Maine Islands

redleash

Nearing the end of my annual trip to Maine. I discovered this scene a few days ago and went back one foggy morning. These islands are off of Lookout Point on Harpswell.

I have not shot in a long time so any C&C is appreciated. Thanks, Lauren

Stumblebum

Nice! I love fog, water and Islands, so this trifecta of joy for me! It might pay off to have zoomed out a tad and even throw it off center a bit. JMO. Cheers!

redleash

Thanks for the look. I have several others so I will post a different comp to see what you think.

JC

I concur with the framing advice, and also, it's a bit flat, I'd try stretching the radiance values to fill more of the space available. You could also mask the sky (after a moderate stretch), and apply a more aggressive stretch to the foreground island and water.

kdog

Yeah, a bit underexposed, Lauren. Framing was a good trade-off from what I can tell. Nice tranquil scene.

redleash

I agree with the comment about this shot being flat. I am very much out of practice with PP also. I have been going over and over this one and can't get where I want to be. If anyone could point me in the right direction I would appreciate it. JC, how would you suggest handling the radiance values? If anyone is interested in doing some PP on this shot, feel free. I will be posting more from this scene for further C&C.

Thanks for the help,
Lauren

roaddog52

A fine beginning, and I like the whole concept. My thoughts are if the island is the main subject, as I think it is, I would crop about half of that water from the bottom and bring the island forward. Then stretch the sky the same amount as you shortened the bottom.

Phil

JC

redleash wrote: »

I agree with the comment about this shot being flat. I am very much out of practice with PP also. I have been going over and over this one and can't get where I want to be. If anyone could point me in the right direction I would appreciate it. JC, how would you suggest handling the radiance values? If anyone is interested in doing some PP on this shot, feel free. I will be posting more from this scene for further C&C.

Thanks for the help,
Lauren

Automatic exposures are going to tend to underexpose in foggy conditions, and while some foggy scenes in real life can be dark and mysterious, especially in the evening, my major remembrance of foggy days on the water are days where I still need to wear sunglasses, because it's so damn bright with the sun coming diffused from everywhere, and this second case is what this scene looks like to me. Plus, our eyes are really adaptable, and in the fog closer subjects can be pretty well lit while the distance fades into the fog.


So, to my eye, here's a quick and dirty edit here, ymmv on how bright you light the sky, especially depending on your monitor.


To do this, I made two copies of the original layer. On the top/sky layer I stretched the right side of the histogram out to the edge of the right peak in the histogram, basically took the sky values almost to 255. I ended up clipping the blue layer, which IMHO is okay, monitor brightness can vary a lot, so if the sky is too bright to you, you could moderate the stretch a little bit.

On the middle/island layer, I ignored the sky peak in the histogram, and stretched the values that correspond to the island out to fill about 50% more of the radiance values than they are now (or looking at it another way, took the edge of the water peak in the histogram nearly to 255). It looked to me like you were shooting towards the sun, so I let the shadows in the rocks and under the trees go to 0.

I then copied the sky layer, and made a mask for the sky layer out of itself.


You can then combine the sky and island layers and compare the new version to the original layer underneath. If you think this edit is overcooked, you can go back and add in the original layer in some weighted % if you find you still like a bit of overall haze still in the scene.

As to the crop, I like how the mirrored reflection brings color into the water to contrast with the silvery foggy water. I'd crop the island on the left out completely, it's just a distraction drawing my eye away from the trees, but keep the reflection and the distant island on the right which adds depth. While shooting, I might have zoomed out on this one to show more sky and move the horizon out of the middle of the frame, or tried a portrait orientation to emphasize the vertical lines of the tree and reflection.

boco

mooie opname met een juiste belichtingstijd.
grt,boco.

redleash

JC, thanks for the details. I will keep working and post results. By the way, this was sunrise and, but for the fog, the sun would have been behind me. I know the image is underexposed a bit, but it is not that far off from the actual scene. As you said, some foggy scenes are mysterious and that is how it was that morning. . I do want to lighten it enough to really show some of the detail in the island. It is flat and I need to fix that also. Thanks for your work and suggestions--they will definitely help.