Sunrise over a cypress lake

This is another one from the images I recently posted. It’s kind of marginal in terms of exposure and detail, but maybe someone will enjoy working with it.

Here’s my take via ART 1.20.22 and Affinity Photo 2.2


IMG_0028.CR3.arp (23.1 KB)

IMG_0028.CR3 (21.6 MB)
This file is licensed Creative Commons, By-Attribution, Share-Alike.

[ Update ] – Bonus points to anyone who finds and removes the once-you-see-it glaringly obvious man-made object I forgot to remove. :smiley:

11 Likes


IMG_0028.CR3.xmp (14.4 KB)

2 Likes

Nice sunrise. My attempt DT4.4.2

I don’t think there needs to be any real detail regarding the distant bank treeline - other than it’s there. So mine is a little darker and I tried hard to keep the sky & water blue; while emphasizing the orange.


IMG_0028.CR3.xmp (17.7 KB)

A 2nd attempt…


IMG_0028.CR3.xmp (20.6 KB)

2 Likes

Some heavy handed work with the color balance rgb module in DT V4.5. I also depended upon sigmoid and its sliders for skew and preserve chrominance. I set white balance in the color calibration module to daylight because I imagine this would be the white balance color slide film would have produced in the analog days.


IMG_0028.CR3.xmp (12.9 KB)

2 Likes

My attempt with dt 4.4.2. I don’t think it’s as good as yours, @lphilpot . Was this photo taken before sunrise?


IMG_0028.CR3.xmp (8.3 KB)

3 Likes

Yeah, I agree. Too much detail and it starts looking fake. There’s a fair amount of noise in there, even for ISO 100. I was thinking of just enough detail to show there’s something there, but not bring it out all that much. I just didn’t want a black band on the far shore. I think you achieved that goal.

1 Like

As I recall, the actual color was somewhere around / between orange and pink. There was a fair amount of cloud, but no mist nor fog down low. The darker colors weren’t very saturated.

I have to admit, I wasn’t “seeing” much in this composition, but the wedge of darker cloud on the right gave it a bit of life. I started to process it yesterday and did a little bit, but put it aside. I made a nominal effort to denoise the shadows a bit, but when I did it muted what little color was there, so I turned it off.

I was standing on the end of a walkway / fishing pier (with rails) fending off mosquitoes while I shot. :slight_smile:

Yes, maybe 10 minutes before as I recall. The others were post-sunrise. Each has a totally different color palette, as I was playing with the processing a bit (“playing” means trying to pull a rabbit from a hat!!).

Actually your version is pretty close to how it actually looked.

1 Like

Like a true artist - suffering for the art!

Like a true resident of anywhere with a (sub-)tropical climate and lots of water: Suffering just to live there! LOL

Thank you. I try. :smiley:

My version…

IMG_0028.CR3.xmp (16.6 KB)

4 Likes

A lovely atmospheric view. My play in GIMP. I tried to create just a hint of detail in the trees and their reflection. A little extra saturation for the sky and the water. Yes, I removed your man-made object and what appears to be a sensor spot.

3 Likes

The interesting thing about this photo would be to have the tree pop out in contrast to the background coast/forest line. I think OP did the best job of making that happen, but there is not enough detail there (for me) to make that happen in any satisfactory way (in monochrome!).

So here is my failure: the point where I gave up. :wink:

IMG_0028.CR3.xmp (13.7 KB)

There is a hint of something eerie in the edge of the forest, but then the sky is too bright to really make that work, so I tried to darken that a bit …

A bit of a mess for which I take full responsibility! :wink:

2 Likes

Rawtherapee 5.9 + Gimp 2.10.34


1 Like

I’ll have to check for sensor spot. I’ve not noticed any lately, but it could be new. Or it could be a close-by mosquito! :slight_smile:

Yep, exactly. I use local contrast, exposure, high pass sharpening and contrast, all masked on the tree to try and subtly nudge it forward a bit. But there’s very little to work with, since there was little to be had on site. Ideally, the sun should be farther around instead of directly behind the tree, but it’s not possible at that location.

1 Like

Thanks for sharing. It was fun to play with.
My edit:


IMG_0028.CR3.xmp (12.1 KB)
Did a bit of perspective change to straighten the horizon while keeping the tree vertical and kept a bit of details in the shadows.

1 Like

The horizon may be a perspective effect. The camera was level when the shot was taken. That is, unless the camera’s built in level is off (who knows). :slight_smile:

It could’ve very well been a perspective thing :slight_smile:
On the other hand, I think the picture could’ve used a bit more exposure and then darken it in post (aka expose to the right) to preserve more details - just a suggestion though.