My eye is improving.

[RobNZ]

I shot this on my way back from a failed shoot, failed as in I knew where I wanted to shoot and what I wanted to include but the light wasnt behaving and I was thinking I wasnt going to get a keeper at all.

I was wandering back along the path I had been down and and saw this scene, looked fairly ordinary to me, but I liked the composition possibilites, sweeping rocks from left to right, the bush lower right and the tree above framing, longer exposure would mist the water, it all came together in my mind.

Into my pack to pull out my cokin filter holder so I can use a graduated ND for the sky and doh!! left the bloody holder at home!!!

A shot is a shot so I still took it, on the LCD of my camera it looked fairly ordinary and not up to expectations, it was not until I looked at it properly that I realsied it was half decent.

Dont trust your LCD!!

Quick PP to see its potential, it is on the to do list along with 5 others to get it up to scratch. Its going to be a long day......

I really thought I was going to get nothing last night, but I ended up with 4 including the lightning shots from other thread.

 

[Geaux]

I think it's an excellent shot! I'd clone out the lighted buoy in the center frame and the lampost (at least it looks like it) on the right of the frame by the tree branch.

 

[Overread]

Aye the LCD is poor for review - but do trust your histogram! I tend to always have the histogram set to display on the camera LCD so that I can check the exposure of hte shot and the histogram is accurate - checking dark areas is tricky, but for lighter areas it will clearly show you where you have overexposed in the shot thus allowing you a chance to correct the mistake (if you have a chance to).

If you took the shot in RAW mode you might have a chance to get some more out of the lighter areas if you duel process the RAW (that is process it once normally and then process it again, this time keeping everything the same, but dragging the exposure slider to the left to underexpose the processing and thus raise the details in the more blown areas. For fully blown areas you won't get anything, but those on the cusp should show up some usable data/details - you can then merge the two shots by pasting one over the other as a layer and then masking out (with a layermask) the area you don't want of one.
As a JEPG you are a sadly far more limited and chances are you will only be able to use the burn tool to show up a little more detail and take the harshness of the blown areas.

 

[RobNZ]

I did indeed shoot in raw, and have used the double raw method before, thanks for reminding me.

 

[creisinger]

Good suggestion Overread. I wanted to say the same thing about splitting the image in half so the sky can be improved.

It doesn't matter too much if you lose detail on the tree because it will still look good silhouetted, focus on the sky!

 

[D-B-J]

sweet capture!

 

[RobNZ]

Good suggestion Overread. I wanted to say the same thing about splitting the image in half so the sky can be improved.

It doesn't matter too much if you lose detail on the tree because it will still look good silhouetted, focus on the sky!

How is this?

sweet capture!

Thanks.

Before

After

Tweaked to my tastes for saturation.

 

[BlackPhotos]

My attempt at brightening the foreground, what do u think

 

[creisinger]

...

Tweaked to my tastes for saturation.

Much better. Too much saturation for my taste but much better! Good job!

 

[RobNZ]

...
Tweaked to my tastes for saturation.

Much better. Too much saturation for my taste but much better! Good job!

Thanks creisinger, I may just drop the saturation a touch on the sky.

Blackphotos: thanks for your edit, however I dont have an issue with the foreground brightness.