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Rays and Ripples
Rays and Ripples
giantmike


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: National Geographic II (Advanced Editing VII)
Camera: Canon EOS-50D
Lens: Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM
Location: Madison, WI
Date: Jun 26, 2011
Aperture: 11
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/320 - 1/20
Galleries: Nature, High Dynamic Range (HDR)
Date Uploaded: Jun 26, 2011

 I wasn't sure if I would find anything for this challenge. While essentially a free study minus product/studio, the quality of photo for Nat Geo is exceptionally high. Higher than almost anything I have ever shot. But I was lucky enough to head out on Sunday morning to some places I have visited before, and found the lighting to be exceptional. The warm morning sun was quickly evaporating the dew from the grass, causing light mist/fog to be seen all over the city. With the low sun filtering through the trees, I had many opportunities to get these light ray shots that are so cool.

This one turned out to be my favorite of the morning, and a good choice for this particular challenge. I don't know if it will quite get to the level of my other entry from this location, but I sure can hope so:

Post Processing:
* Chromatic Aberration
* Recovery on the -3 exposure
* Combine three exposures in Nik HDR Efex Pro (-3, -1, +1)
* Clone out a small sign post in at the bottom of the frame
* Partially clone the edge of an annoying lens flare
** Burn the light areas of the lens flare
** Dodge the dark areas around the lens flare (these three things made it nearly invisible!)
* Increase black point
* Increase saturation and vibrancy
* S-curve
* Highlights in the sky (with color correction and mid contrast boosted a bit)
* Colors
** Increase orange saturation a bit and shift towards green slightly
** Increase light and dark blue saturations
* Topaz DeNoise (yes, I did this at the end. with some HDR photos, that seems to work well).
* Increase Contrast a bit more
* Levels to brighten the whites
* Reduce blue saturation a bit while increasing the luminosity
* Levels for the big patch of sky to brighten that further (there was too much ugly dull grey)
* Export to TIFF
* Resize
* Sharpen Edges
* Save as JPEG

Statistics
Place: 45 out of 117
Avg (all users): 5.9704
Avg (commenters): 6.3333
Avg (participants): 5.6538
Avg (non-participants): 6.1687
Views since voting: 878
Views during voting: 266
Votes: 135
Comments: 5
Favorites: 1 (view)

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AuthorThread
Nikon D80
Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II
 07/08/2011 08:40:55 AM
Wow, what a great image, processing has done it justice.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
Canon EOS-6D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L Macro IS USM
 07/05/2011 09:34:02 PM
Lovely! Love the ripples... and the light!



I may or may not be voting, so please do not equate my comment with any score.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D800
Sigma 120-300mm f/2.8 EX APO IF HSM for Nikon
 07/05/2011 02:19:46 AM
Could be a geography or environment piece by NG. On it's own its a lovely shot, but how story telling is it? The title says DPC not NG. This is so subjective a topic. The rays, the light through the leaves. It's all sublime. The duck (curved neck?) causing the ripples peacefully in the water. On it's own it's story-less. Remember it's for NG...and they are masters at telling stories with pictures. Yes sometimes their images need to be backed up with the description in the text or under the image. I fear voters are going to be all over the place in this challenge for the wrong reasons. Yours will do ok vote wise but what is it about?
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D500
Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DC OS HSM
 07/03/2011 02:59:45 PM
This is lovely
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-7D
Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC Macro for Canon
 07/01/2011 04:22:01 PM
Really beautiful. I love the rays. :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
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