Clovishound
Senior Member
Don't know if this would be better in the evaluation section, but since I hope to get a discussion and some back and forth, I will post it here.
I impulsively posted this image in the weekly challenge before I had thought the editing through. I would like to briefly go through the shooting and editing process with an eye toward advise for editing this image, and reshooting this location with some changes.
This was shot early morning at a somewhat local beach. I used a 10 stop ND filter on my Z7ii with the 24-70 F4 set at 41mm, F8 and ISO 64. I believe I shot it at 60 sec. My camera listed exposures over 30 sec as 30sec in the metadata. My intention was to get that nice foggy look for the water. Unfortunately there was minimal wave action, which dialed back that foggy look.
This is the completely unedited image. Note: This is from the JPG straight out of the camera. I use RAW + JPG and use the JPG versions as backup, as they are saved on a separate card. This version is close to what I remember seeing at the time.
I cropped it somewhat, and brought out color in the sky in LR using masks. I also made a few changes to the foreground to make it a little more pleasing. I then decided to remove the rather distracting (IMO) items to the left of the tree. I felt the small items in front of the tree added to the image and left them. Here is this version.
I then tried it in B&W. That's where some issues began. I really liked the B&W better. The big issue was the sky. I tried a number of things to get the look I wanted. I had big issues with the different colors rendering different greys. I use the color sliders in the B&W editing in LR, and had to resort to more masking to get some of the areas to look right. Note, this version is a little different than the one I posted in the weekly challenge.
Any feedback on editing appreciated. I am thinking about starting from scratch with the NEF file and see if I can come up with a cleaner version. I ended up doing a lot of masking small areas of the sky to clean up a few odd looking areas, and perhaps a different strategy might result in these not being necessary, and achieving a more natural look.
I am also looking at shooting this again. It's a day trip, and requires getting up very early in the morning and driving and hour and a half to get there. I also have to plan it with the tides, sunrise times, and weather, if I want to do a sunrise shot. Bottom line is I can't just run out and reshoot it this afternoon, I must plan it out, and the tides have a two week cycle. Tides have a narrow window when the tree is still in the water, and the tide low enough to get close enough to shoot. I have considered going later in the morning and shooting this with full sunlight. That may be a mistake, as it will not have the overall soft look I have here. Feedback for changes in a reshoot appreciated. This is my new favorite tree at this beach. My previous favorite did not survive last years storm season.
FYI, I don't have a lot of experience with long exposure work, so this is a learning process for me.
I impulsively posted this image in the weekly challenge before I had thought the editing through. I would like to briefly go through the shooting and editing process with an eye toward advise for editing this image, and reshooting this location with some changes.
This was shot early morning at a somewhat local beach. I used a 10 stop ND filter on my Z7ii with the 24-70 F4 set at 41mm, F8 and ISO 64. I believe I shot it at 60 sec. My camera listed exposures over 30 sec as 30sec in the metadata. My intention was to get that nice foggy look for the water. Unfortunately there was minimal wave action, which dialed back that foggy look.
This is the completely unedited image. Note: This is from the JPG straight out of the camera. I use RAW + JPG and use the JPG versions as backup, as they are saved on a separate card. This version is close to what I remember seeing at the time.
I cropped it somewhat, and brought out color in the sky in LR using masks. I also made a few changes to the foreground to make it a little more pleasing. I then decided to remove the rather distracting (IMO) items to the left of the tree. I felt the small items in front of the tree added to the image and left them. Here is this version.
I then tried it in B&W. That's where some issues began. I really liked the B&W better. The big issue was the sky. I tried a number of things to get the look I wanted. I had big issues with the different colors rendering different greys. I use the color sliders in the B&W editing in LR, and had to resort to more masking to get some of the areas to look right. Note, this version is a little different than the one I posted in the weekly challenge.
Any feedback on editing appreciated. I am thinking about starting from scratch with the NEF file and see if I can come up with a cleaner version. I ended up doing a lot of masking small areas of the sky to clean up a few odd looking areas, and perhaps a different strategy might result in these not being necessary, and achieving a more natural look.
I am also looking at shooting this again. It's a day trip, and requires getting up very early in the morning and driving and hour and a half to get there. I also have to plan it with the tides, sunrise times, and weather, if I want to do a sunrise shot. Bottom line is I can't just run out and reshoot it this afternoon, I must plan it out, and the tides have a two week cycle. Tides have a narrow window when the tree is still in the water, and the tide low enough to get close enough to shoot. I have considered going later in the morning and shooting this with full sunlight. That may be a mistake, as it will not have the overall soft look I have here. Feedback for changes in a reshoot appreciated. This is my new favorite tree at this beach. My previous favorite did not survive last years storm season.
FYI, I don't have a lot of experience with long exposure work, so this is a learning process for me.
Now there are some thing that work out like knowing were and when the sun will rise at a certain time of the year and in your case the tides will increase your odds. I now just go when I feel like it and try to make the best out of it. I also don't shoot long exposure other than in low light so hopefully you will get better advise.
