Sunrise over a small pond between Chennai and Pondicherry, India

[mikemyers]

Arrived in Chennai, India, and took a hired auto to my next home, Pondicherry. Noticed the sun was just rising, and had the car stop at what I hoped was a suitable place for a photo. Used my Fuji X100F, as my Nikon gear was still buried away in my carry-on bag - but decided it made no difference. It took some fiddling with the PL controls to get the color to look reasonable, but shooting into the sun didn’t help any. Got something I accepted, but it’s not what I remember actually seeing. I had to walk around to get the sun’s reflection to be where I wanted it. Clouds looked bizarre to me, maybe I’m too used to the Miami clouds. A bird would have been nice, but they were likely all still sleeping. With perhaps three hours of sleep during the preceding two days, I envied them - all I really wanted at the time was to fall into a comfortable bed and close my eyes.

Oh, and before anybody asks, I did not use any controls to add or enhance Vignetting - it was all 100% natural.

DSCF6351 | 2024-09-11.raf (17.3 MB)
DSCF6351 | 2024-09-11.jpg.dop (13.6 KB)

[FarmerPhotos]

Don’t mind it tad warm/orange maybe

[Joanna (Joanna Carter)]

Since you sent a DOP for a JPEG version, here are my attempts from scratch…

Natural, at 5600°K, recording what the camera actually saw…

WB boosted to 9000°K, manipulated to show what I think you thought it was like…

@mikemyers

Clouds looked bizarre to me, maybe I’m too used to the Miami clouds.

That’s because Miami has its own particular cloudscape due to its position.

[mikemyers]

Checking in on my phone now, I certainly prefer your version, but also like the other.

I will check if there are two .dop files on my computer, one for raw, and another for jpg.

My fuji is currently set to show me the view for ACROS 100, and also save a raw file. Will set it to RAW only tonight.

[mikemyers]

I deleted anything I did before - I can blame it on sleep deprevation, but I’ll just admit I screwed up.

Started at the beginning, editing the proper ‘raw’ file this time, not the ‘jpg’ file that I mistakenly thought was the right one. After an hour or so of fighting with PhotoLab to do what I want, not what I was selecting, eventually things came together in a way I liked. White balance ended up at 5702, looking at the sky as I adjusted it. Shooting into the sun was a mistake, but I didn’t have any choice. Of your two photos, the first has less color than I remember, and the second is closer to what I wanted to capture, but with the sky more blue.

My memory was that I saw more color with my eyes than what I captured on the Fuji, but with hardly any real sleep for two days, maybe this was the most I was capable of.

At the time I edited it, my first version looks more like what I wanted to create, but I went “too far”. My latest attempt is closer, but if I try to boost the colors, the sun and its reflection get burnt out. I figure it was best to quit, and do better at capturing better images, with my D780. The image view is now set to natural viewing, not a simulated Fuji film in B&W.

Note to myself for the future - PhotoLab is SO MUCH NICER with a 17" calibrated display, than the built-in display on my 14" MacBook Pro.

As for the .dop file, the name for the real one includes “.rar” but that was irrelevant as in my deluded state, I thought I actually was editing the raw file. I guess I should be happy I got as decent a photo as I/we did, from what the camera captured. Between last night and tonight, I hope to make up for the lack of any real sleep.

DSCF6351 | 2024-09-11.raf (17.3 MB)
DSCF6351 | 2024-09-11.raf.dop (13.7 KB)

[onelife69 (Dave)]

Hi Mike,

I tried to get a little blue into the scene, maybe a tad too much?

[mikemyers]

@onelife69

I tried to get a little blue into the scene, maybe a tad too much?

I prefer your version, with more “blue”, and “brighter”. I think what you created is more convincing. It’s much brighter than what I felt, shooting the scene - a few minutes later what I was seeing was more like what you created.

Next time, I’ll capture a quick photo with my phone, just for reference.

Darken your version just a tiny amount, and my memory will be happy.

To be honest though, the colors were changing rapidly, from when we first parked the car, to when I took the photo, to when we drove away. Had I stood there with the camera for only a minute or two, the scene would have looked like what you created.