It was a summer day outing last weekend with my wife in Carmel. Photography was not on the cards. The whole day was cloudy and a bit foggy. Late in the afternoon, however, things started to change. What looked like fog before, now seemed to be more like cloud and that too was partially clearing. Interestingly enough the area near the horizon completely cleared, so even if it was still overcast I knew there was a chance of a glorious sunset. Fortunately, I had my camera bag in the car and so decided to head to Garrapata State Park. My wife happily agreed. It's just the kind of person she is...
I thought of shooting the famous couple of sea stacks in there but they closed the trail for some maintenance work! In summer time, are you kidding me? Anyways, I didn't have much time, little up the road I saw another trail and went down to find a spot. Luckily there was spot with some wild flowers and a nice coastal view. The sun was also now coming out ...
It was indeed an epic sunset, absolutely gorgeous. The two shots below are taken with slightly different framing. Hope you enjoy it.
Very nice, especially #2. #1 I think is too yellow in the vegetation. Look at the difference in the yellows on the ground layer between the two shots. And while the light is changing, I think the amount of yellow in #2 is more appealing. So I would select the ground area in #1 and pull back on the yellows some if it was mine.
I agree w/Jim.
The second image has the most to offer but the yellow cast is too noticeable.
I have watched many sunsets on that coast and the vegetation will take on more of a
red-orange color. I also think that its a bit too bright by 1/2- 1 stop. YMMV.
Having said all that, I think its a very nice capture & just needs some fine-tuning in P/S. I would start with a neutral RAW image and go from there, starting with the exposure.
Thanks for posting & reminding me I need to return to the Carmel coast!!
Second one is the best. I would tweak the colours a bit but overall it is a solid shot. I love that location and others along that magical stretch of coast (up and down) but have only been there a few times.
I think these two really deserve a re-posting in ProPhotoRGB gamut though since the intense evening lighting it blowing out the small sRGB gamut pretty badly.
Love both shots, especially the soft water and sky in #2. I think if you worked the yellows and tried to get more colour separation throughout the different foreground vegetation this would be great. I also think shooting at f16, or doing some focus bracketing next time would really help sharpness throughout. It looks a bit soft in the midground/background even on the web from shooting at f9/11.
Yes I did notice the softness specially at the upper left. This being corner of the frame, the softness is more apparent. f9 in #2 is a mistake, it should have been at least f11. But f11 doesn't seem to be much better either .
I'll have to bump it up next time .... was more concerned with diffraction I guess
Thanks for the feedback. I pulled back the yellow a bit by reducing saturation and adjusting WB, it was looking a bit lifeless if I had done more. I guess I have to play with it a bit to get the right amount. The problem with #1 is that sun was still too strong, if you look at the horizon to the right, you'll see how far the cloud has cleared and this one was shot right when it came out. #2 being just before the sunset, is more manageable.
Justin Grimm wrote:
Love both shots, especially the soft water and sky in #2. I think if you worked the yellows and tried to get more colour separation throughout the different foreground vegetation this would be great. I also think shooting at f16, or doing some focus bracketing next time would really help sharpness throughout. It looks a bit soft in the midground/background even on the web from shooting at f9/11.
Got my vote anyways
It's hard to tell at this size, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is sharp and only just looks soft because he posted it in sRGB which clipped the intense evening lit plants and made many colors all the same thus reducing detail and making it look a touch soft. I bet in ProphotoRGB with a minor tweak that it would be sharp. There is no way that f/9 should make a miniscule 1/8th MP downsize like these look soft compared to f/5.6.
People just don't seem to realize the trouble sRGB gamut can cause and they blame all sorts of things on anything but the color gamut (see all the talk about how DSLR blow red easily, not really, it's sRGB that blows red easily).
skibum5 wrote:
It's hard to tell at this size, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is sharp and only just looks soft because he posted it in sRGB which clipped the intense evening lit plants and made many colors all the same thus reducing detail and making it look a touch soft. I bet in ProphotoRGB with a minor tweak that it would be sharp. There is no way that f/9 should make a miniscule 1/8th MP downsize like these look soft compared to f/5.6.
People just don't seem to realize the trouble sRGB gamut can cause and they blame all sorts of things on anything but the color gamut (see all the talk about how DSLR blow red easily, not really, it's sRGB that blows red easily). ...Show more →
If that is true.... it's kind of funny, because lot's of us have been posting images in sRGB for many many years, and yet our shots are sharp....
I am not sure what it was in your childhood that sRGB did to you, maybe it stole your favorite blanket from you as a baby, but you would think it was the worlds #1 enemy for as much as you constantly attack it.
skibum5 wrote:
It's hard to tell at this size, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is sharp and only just looks soft because he posted it in sRGB which clipped the intense evening lit plants and made many colors all the same thus reducing detail and making it look a touch soft. I bet in ProphotoRGB with a minor tweak that it would be sharp. There is no way that f/9 should make a miniscule 1/8th MP downsize like these look soft compared to f/5.6.
People just don't seem to realize the trouble sRGB gamut can cause and they blame all sorts of things on anything but the color gamut (see all the talk about how DSLR blow red easily, not really, it's sRGB that blows red easily). ...Show more →
although looking at the second one I do seem some softness at the lower right where the colors are not intense, so it seems like DOF didn't quite hit that area
JimFox wrote:
If that is true.... it's kind of funny, because lot's of us have been posting images in sRGB for many many years, and yet our shots are sharp....
I am not sure what it was in your childhood that sRGB did to you, maybe it stole your favorite blanket from you as a baby, but you would think it was the worlds #1 enemy for as much as you constantly attack it.
Jim
I don't see what the point of your always trying to talk down wide gamut and get on anyone who brings up calibration of screens or wide gamut or color science.
Maybe wide gamut ate your pizza .
Man, this landscape forum is a bit nuts in that "wide gamut" is almost like the worst swear word in the world here, even though if there is any forum where that should not be the case, it should be here.
Talking about I'd bet you $10,000 Ansel Adams would be ing at the anti-wide gamut brigade (and he mostly shot B&W ).
Yeah of course sRGB can be sharp, BUT if an sRGB image happens to contain an area that clips then those areas will obviously lack detail and potentially even take on a soft look unless you mess around doing special processing on those areas (which also make the image look different than intended- color tone shifts, artificially reduced saturation, altered brightness).
Shoot a Pileated Woodpecker and the crest may lack detail in sRGB, pop over to wide gamut and the same shot and has a crisp, sharp, crest filled with fine feather detail.
Notice how the plants here with the intense glow all seem to be like made out of pixels of the exact same color, in prophotoRGB I'd bet they'd be made out of a bunch of different colors and appear to show a lot more detail.
What is so wrong with pointing out that this image has some beautiful colors getting clipped by sRGB. Since when is sRGB the end and be all of everything?
Do you realize that the industry has a roadmap where they hope to stop all production of non-wide gamut monitors by 2018 or 2020 at the latest? They want all screens to be 4k+, wide gamut and HDR by 2025 and all wide gamut and HDR by 2020. I'm not sure the HDR part will make it that soon.
sRGB was never some magical ideal choice, it even clips some colors people use to shoot with film
Fact is this image would show at least some more detail posted in ProphotoRGB (even though some parts are a touch soft, at least on the second one, in a non-clipped area).
mingzeli wrote:
Hi, I like #2 mainly due to the image is balanced by the horizon.
Are you using Graduated ND? I noticed that by looking at the darkened mountain tip on the left.
It is very noticeable to me and distracting a bit. Probably some PP to correct it?
Thanks.
I used ND grad but that didn't darken the mountain tip. It's the shadow of the cloud above. Look at the left most ridge, it would have been dark if ND grad would cover that area.
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