Another Sunburst

[Alan Hoelzle]

Fantastic to see in person, frustrating to process.
Think this looks ok on screen, probably would not print.

 

[Ben Egbert]

I hear you, this does look very nice here, but might be a bit dark for a print. That's why I don't do many night shots these days, they just don't seem to hold up well as prints.

 

[AlanLichty]

Not every neat thing you see can be correctly translated by your camera's sensors. This does work on my screen - I like the incoming wave patterns and reflections. Printing this one is a task that would be best described as character building.

 

[Jeffrey]

Lovely scene. I've made similar images and had similar difficulties. Hard to get the foreground sharp, and dealing with extreme contrast in the image elements themselves.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Alan,

This to me has a lot of positives, the sun and it's reflection is great. The 2 issues though I see is the water has a milky look to it, like you used too much shadow recovery? And there is a distinct halo around the reflection. The thin darker halo is probably how dark the water was around it.

Looking at it some more, I would be tempted to go to a 4:5 format crop losing the top half of the sky.

Correct just the water, the sky to me looks great and I think this would be nice on screen or print.

 

[Jim Dockery]

I too like the line of foam and the light on the water but it looks like the focus is on the foreground water, everything behind the foam line is out of focus, so I wouldn't waste any more time on it myself.

 

[Alan Hoelzle]

Him Jim,
Might be better with closed shadows in the foreground. I will try that. Good suggestion.
Nothing I could do about that halo around the sun. Not sure what you mean about the reflection.

 

[Alan Hoelzle]

Jim, this looks all in focus to me.

 

[Alan Hoelzle]

Tried cropping the top half of the sky, but it loses its juice. I think it needs an opening up there.

 

[Alan Hoelzle]

Maybe I could shrapen the clouds. But, have you ever seen a sharp cloud?
Clouds are soft, that is just how they look.

 

[Alan Hoelzle]

Next pic will be soft. But, in focus, of course. It is impossible for me to take or show a photo that has a technical flaw such as out of focus.

 

[AlanLichty]

Alan - are you attaching new copies of this image that go along with your edit descriptions?

 

[JimFox]

Him Jim,
Might be better with closed shadows in the foreground. I will try that. Good suggestion.
Nothing I could do about that halo around the sun. Not sure what you mean about the reflection.

Because you did too much shadow recovery it has created a halo around the reflection of the sun in the water. Look around the reflection, you will a dark halo.

This is where if you decided you wanted the water to be brighter you needed to brighten it, not use shadow recovery, and then use a layer mask to blend it back in.

What camera are you shooting with?

 

[Alan Hoelzle]

Hi Jim, I've looked, but see no halo in the reflection of the sun. What I see is what water looks like, when it is blasted with light.
I'm interested in learning how to use Photoshop masks. Maybe I will get smart enough to do that someday.
I'm using the Panasonic 4/3 camera, since you asked. But, I think the time has passed when tech stuff about cameras matter.
Hi other Alan--going to put up another pic which is much softer. Not a new version of this one.