This is an image taken just after sunset in the outback. I actually took 3 shots and blended them to get this much dynamic range, as the relative brightness of the sky at this time of night makes a normal image almost impossible.
The 3 images were taken at F11: 1/20, 1/6, 7/10 sec; ISO 100 at 17mm on fullframe. Blended in Photomatix and then a little PP in Lightroom 1 - bumping the sky saturation mostly.
__________________ Mike Adelaide
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
It's a beautiful shot, with a lot of color interplay between the ground and the sky. I like that it's sharp to the edges, and the wide angle nicely accentuates perspective in the sky.
Normally I'm not fond of the "HDR look" one sometimes gets from Photomatrix, but I'm not seeing that here. What I am seeing is a nice level of illumination on the ground without sky blowout, adeptly done. It feels very natural.
About the only constructive criticism I can offer is that the horizon seems ever so slightly tilted CW - maybe a degree or so. This is accentuated a bit by the appearance of more open ground at the bottom-left corner of the image than at the bottom-right. I realize the geography may have been that way and the camera really was level, but not having been there I thought I'd share that I feel a slight tilt to the image.
A wise old photographer once told me, "your viewer should want to walk into your landscape", and this image really does that. Your shot both makes Australia seem real and makes me want to be there.
I like the panoramic feel of the photo and the subtile pastel tones. I hope you don't mind me posting an example of how I would edit the photo.
I thought by cropping a small bit of the sky would emphasize the panoramic feel and bring foreground more presence in the image. I added some yellow to the midrange and shadow areas for depth and cloned out a couple of sensor dust bunnies.
I like Jerry's idea, but instead of cropping, I wanted to darken the top to draw the eye toward the centre but I still wanted to leave it there to convey the immense space in the shot.
I selected about half of the upper sky, feathered the selection with 50 px, then used levels to darken. I repeated the same thing but opposite at the bottom. Then, added a little saturation to pump it up a bit. I'm not keen on over sat photos, but i thought this image could a bit more. You can't achieve the same effect with burning, IMHO anyway.
Would make a fabulous 40x60" panel on someone's wall.
DougA
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
How do you paste in the full sized version? How do you get the link for the full sized version?
I just right clicked the original, clicked 'copy', open 'new' in PS and pasted, then saved once done. However, I'm not too savvy on this stuff. I tried grabbing the original and it didn't work right.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
I just right clicked the original, clicked 'copy', open 'new' in PS and pasted, then saved once done. However, I'm not too savvy on this stuff. I tried grabbing the original and it didn't work right.
Hi Doug, sorry, I wasn't clear in my prior request. I worked on the full sized image in PS, and uploaded the image to Pro Photo Home. But now, I can only show my "medium" sized image. I have no idea how to show the 800 pixel sized image that everyone else is showing. I hit various knobs and dials to no avail.
Anyway, I am going to bed. I just looked and Japan's stock market is down over 10% right now. Tomorrow should be interesting as the world's financial system continue to resist buckling under the strain of uncertainty.
Linear Mode
