For no reason I am aware of, I woke up very early this morning, and glanced out my window - I saw this very blue sky with a huge white cloud, with an orange area near the top, and my familiar skyline view below.
Jumped out of bed, hastily re-assembled my D3 with the first lens I could find that might work, (my D780 was already packed in my suitcase), rushed out onto my balcony, and started capturing images - or at least trying to do so. The camera was being stubborn, as when I raised the camera to capture the top of the cloud, it refused to work - as I found out later, because there was nothing “in focus” that the camera was aware of. I did finally get it to capture a few images of what I wanted before the sky got too bright - after which I spent half an hour trying to find out why the D3 refused to capture the image. Found the problem, fixed it, took a few more wasted images, because it was too bright by then, and the “magic” was gone. Feeling relieved, I fell back into bed for some more sleep. (The D3 has a 3-way switch, and I had to set the camera to ignore the focus, and just capture my image.)
Later in the day, I made the sky look the way I remembered, and I brought up a little “orange” to make the cloud look like what I remembered, and finally worked on the reflection of the cloud until it too looked like my memory.
My goal was to show what I saw when I first looked out the window. There are probably several ways to improve the image - which Joanna will likely describe. I guess I’m too dang stubborn to listen to myself - I wanted to show what my brain saw as I glanced out the window as the sun was just starting to come up.
…added later - with my browser in “night mode”, with the background black, this image is what I “saw”. In “daytime mode” with the background white, the image loses all the “magic”, and looks dull and boring. Oh well.
This forum has a black background, so I copied your photo onto an empty wordprocessor page and resized it so I could see a plain white frame. I can’t see what was in your brain, but the photo doesn’t look dull to me. It does look a little grainy to me. Remember (if I ever told you) that I don’t know Miami or modern Nikon digital cameras, so this was a punt.
Just a little NR (Prime), a little more light in the bottom, and a tad more orange at the top. But it is the picture your description painted in my brain.
What were we saying about resetting your camera to the most useful case at the end of a session?
To my mind, you overworked it. Far too much SmartLighting, which you did globally rather than using Spot Weighted. And, once again you used ClearView Plus instead of the four Fine Contrast sliders. And, for some odd reason, you reduced the exposure.
If you want sunrise/set colouring, simply switch to Fuji Velvia 100. and don’t change the blue of the sky so much.
Well, your version doesn’t look like what I saw, but it looks better than what I remember I saw. If I were to print it, and hang it on a wall, I would print your version, not mine.
I know that now - a year or so ago, I had no idea I could do that.
Makes a huge difference.
To me, your version is prettier than what I saw and created, as it was still mostly night-time when I saw this scene developing. Lovely!
Guilty as charged. I put the D3 away but if I had correctly remembered the use of that switch, I would have never left it the way I did. I’m surprised I ever had it in that position - ignorance on my part.
I need to remember this for the future - your version is the closest of any of the versions posted yet, to what I was looking at when I glanced out the window.
Fuji Velvia 100. Amazing. I need to keep that in mind for the future. It’s better than whatever my Nikon saved the image as. THANK YOU!!!
At the time, I liked what I did. Now I see what I was missing/ignoring. Some things I remember more than others.
Your version would make a great postcard, but it doesn’t show what I “felt”.
My problem too - I guess I “saw” it, but never paid attention to it, or wondered what it did. I usually prefer a black background, for many reasons. For three years, maybe longer, I was unaware of this.
I agree with your enthusiasm. This is the first case I have seen where I might be convinced to buy FP, if DxO ever but together a black Friday bundle…
Coming from the world of LF film, I couldn’t live without it as it allows me to reproduce my favourite films, especially Fuji Acros 100 for B&W and Velvia for colour. See my site…
My room is too bright now to view this properly; will try to view it tonight. The only change from earlier was to select the Fuji Velvia 50. Image is slightly darker than what I did before, and the orange tint decreased in intensity.
A very good image, Mike.
You are one of those photographers who really thrives with his photography. It’s interesting. I wish more photographers were as honest and passionate as you are.
Thank you!l That’s the good side of things. The bad side of all this is that I’m often frustrated, because I don’t know how to bring out what I want from a photograph. Then someone like Joanna points out a way, and things are great until the next time I get stuck.
Gack! Not sure how to respond, and didn’t get to see the last one that is now missing, but overall feeling pleased. Well, at least I know now that the clouds really won’t be like what I’m used to back home. That’s OK.
Time to go hunting with my D780. For now, it just has my Nikon standard 50mm f/2 mounted, but that’s sure to change.
