Simply living in HDR
The sunrise provided the perfect mix of light, contrast and reflection to create a great HDR capture. I would love to live in a house with this type of location...
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The sunrise provided the perfect mix of light, contrast and reflection to create a great HDR capture. I would love to live in a house with this type of location
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Jan, 2016Views
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Action Award
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Top Shot Award 22
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Outstanding Creativity
Superb Composition
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Magnificent Capture
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Behind The Lens
Location
I live in a very small town that is a mix of both urban and rural. There's a road that ends right at a port where everyone houses their sailboats and fishing boats. Normally I go to shoot birds while they fish, but happened to look around this time to see if there were any other photo subjects that caught my eye, and, well, I found it. Port Darlington in Bowmanville, Ontario Canada is the actual location.Time
Of the tens of thousands of photos I've amassed over years of photography, this one always stands out in my mind. I remember thinking the night before that I was going to wake up really early the next morning (around 6am) and head out with all my gear to get my super fantastic, award winning, world renowned sunrise photo. The next morning came, 6am came, and I was still in bed. Thankfully the Port isn't far from where I live (everything here is accessible within 5 minutes). I made it to the location between 7:30am and 8am and was miffed that the sky was covered in clouds. I decided to just stay and wait it out because you never know when you may get that little window of opportunity.Lighting
I had actually given up on any actual good lighting due to the clouds in the sky, but I kept saying to myself (yes, I actually said it to myself and probably out loud) "just wait man, you never know, there may be a break in the clouds that will let a little bit of light through, just wait, a little bit longer" "Don't give up, BE A MAN!" Okay, maybe not the last part. Well, sure enough, there was break in the clouds, at the perfect angle with the sun at the perfect height. It seemed to only illuminate the region around the house.Equipment
This was shot using a Pentax K30 body with a DA 18-55 WR 3.5-5.6 lens.Inspiration
I wanted to do something with HDR, but not the over processed style that I see a lot of people doing. I was going for a "natural surreal look". Something that is enhanced but believable. With the way the sun lit up certain parts of the scene I knew this would be a perfect photo for an HDR conversion.Editing
I did use some post processing since I shoot in RAW and added the HDR effect afterwards. I'm a very unorthodox photographer when it comes to post processing software. For this image, I used the Silkypix software that came with the camera for the RAW processing and jpg conversion. I then used Photoshop for the HDR effect. The final touch ups were done using a software called Chasys Draw IES.In my camera bag
Thanks to the Pentax System, everything is compact so my list is as follows. Pentax K30 body, DA 18-55 mm WR lens, DA L 50-200 mm WR lens, DA 50mm 1.8 Prime plastic fantastic lens (such a sharp lens at F4), Flash and remote triggers, micro tripod, extra batteries and a cleaning kit. The bag? Oh, that's a LowePro Nova 2 from 1998 I think? Maybe even older.Feedback
So many pieces of advice can be given for capturing something like this, but I think the most important pieces of advice is patience, period. Patience to get the shot (especially if you're relying on natural light) and patience with the post processing. I know when you get that epic photo, you're excited and just want to convert and throw it online as fast as possible, BUT, it's better to do it once, carefully and perfectly. Remember, you can't make a bad photo good, but you can make a good photo great, and a great photo incredible! When I did the HDR conversion for this, I did it all manually, slider by slider, zooming to 100% in certain areas to make sure it wasn't over done, then zoomed back out to see the whole effect, then zoomed back in on another section. I did this over and over again making tiny adjustments until I achieved the look I wanted. Another piece of advice is always have a plan, even if it's a small one. It can just be a general idea. Using my photo as an example, I did head out to get a sunrise image, then seeing the cloudy sky, I knew that wouldn't happen. But now I had the idea of using the suns light during those hours because of the hue. How I was going to use it, I wasn't sure, but I knew I was going to, somehow. I guess that brings up more advice, look around. I don't mean just stand in one spot and look around, crouch down, walk around the area, pay attention to your surroundings. No matter where you are, there's always something amazing you can capture, you just have to look around to see it. And the advice that always works, just keep shooting. The more you shoot, the more you learn and the better you'll become. There are incredible photographers that are out there and they're completely self taught. Don't be afraid to take horrible photos, every photographer, from hobbyist to world renowned award winning pro's have taken horrid photos. But they kept shooting and learning. Ask other photographers for advice on settings for certain situations, or just to pick their brain. You'd be surprised how helpful the photography community can be!
