Patrick Campbell
July 2025 - Yaquina Head Lighthouse
Original
About the Image(s)
The subject is the Yaquina Head Lighthouse on the Oregon coast. It is within the city limits of Newport, which has a large harbor, and is a hub for commercial fishing. The lighthouse is 93 feet tall, and it is the tallest lighthouse in Oregon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaquina_Head_Light
I shot this with my Mavic 3 Classic drone on a recent trip to the coast. I was trying to display the lighthouse in the setting of the rocky shoreline of Yaquina Head, from an offshore viewpoint, looking towards land. I launched from a spot just north of the lighthouse, about an hour before sunset.
Newport is Class 5 airspace, and I obtained prior authorization with the LAANC app. The rocks offshore are a protected natural area for seabirds, so I did not get too close to them. The Mavic 3 has a single, 24mm focal length equivalent camera. This is a single frame, ISO 400, f/10, 1/120 sec. I processed the .dng file with DxO PureRaw4, then Adobe Camera Raw, adjusting white balance, lights and darks, and saturation, creating a mask for the sky, darkened with dehaze, then finally a little bit of image cleanup in Photoshop.
13 comments posted
Welcome to the group, Patrick! Glad to see another really good photographer join our group!
This is an absolutely lovely image, and is close to my heart, since lighthouses are one of my favorite things to photograph (I posted one of my lighthouse images to Facebook every day late last year and earlier this year and it even surprised me that I had enough for almost two months of posts).
Great processing in bringing out the detail in the rocks and the clouds in the sky. I see you cropped a little off the left side. If it were my picture, I would go a little further and crop off at least that much yet again. You probably didn't want to crop out the structures there, but if you crop to the right side of the road, I think it would remove some things that are distracting from the subject and put the lighthouse in a better position while still preserving the cove in the background.
I also feel that the sky is a little tight. It doesn't look like you cropped anything there, and it would take some work to raise it, but it could use a little more.
Even so, these are nitpicking things, and overall, I love this image! Posted: 07/05/2025 15:44:44
This is an absolutely lovely image, and is close to my heart, since lighthouses are one of my favorite things to photograph (I posted one of my lighthouse images to Facebook every day late last year and earlier this year and it even surprised me that I had enough for almost two months of posts).
Great processing in bringing out the detail in the rocks and the clouds in the sky. I see you cropped a little off the left side. If it were my picture, I would go a little further and crop off at least that much yet again. You probably didn't want to crop out the structures there, but if you crop to the right side of the road, I think it would remove some things that are distracting from the subject and put the lighthouse in a better position while still preserving the cove in the background.
I also feel that the sky is a little tight. It doesn't look like you cropped anything there, and it would take some work to raise it, but it could use a little more.
Even so, these are nitpicking things, and overall, I love this image! Posted: 07/05/2025 15:44:44
Thanks for the compliments and for the detailed critique, Drema! There are many lighthouses on the West Coast, and they are one of my favorite subjects as well. A similar shot I posted in Group 30 was felt to have too little sky. So I went back to the files and found this one. I think this one is about right. More than this, and I think the sky would overbalance the rest of the frame. Also, the sky was pretty bland on this particular evening, and I had to use some dehaze and other adjustments to bring out any detail at all.
When I was doing this shoot, I was struck by the beauty of the craggy rock formations as viewed from offshore. I tried to show these, but maybe didn't think enough about the other distractions you pointed out. I did another edit, cropping a little more from left hand side, which incidentally makes it a 3 x 2 aspect ratio and puts the lighthouse right in the crosshairs of the rule of thirds. I also warmed up the white balance a little, as I thought what I posted was little too much on the cool side. Posted: 07/08/2025 06:07:10
When I was doing this shoot, I was struck by the beauty of the craggy rock formations as viewed from offshore. I tried to show these, but maybe didn't think enough about the other distractions you pointed out. I did another edit, cropping a little more from left hand side, which incidentally makes it a 3 x 2 aspect ratio and puts the lighthouse right in the crosshairs of the rule of thirds. I also warmed up the white balance a little, as I thought what I posted was little too much on the cool side. Posted: 07/08/2025 06:07:10
Wow, I love it so much more. I understand you wanting to stay with a 16X9 ratio (I've been converting many of my images to 16X9 lately and recently set my camera to take that aspect ratio).
The 3X2 appears to bring both the rocks and the lighthouse up much closer for a better look by the viewer! In addition, it makes the sky feel a little less tight to me. Also, I like the warm tones you added, although I'm not so sure that helped in the sky. It lightened the sky a little, and I like the blue of the sky in the posted image better. Perhaps a sky mask or a gradient mask to only apply the warmer tones to the lower two-thirds of the picture?
I intend to go down the west coast one of these days and shoot some of those ocean scenes and lighthouses. I used to live in northern California, and I miss the beautiful coastline there as well as the Oregon coast. I wish I could make it out for the PSA event this September, but I can't this year. Perhaps next year! (BTW, I see you have a friend of mine from southern Californa on your FB friends list. What a small world! We'll have to talk about that!) Posted: 07/09/2025 19:23:07
The 3X2 appears to bring both the rocks and the lighthouse up much closer for a better look by the viewer! In addition, it makes the sky feel a little less tight to me. Also, I like the warm tones you added, although I'm not so sure that helped in the sky. It lightened the sky a little, and I like the blue of the sky in the posted image better. Perhaps a sky mask or a gradient mask to only apply the warmer tones to the lower two-thirds of the picture?
I intend to go down the west coast one of these days and shoot some of those ocean scenes and lighthouses. I used to live in northern California, and I miss the beautiful coastline there as well as the Oregon coast. I wish I could make it out for the PSA event this September, but I can't this year. Perhaps next year! (BTW, I see you have a friend of mine from southern Californa on your FB friends list. What a small world! We'll have to talk about that!) Posted: 07/09/2025 19:23:07
BTW, I am new to the PSA. I joined a local camera club this past year, and through them heard about the PSA convention in PDX this year, in conjunction with our regional 4Cs annual meeting. So I signed up and got the package deal. No travel or hotel expense is a big plus! Posted: 07/10/2025 01:37:39
Thanks Drema for the critique and suggestion! I'll give that a try.
The entire West Coast has so many beautiful locations. I have lived within 2 hrs drive from the coast in OR and CA my entire life and know it pretty well, but am always finding new places. My wife tolerates my short solo trips to the coast but an extended trip would require delicate negotiation i.e. a major bribe! Posted: 07/10/2025 01:34:21
The entire West Coast has so many beautiful locations. I have lived within 2 hrs drive from the coast in OR and CA my entire life and know it pretty well, but am always finding new places. My wife tolerates my short solo trips to the coast but an extended trip would require delicate negotiation i.e. a major bribe! Posted: 07/10/2025 01:34:21
Patrick- there is nothing more that I can add regarding this excellent photo than what has been discussed above. But I would like to say welcome to our group and I look forward to seeing more of your work. Posted: 07/14/2025 23:56:16
Thank you Richard! Looking forward to seeing more from you as well! Posted: 07/16/2025 19:13:10
Per Drema's suggestion, I made the WB of the sky a little cooler. Posted: 07/16/2025 19:14:16
I like it! I think the whole image blends together better and makes the viewer feel... in the photo (if that makes sense)! Posted: 07/18/2025 17:10:40
Thanks Drema, I like this version better as well. Posted: 07/18/2025 17:14:52
Hi Patrick, welcome to the group. I really like this image, who doesn't love lighthouses? Your version with a bit of the left side cropped out is great. I love the craggy rocks and I think that the left side in the original detracted from the craggy rocks in the foreground. Posted: 07/24/2025 22:23:22
Hi Patrick, welcome to the group! Sorry my comments are so late this month.
Version 2, cropped in from the left isa big improvement. Posted: 07/27/2025 19:54:52
Version 2, cropped in from the left isa big improvement. Posted: 07/27/2025 19:54:52
Hi Patrick, welcome! I love this image, very well done. Stunning location.
By chance... did you shoot the lighthouse from more left of this image, so that the land in the background isn't directly behind the lighthouse? It kinda has the horizon cutting thru the top of the light house too... Posted: 07/28/2025 21:09:14
By chance... did you shoot the lighthouse from more left of this image, so that the land in the background isn't directly behind the lighthouse? It kinda has the horizon cutting thru the top of the light house too... Posted: 07/28/2025 21:09:14