Heavenly Sunrise
One of the best sunrise of the year witnessed at Tanjong Rhu.
One of the best sunrise of the year witnessed at Tanjong Rhu.
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May, 2016Views
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Awards
Member Selection Award
Contest Finalist in Covers Photo Contest Vol 30
Contest Finalist in The Beauty Of My Hometown Photo Contest
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Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
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Outstanding Creativity
Magnificent Capture
All Star
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Behind The Lens
Location
I live in Singapore, one of the smallest countries in the world. It is a highly built-up city with no mountains, natural lakes nor rivers to afford opportunities for gorgeous landscape photography. What this country offers is mainly architectural and cityscape opportunities. This shot was taken from the Tanjong Rhu area, a neighborhood by the largest man made river in Singapore. It was taken at the bank of the river on the side that is opposite to the residential area as seen in this photo.Time
This photo ranks among my top favorites. It was taken in the morning right after the blue hour but just before sunrise. This is the moment that the clouds would produce the most intense orange and red colors, as you can see in the photo. It is a brief moment of a few minutes so planning for early arrival to the location is important to avoid missing this special just-before-the-sunrise moment.Lighting
Shooting this pre-sunrise scene with gorgeous clouds as accompaniment is best done with a little under-exposure to avoid highlight clipping due to the direct sunlight. I did this shot without the use of any ND filters by shooting at 2 stops of under-exposure with reference to the sunlight. The building obviously was under-exposed but this was easily corrected in the raw image by increasing the shadow details. The direct sunlight area also needed a little more tweak by bringing down the highlight level to taste. The real subject in this photo were the clouds so the whole idea was to bring out the rich colors and the dynamic range of the clouds while balancing between under-exposure of the building and excessive highlight. In this photo, the shadow level was tweaked to bring out more details of the building facade and the bridge on the right. They were not the main subject so they remained a little under-exposed in order to direct the viewer’s attention to the gorgeously colored clouds.Equipment
Given that it was a shot in relatively low light condition, a tripod was necessary in view of the slow shutter speed that would not permit the camera to be held by hand. I shot this with a full frame mirrorless Sony A7ii with a 16-35mm lens.Inspiration
I love colorful sunrise and sunset and this was a moment where the right conditions existed for a dramatic sunrise with gorgeous clouds. Clouds are the main element for any cityscape vista. You would notice that a cityscape shot with a bland sky presents a boring visual impact and as such I always seek for good cloud formations for cityscape photoshoot. The best clouds are during dusk and dawn where they can emit rich orange or red colors given the right atmospheric conditions.Editing
Besides tweaking the highlight and shadow levels, some post-processing was needed to enhance the colors and saturation of the clouds to taste.In my camera bag
As a fan of cityscape photography, I carry in my bag these three of my most used lens: the Sony 16-35mm lens, the Rokinon 14mm rectilinear wide angle lens, and a 12mm fisheye lens. These lens afford the wide angle coverage for city vista. Also in my bag is a panoramic head for capturing certain scenes with a series of vertical shots that will then be stitched later to form the desired panoramic image. Sometimes I would also pack in a 90mm macro lens if I plan to shoot flowers or other objects at close distance. Occasionally I would carry with me a 28-240mm Sony lens if I have the intention to shoot some wildlife (which is limited in this city).Feedback
For sunrise and sunset photography, it is a popular approach to use ND, GND and reversed GND filters (or a combination of these) to deal with the bright sky for correct exposure to the subject. I personally use them but only on occasions, as the use of these filters can introduce color cast. This may be corrected by using auto white balance and post-processing but in extreme cases extra post-processing effort may not completely fix the color cast issue. The use of NDs implies that long exposure is desired so a tripod is essential. Long exposure introduces the dimension of cloud movement and this could enhance the visual impact of the image dramatically. Take note that sunrise and sunset moments are periods in which the sky’s light conditions will change rapidly and these factors must be taken into account to avoid over-exposure or too much under-exposure especially when long exposure shots are taken.
