WOW! I was coming down Rt.3, heading west...late in the day and it was really clouding up heavy. The sun was still out - barely. At one point the sun broke thru a hole in the cloud cover and was sending beams of light in the most beautiful fan I've ever seen - it covered the whole sky. I was desperate to pull over but traffic was too heavy. Finally found a spot to get off the side of the road, grabbed the camera (which now travels with me pretty much all the time), and started shooting. The clouds had shifted and the superwide fan of sun rays had diminished, but was still pretty darn cool to look at.
I took most of the shots underexposed intentionally (this one included) to catch the rays of light. Therefore, they are a bit dark - so I moved the histogram to darken the tree line even more to silhouette them against the sky. The sky looks like I did some dodging, burning...I didn't...this is pretty much the way it was!
Can you tell I'm excited about this shot? ;^)
Does anybody else see the light formation that looks like a cross? I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it as I type this up! I can't wait for this challenge to be over so I can share some outtakes...
Post-processed with Paint Shop Pro 9
Rotate CCW .9
Crop
Brightness & Contrast: Clarify +5
Brightness & Contrast: HMS (-35,40,-40)
Brightness & Contrast: Histogram (5,1,255)
Brightness & Contrast: B -2, C +10
Sharpness: USM (1,150,0)
Neat Image: Noise Reduction
Sharpness: USM (.45,150,5)
Crop to 1:50 Aspect Ratio
Resize
Save as JPG
Statistics
Place: 133 out of 183 Avg (all users): 5.1310 Avg (commenters): 6.6250 Avg (participants): 5.1412 Avg (non-participants): 5.1250 Views since voting: 1220 Views during voting: 357 Votes: 229 Comments: 18 Favorites: 0
Thanks Andy. I agree, there were many different ways this image could have been worked. It wasn't perfect - I tried to find an angle that would show the vertical in the cross as you mention, but it was too far distant to move far enough to either side. The clouds and light were changing very rapidly...just wish I could have captured the initial full sky sunray that had me frantically looking for a place to pull over! Again, thanks for the comments.
Originally posted by awpollard:
Sorry my friend, only after you pointed it out did the formation near the bottom resemeble what could be a cross to me. Each mind (especially around these parts) sees things differently. You seen a cross in the shot and the photo took on a certain personal meaning for you. Maybe a play on words in the title would have directed the view that area you wished them to see.
IMO...The quick viewers (<2 seconds) probably passed this off as an underexposed attempt at a sunset...
For me... The formation that you wish us to pick out, takes backseat to Dark Clouds on top, Hot center Point of the Photo, Rays of the Sun and very dark horizon, my eyes are quickly drawn to any of these emphasised areas and I completely over looked what you perceived to be a cross.
Now this would have worked for me if the cross was more prominent. My mental image of a Cross is that the vertical needs to be longer on the bottom than top or it becomes a plus "+" sign... I am not seeing that here although the bottom portion of the cross could be hidden by that large tree my minds eye did not put that together. Perhaps a tighter crop on top and less on the bottom would help the illusion that combined with a title that steered us that direction (without telling us what exactly we were looking for) might have helped more see the idea behind your shot.
Sorry my friend, only after you pointed it out did the formation near the bottom resemeble what could be a cross to me. Each mind (especially around these parts) sees things differently. You seen a cross in the shot and the photo took on a certain personal meaning for you. Maybe a play on words in the title would have directed the view that area you wished them to see.
IMO...The quick viewers (<2 seconds) probably passed this off as an underexposed attempt at a sunset...
For me... The formation that you wish us to pick out, takes backseat to Dark Clouds on top, Hot center Point of the Photo, Rays of the Sun and very dark horizon, my eyes are quickly drawn to any of these emphasised areas and I completely over looked what you perceived to be a cross.
Now this would have worked for me if the cross was more prominent. My mental image of a Cross is that the vertical needs to be longer on the bottom than top or it becomes a plus "+" sign... I am not seeing that here although the bottom portion of the cross could be hidden by that large tree my minds eye did not put that together. Perhaps a tighter crop on top and less on the bottom would help the illusion that combined with a title that steered us that direction (without telling us what exactly we were looking for) might have helped more see the idea behind your shot.
It's a great star isn't it - the sun? Billions of hydrogen bombs going off every second, whiplashes of blazing magnetic tornados larger than the earth, whirling nuclear storms of unfathomable violence - and yet here it all looks so serene! Always delivering suprises, wonderment and celestial glory that ball of fire - I love it.
Good rays (perhaps a tad over-smoothed) and definitely the kind of scene that humbles me too.
This is a very nice image and a great capture. I don't feel however that this fits the challenge. You photographed somthing that inspires emotion. You did not photograph the emotion itself. This is still a nice image so i'll still give a generous score. and as for not fitting the challenge this one is close enough to be subjecgtive.
Wow, like the light here. Does make one in awe of nature. The center seems to be over exposed which pulls from the detail of the photo. On the subjective side, I do not get a sence of mood, more then a scence of beuty. 7
Although I don’t say this is a bad picture I have scored this low.
Low in my book is not extremely low, but I guess there will be other people thinking the same way I do who don’t leave a comment.
Don’t take this the wrong way, this is my own opinion, and I am trying to let you understand what some voters may think.
In my opinion this does not meet the challenge, the description of the challenge: Take a picture that captures an emotion.
I looked hard, but I don’t see an emotion. This could be my fault, but that’s the reason why I voted lower as I would normaly do.
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
