section that is reversed. These are the filters I have - http://www.singh-ray.com/reversegrads.html.

--- Denise

That's an interesting point, Denise. I typically shoot with Lee filters, though I do have the Singh-Ray Vari-N-Duo and have found Singh-Ray to make some excellent filters. I'm having trouble finding reverse ND grads made by Lee, though. Is there another name these go by?

Doug -- I've darkened the reflection and applied that color correction and here is what the new version looks like:



Thoughts? Did I get the reflection dark enough? Or is it too dark at this point?