Nile Sunrise

This is basically as taken. I took a lot of photos on this trip that needed help, but this one just feels right (contrary opinions welcome). At exposure time I was busy compensating in camera (ended up at -2/3 stop) to keep the sun from completely blowing itself away. I have messed with levels ins PS, which snapped the contrast but removed the misty feeling which was definitely part of the scene. I've cropped it 99 ways, and still like the full frame for the feeling of spaciousness in the sky and the large expanse of water, another feeling I had at the time of taking it. All I have done is remove two small floaters from the foreground, leaving a very small one that tells you there is still water in the foreground but doesn't demand your attention. Considering that it was taken from a (slowly) moving boat, I think I was lucky to be able to frame the sun between the two minarets while it was not too high or too low. Five minutes later it was above the mist and the romance was gone. I was also the only guy on the boat who got up early enough to see the sunrise - go figure.

So wonderful to see yourc work! So this was the SD700IS?

Thanks for sharing. This shot is beautiful and a challenge to any camera. I wonder whether a UV vilter would have helped define things better. Who has ideas on this?

Asher

Thanks Asher. Out of 1200 pictures one is bound to come out decently. One challenge in this case was to find the [my] right exposure on a P&S camera with few manual adjustments. On the trip I gradually got used to pointing the camera at different parts of the scene and locking exposure with a half press of the shutter button, then reframing the photo and pulling the trigger the rest of the way. This was particularly important with sunrise and sunset or any other scene with really bright highlights. I took as many test photos as I could and looked at them on the LCD so I knew about where to point for scene exposure. (Although I didn't realize it at the time, the simple way to set exposure for multiple shots is to go into stitch/panorama mode where the first shot locks exposure for the series.) The second challenge was that we were moving and you only got one try for the framing you wanted, so you had to be ready. I sprayed as much as I could when the moment came and I certainly owe a lot to those minarets showing up at the right time. Luck is a large part of it.

Chuck Bragg said:

I have messed with levels ins PS, which snapped the contrast but removed the misty feeling which was definitely part of the scene.

Click to expand...

Try a wide radius sharpen. Perhaps a radius of 15-45 pixels and an amount of 5-35%. This will boost local contrast and leave areas of smooth tonality relatively untouched.

Barely overdoing it on a new/duplicated layer and reducing the opacity can yield some extra control. Some images have major textures at different frequencies and doing multiple wide sharpens at different radii can boost different elements of a composition.

a thought,

Sean

I really like the "misty" slightly out of focus feel of this image. It really sets the mood for me. Nice work, Chuck.

Thanks Chuck for allowing me to work on your wonderful picture. I wish I could have been there too.

What sounds were there? The water? birds? Crickets or traffic behond you somewhere?

Also was it dry and did you have mosquitoes or flies bothering you? West Nile fever is endemic there!


Nile Sunrise © 2007 Chuck Bragg

I just worked in 16 BIR RGB, did some selection around the posterized regions of the sun flare and a judicicous blending of a feathered-blurred copy, redoing the colors and other pepper, salt S-curve, sharpening and herbs added to taste!

Asher

The image can be downloaded here with the usual OPF TOS condition that we donate back to the original © our creative work and only post here! Any other use is a © infringement!

I have just looked at my version on my MacBookPro 17" and it shows some posterization around the wings of brightness spreading from the sun and its relfection. This is not present when using my Eizo monitor!

So the file should print fine!

Asher

Thanks for experimenting with the image. The strange thing is, when I downloaded the full-size file you sent back to me, it looked *much* different from what I am seeing on this page in the forum! The forum version is much more contrasty and posterized, while the one you sent back to me is only subtly different from the original. What gives? Which is the one you intended?

"What sounds were there? The water? birds? Crickets or traffic behond you somewhere? Also was it dry and did you have mosquitoes or flies bothering you? West Nile fever is endemic there!"

Sounds - once you get away from the towns, there isn't any sound but the boat, which is moderately quiet, and a little wind from your forward progress. Only occasionally do you hear a bird (kingfisher cackle, usually). No crickets, no traffic, so at the time of the photo, it was quiet indeed. Every now and then you might be close enough to a mosque to hear the call to prayer, but even with their PA systems, it was pretty faint. I remember once hearing a gas-powered water pump. Man, it's quiet out there. In towns the sounds from the boat were traffic and the calls to prayer five times a day. When you were actually in towns walking around, you could add vendor-noise. The Egyptians are relentless salesmen.

In the south it was dry, but then it only rains a few times every *century* - hence the well-preserved multi-thousand year old mud buildings. It did rain in Cairo, but that's unusual too. We never had the slightest problem with flies or mosquitoes. I have a feeling it might be different in the Nile delta up north, but we didn't get there.

Aha! I think I know why the images are different. The downloadable one still has the two small floaters in the foreground - it's my original, sent to you without the minimal changes I did in Lightroom, therefore only very subtle differences between my cleaned up version and the original. Your real effort is on the forum.

I like your version for its strength, but now we have a "vision thing" issue. My vision is of mist and mystery. Yours is more of a sun that comes up like thunder (on the Road to Mandalay). Well, as Alain said, you gotta go with your vision.

-- Chuck

Hi Chuck,

I didn't mean to send you back anything, LOL, not yet! I'll send you the uncomplressed PSD file and you will see it has no posterization. Well I'll have to look at the mist and mystery! One should have that, I guess if that's what you saw!!

I'll try a different compression.

Asher