Larry Conly
April 2026 - Evening at Cannon Beach, Oregon
About the Image(s)
Taken on Sony A7R5 with a Sony 16-35mm lens at 35mm, ISO 100, f/5.0, five stacked images from 1/20sec - 1/8sec, on a tripod in the mud.
Most of my pictures are missing interesting skies so I was hoping to capture the colors of the setting sun with some clouds post a storm. Unfortunately the weather went from overcast to partly cloudy to overcast very quickly. I don’t normally do HDR photographs as I don’t usually think they’re worth the effort given my skill/equipment, but I figured I’d give it a shot here.
In addition to HDR stacking five images, I cropped to remove many of the people, used the non-AI healing tool to remove some blurred seagulls (from the slow speed and the ghosting from the stacking), warmed/tinted the sky from blue to pickup more of the warm pinkish color, lightened the rock, and used a radial mask intersected with the subject to create a warm glow on the sun side of the rock.
I’m a tad disappointed with the export image; it might be the resolution drop but it could also be the HDR colorspace.
6 comments posted
Larry - this image is stunning! - in my VF I wanted Haystack Rock even more prominent, so I moved it off center and cropped to an out of the camera 4x6 aspect ratio and added a touch of texture and clarity. Beautifully done, I felt the little tweak gave it more impact. It was great as presented but I thought the VF version had a touch more pop - Hope you agree. Posted: 04/01/2026 19:40:43
Larry - super photo of Haystack and while the sky might not have been as colorful as you might want I think it adds to the mood of the image. I agree with Butch about cropping a little off the left to move Haystack to slightly off center. To me, the HDR version works well. One thing to pay attention to is the thin white line between Haystack and the sky, most noticeable on the right side - think it is called an edge halo, caused maybe by over sharpening. The one in your photo is not very obvious. The only way I know to get rid of it is to use clone stamp in Photoshop, a tedious effort but maybe someone else has a better idea. As an aside, I was on vacation along the Oregon Coast 2 years ago, including at Cannon Beach and except for one morning, never saw a cloud and I was sad. Ray Posted: 04/08/2026 00:54:40
Larry - I could not resist asking Claude and here is what I received - just in case it might be of use and I learned something as well. Ray
The most efficient fix depends on where in the workflow you are:
If editing in Lightroom / Camera Raw
This is the fastest fix - Masking slider in the Sharpening panel:
Hold Alt/Option while dragging the Masking slider
The screen turns black-and-white - white areas get sharpened, black areas don't
Drag until the sky goes black (unsharpened), keeping only true edges white
This prevents the halo from forming in the first place
Also check Detail ? Sharpening ? Radius - lower it to 0.5-0.8 to tighten the effect.
If the halo already exists in the image
The most targeted fix is in Photoshop:
Duplicate the layer
Go to Filter ? Other ? High Pass (set low, ~1-2px)
Or more directly: select the sky with Select ? Sky (modern PS does this automatically)
Slightly expand the selection to include the halo
Use Edit ? Content Aware Fill or a gentle Curves/Levels adjustment to bring that bright line down
Fastest single-step method (Photoshop/PS)
Filter ? Camera Raw Filter ? Detail tab - reduce sharpening and use the Masking slider there, non-destructively
In Capture One
Use the Halo Suppression slider (it literally exists for this purpose) under the Sharpening tab - unique to C1 and very effective
Prevention (best long-term fix)
Shoot RAW so you control sharpening yourself - never rely on in-camera JPEG sharpening
Keep Lightroom's default sharpening Amount below 40 for landscapes
Use luminosity masks to apply sharpening only to the foreground, never the sky
The single most efficient method overall is the Lightroom Masking slider - it takes about 5 seconds and stops the halo from ever being baked in. Posted: 04/08/2026 01:05:43
The most efficient fix depends on where in the workflow you are:
If editing in Lightroom / Camera Raw
This is the fastest fix - Masking slider in the Sharpening panel:
Hold Alt/Option while dragging the Masking slider
The screen turns black-and-white - white areas get sharpened, black areas don't
Drag until the sky goes black (unsharpened), keeping only true edges white
This prevents the halo from forming in the first place
Also check Detail ? Sharpening ? Radius - lower it to 0.5-0.8 to tighten the effect.
If the halo already exists in the image
The most targeted fix is in Photoshop:
Duplicate the layer
Go to Filter ? Other ? High Pass (set low, ~1-2px)
Or more directly: select the sky with Select ? Sky (modern PS does this automatically)
Slightly expand the selection to include the halo
Use Edit ? Content Aware Fill or a gentle Curves/Levels adjustment to bring that bright line down
Fastest single-step method (Photoshop/PS)
Filter ? Camera Raw Filter ? Detail tab - reduce sharpening and use the Masking slider there, non-destructively
In Capture One
Use the Halo Suppression slider (it literally exists for this purpose) under the Sharpening tab - unique to C1 and very effective
Prevention (best long-term fix)
Shoot RAW so you control sharpening yourself - never rely on in-camera JPEG sharpening
Keep Lightroom's default sharpening Amount below 40 for landscapes
Use luminosity masks to apply sharpening only to the foreground, never the sky
The single most efficient method overall is the Lightroom Masking slider - it takes about 5 seconds and stops the halo from ever being baked in. Posted: 04/08/2026 01:05:43
Ray, Ive been using LR a long time and I've never heard of that trick. I'll have to try it sometime! Posted: 04/15/2026 19:31:57
Hi Larry, I like the image, but it has colors that I don't see very well as I'm more than a bit deficient in reds and greens. I imported the image and converted to B&W to better suit my vision. I then cropped on both sides, but kept the "rock" more centered and cropped the bottom to bring all the birds into more prominence. I also added a small linear gradient to the top to darken it and keep my eye more in the center of the image. I'm not sure my thoughts are useful for your preferences, but thought I'd try adjusting for my eyes. Posted: 04/15/2026 19:04:17
Great place and love the leading lines into the haystacks. They don't have to be straight, and that angled tide coming in is fantastic!. I love the image!!!
What a magical place and I know the best layer plans don't always work out, but you perservered and produced a beautiful depiction of a well known area!
My experience is that huge images like that struggle to hold up with a 1MB limit. What is more important is that the original that you have meets your expectations! I also love the large number of birds feeding on the beach at sunset...and no they are not crisp ...but there is no mistaking what the images represent. Posted: 04/15/2026 19:40:14
What a magical place and I know the best layer plans don't always work out, but you perservered and produced a beautiful depiction of a well known area!
My experience is that huge images like that struggle to hold up with a 1MB limit. What is more important is that the original that you have meets your expectations! I also love the large number of birds feeding on the beach at sunset...and no they are not crisp ...but there is no mistaking what the images represent. Posted: 04/15/2026 19:40:14