Parroquia, Golden Hour

willard3

I decided to do this properly this time. Sun sets at approx 6:30 pm, so I set the camera on a tripod and took 3 fotos every 5 min from 6-6:30 pm.

I combined 6 exposures I liked best in an HDR. The sun sets very red all the time in the altiplano and, as usual, there were no clouds in the sky.

Stumblebum

Nice shot Willard! Stairs indicate that horizon can be straightened as it is tilted to right. I am not HDR fan so may not appreciate this effort as HDR fans would. I think HDR reduced the beautiful directional nature of the light by almost getting rid of shadows. It took some analysis to realize sun is on the right. It think a single exposures without HDR processing with shadows and soft directional light would be incredible. Also the one in dying light would probably make sky less blown out too even if the golden glow is less. If I had exposure combining skills then I would pick the sky mask from dying light and single exposure when the golden glow was at its peak and I think combination would would incredible! Cheers!

willard3

Glad you liked this. There are many, many fotos of this church that I have seen.

The building and horizon are level, some of the stairs have settled with age and the site slopes to the right. The sky in the altiplano is frequently like this, faintly blue with no clouds; this is a 6 image hdr, if there were anything other than what you see in the sky, it would show. I don't import parts of fotos into other fotos because I prefer what's there.

Thank you for commenting.

Stumblebum

willard3 wrote: »

Glad you liked this. There are many, many fotos of this church that I have seen.

The building and horizon are level, some of the stairs have settled with age and the site slopes to the right. The sky in the altiplano is frequently like this, faintly blue with no clouds; this is a 6 image hdr, if there were anything other than what you see in the sky, it would show. I don't import parts of fotos into other fotos because I prefer what's there.

Thank you for commenting.

Hi Willard, First, building may be level, but distance from lower edge of the picture to the base of the stairs is not equal. I think that could be addressed a the time of the shot by twisting the camera or sacrificing something and straightening it. If it doesn't bug you then no worries.

Second, if you prefer what's there, than I am pretty sure you eyes don't have HDR vision. Real church won't look like this. While creating art, we are allowed to take some liberties. I personally would avoid HDR all together as it has taken out shadows or minimized them significantly. My point was that sky at some point would turn dark and may have more interesting tone in dwindling light. Since you know how to merge images, it might be another way of presenting the shot.

Like it anyway, but always greedy for more! Cheers!

willard3

I don't have any problem with sloping sites, they are common. The stairs in front are 150 years old and settlement is common, especially in these soils.

Actually, the church does look just like this. The only thing I have done is control the color of the light, my intention and a thing the sun did all by itself. If you miss shadows, look in the bell galleries, there's plenty of shadows. I chose HDR specifically for this effect.

I think probably our tastes differ, but I thank you for your commrnts.

wtlwdwgn

Fantastic image Willard. Good use of HDR. :cool