~~Lou~~
On the Fence
If you're "on the fence" about anything, perhaps today's the day to make a decision.
I took this several days ago, while waiting for the sun to set. This fence runs along a stretch of road through a (beautiful!) neighborhood that's part of a cycling route I frequently ride. The fence borders a large green meadow and pond that is available for use by residents.
As can be seen below, it really was a spectacular sunset; short of a few minor adjustments in Lightroom 2, little PP was done. The ultimate goal of this endeavor was to capture the sunset AND a bit more of the foreground details, like the two specimen trees, the green meadow, and the fence. As it stands, those items became black and/or silhouettes. Need to figure out how to set exposure in order to achieve this goal. One other thing I realized after the fact - ISO was set to 100...doh, I should've bumped it up to at least 400; and, I should've used the tripod. Any other thoughts/suggestions?
One addendum: After arriving home from the office, I revisited a section of Bryan Peterson's Book Understanding Exposure, and for a situation like this he suggests using a soft-edge, drop-in graduated ND filter, taking into account the number of stops diff. between proper exposure for the sky and proper exposure for the green meadow. So, as noted above by Paul - software solution via 2 or more exposures blended together - or by Peterson - hardware solution via GND drop-in filter. Lesson learned...
On the Fence
If you're "on the fence" about anything, perhaps today's the day to make a decision.
I took this several days ago, while waiting for the sun to set. This fence runs along a stretch of road through a (beautiful!) neighborhood that's part of a cycling route I frequently ride. The fence borders a large green meadow and pond that is available for use by residents.
As can be seen below, it really was a spectacular sunset; short of a few minor adjustments in Lightroom 2, little PP was done. The ultimate goal of this endeavor was to capture the sunset AND a bit more of the foreground details, like the two specimen trees, the green meadow, and the fence. As it stands, those items became black and/or silhouettes. Need to figure out how to set exposure in order to achieve this goal. One other thing I realized after the fact - ISO was set to 100...doh, I should've bumped it up to at least 400; and, I should've used the tripod. Any other thoughts/suggestions?
One addendum: After arriving home from the office, I revisited a section of Bryan Peterson's Book Understanding Exposure, and for a situation like this he suggests using a soft-edge, drop-in graduated ND filter, taking into account the number of stops diff. between proper exposure for the sky and proper exposure for the green meadow. So, as noted above by Paul - software solution via 2 or more exposures blended together - or by Peterson - hardware solution via GND drop-in filter. Lesson learned...