Water Front

Victors grandparents own property on the west side of the island, and so we went out there tonight for some pictures. They have an amazing house, and quite the collection of art! We ended up getting a tour for about an hour before we shot, which was okay because the collection was really awesome. But we were there for photos, so we eventually braved the cold and went outside.

To escape from the icy wind, we went into this little nook at the end of the beach where a stream flowed from the island into the bay. Perfect place to avoid freezing, perfect to get a picture too!

I shot with the18-135, at 30s, f/3.5 and ISO1600. Not the greatest settings for image quality, but you do what you gotta do. With the quarter moon lighting up the foreground, and the stars shining brightly, the exposure worked out really well. Being so cold, there wasn't as much as there could have  been, and in post I could push the image further.

Starting with a simple panorama of the bay and the stream, Victor and I came up with a plan. We'd brought along a really cool light globe thing, and Victor wanted to use it. He put his flashlight in it, hung it with a whisk and cable, and then followed the contour of the stream and then the beach. In camera it didn't look like it worked, but once I started editing I saw it worked perfectly! He did a run on both sides of the beach, and then I light painted the stream to get the green water. The stream was going to be the focus of the photo, so it needed to be lit well. My plan for these type of shots is to light everything I possibly can, and if I need to use all of those parts I'm glad I got them. If I only need a few, then at least it's good practice and I've covered my bases.

To composite, I just use layer masks in Ps. Really, really simple stuff. Watch any 5 min video on YouTube and it's explained. Just paint black where you don't want, and paint white where you do!

Since it was a panorama, I opened all the layers in Ps, the made the canvas 200% taller than the individual photo. This gave me room to stack the photos appropriately, and then I just cropped down again once they were good. I think this one is 4 photos high. Not that hard to blend this, since the water and stars mix really well. Just a couple of soft layer masks and that's all it takes. Blend with the lest detailed parts of images, it makes it so much easier. That, or parts that are a texture or something. Most people won't notice if there's a slight discrepancy in a texture where you blended, especially if it's something like rock or water.

In Lr, I first adjusted the sky and the colors. I cooled things down a bit, and then added more magenta. That just gives a beautiful blue/purple tint to it, which I really love. I also increased the clarity and contrast a bit with the stars, to make them pop more.

Next, I brought out some more detail in the shadows with selective adjustments. Nothing complicated there. Finally, I lowered the highlights in the rocks, as they were just a tad over exposed.

To finish off the photo, I did some chromatic aberration correction, sharpening, and noise reduction.

See you tomorrow!