John Tabaczynski

April 2021 - Canon Beach Sunset

Original

About the Image(s)

Nikon D200, 1/400s @ f/8.0, ISO 400. Nikkor 18-200mm f3.5-5.6 @ 35mm (52mm eq), handheld.
Every year (almost) my wife. Glenda, and I make a trip to the Pacific Northwest for hiking with a group of friends, and then do our own photo expedition. We love the coast and mountains up there, and this image was taken at Canon Beach. As you can tell I do like to amp up the color in the images I print. The post processing was done in Capture NX (a Nikon product I no longer use) and I used the Viveza editing tool contained within C-NX almost exclusively. Viveza is also currently available in the the NIK collection and Nikon's new Studio software (available free) and I still use these. I felt I needed to intensify the blue v gold intensity/contrast to bring it up to the tonal level of the land forms. Tonal balance and color make this an interesting image for me. The actual sunset was quite striking but in my unprocessed NEF files comes out a bit flat. The reason for that is, I set my camera to produce a flat image for the LCD display, so it provides me an un-amped camera histogram. That way I have a better idea of whether I clip or not. I like to ETTR to gain max shadow detail

This round’s discussion is now closed!
5 comments posted

Jim Horn
(Groups 5 & 15)

Tab, You captured a great sunset here. I appreciate your work to bring out the rich color of beach, water, surf, rocks. It seems that the clouds and sky are hazy. I used Photoshop>Filter>Camera RAW filter> increased the dehaze 12%, increased the clarity 5%. Then I noticed a blue smudge on the top at the arm of the center cloud and used the healing spot tool to remove it. You may want to have your sensor cleaned.
Let me know your thoughts on the sky and clouds now.
Jim Posted: 04/02/2021 08:36:00

Jim, You are right! I did not notice the smudge. I clean my sensors at home usually after each road trip. I have one of those magnifiers with a light that gives a really good view of the focal plane. Normally, I do not take the kit on the road, perhaps I should. I like what you did, it gives me incentive to go back to the NEF and redo the post proc with the modern software. I also don't care for the halo I introduced on the LH edge of the sea stack. I think that would not happen with the Topaz Sharpen AI that I now use. I would probably use some luminosity masking as well. When I find some time I think I will play with it and reprint it to see the difference. Tab Posted: 04/02/2021 09:41:17

Jim Horn
(Groups 5 & 15)

Tab, sometimes a smudge like this is dust on the smaller end of the lens - the end that goes into the camera. Jim Posted: 04/05/2021 14:37:08

Tab what a beautiful beach sunset scene. I love the golden sunset colors on the clouds and reflecting on the water. If you are only looking at the colors this is a wonderful photo. However, when looking for subjects in the photo there seems to be a lack of details in the people walking on the beach and the birds on the rocks. I used Lightroom to sharpen and bring out these details. I also think the lower left brown patch of sand is distracting. I cropped the bottom of the photo to eliminate this area. I also cropped a little off the top to remove the dark round spot (looks like something was on the lens or sensor) on the upper-left side of the photo. See attached edited photo. Posted: 04/05/2021 13:09:53

John

Beautiful landscape. Good scenery, nice composition, good variation of colors.

I noticed a few tiny spots around the top of the hill. You can easily remove them. Posted: 04/18/2021 05:18:44

PID Digital Dialogue

Group 24