I’ve been struggling with this file and can’t get it right. Maybe it was the circ pola that messes with the sky color, or the underexposure to prevent blowing the sky out completely. maybe I’m eventually hitting the so much discussed dynamic range of the z6_3 here.
Basically I’ve split processing in the upper and lower parts, and a horizontal exposure gradient to make it a bit more even. I’m probably overthinking the scene. (DT 5.5.0+46)
“De Slufter” is an area at the island of Texel with an open connection to the salty waters of the Noordzee. With the tides also the waterlevel here changes, making it a very interesting place for plants and birds. The waterbody in this picture is how it looks with high tide. With low tide, there is only a small stream visible. The poles in the highlight are from a line that separates the public space from the protected bird area, which is almost completely under water here.
I’m looking forward to your interpretation and if possible a short explanation what has been done.
I did the basic adjustments, then AgX with auto-levels, increased pivot and contrast. Then tone equalizer to tame the sun and bring up the beach and the cloud bank at the right. Then color balance RGB to bring up the colors, saturation, contrast, and add some black depth. Finally, diffuse or sharpen to add local contrast.
I honestly don’t think that dynamic range of the camera is the problem. I have downloaded the file and tried to work on it but the sun and the bright reflections on the water are both clipped in all three channels. I played around a bit and just can’t get anything pleasing right now but will try again in a little while - it will require some experimentation with the highlight recovery module.
This was a beautiful but extremely challenging scene (directly into the sun). I’m not sure if any camera would be able to handle that with only one exposure.
I played a little more with the RAW - mostly with different highlight recovery methods then a few layers of exposure and AGX to “tame” the sun. Changed the white balance and played with colour contrast and diffuse/sharpen to soften the image.
@Popanz , you are right, I have a few others, but even more ‘overexposed’.
Unfortunately I only had a few seconds to compose and take he shot due to some ‘group pressure’ (are you taking yet another picture? Why carry such a large cam, my iphone does well, we’ll walk on…etc. nag nag nag…)
Your second version is pretty much how I perceived the scene btw.
I find auto exposure bracketing a blessing in these scenarios and the sound of the camera going off like a machine gun has a good BS factor to impress the other people.
I struggled with this picture and nearly gave up. Multiple instances of exposure used to recover the bright top left corner. 20260102_0410.NEF.xmp (22.6 KB)
I went for a brighter look than most, but added as much contrast as I could to the clouds. I also struggled with the colour and contrast on the sea. It looked brown to start with, but perhaps I over-pushed it to blue.
I didn’t find the dynamic range a big problem - I think trying to retain too much detail around the sun is only a distraction.
dt 5.3 with AgX, a couple of exposure instances masked with gradients, diffuse and sharpen for sharpening and local contrast (not really needed) and a little colour grading with rgb primaries and rgb color balance.
Love the shot, but particularly the surf… hence this hard crop (hope you don’t mind ). I found the sun really tricky in RT, but when zoomed in to 1:1 I saw the surf… and I love the contrast between the open sea and the natural lagoon/harbour… OK, I’m off to try and find out where this is (Texel perhaps?).
The lens indeed shows vignetting, but in general I don’t really mind.
All lovely renders and I learned a lot looking at the techniques each uses. I’m going to play a bit further as well. thanks all
@scha, I also have a version leaving the sun out of the image, just like your crop. The location of the picture is here : OpenStreetMap
and you have to park here: OpenStreetMap
The interesting part is, it will never look the same overthere.
Thank you @Fenny for sharing the location… We hope to take our campervan to northern Netherlands in the next couple of years… I’ll be sure to save the location and make tracks in that direction. Bedankt!
). I found the sun really tricky in RT, but when zoomed in to 1:1 I saw the surf… and I love the contrast between the open sea and the natural lagoon/harbour… OK, I’m off to try and find out where this is (Texel perhaps?).
