A long drive ended up with a great sunrise....

[jake337]

So this past weekend I made a trip up to Warroad Minnesota to bring our new daughter to visit her grandparents. I happened to drink one of those 5 hour energy drinks to make sure I din't fall asleep during the 6 hour drive. Well once we arrived I could not fall asleep!!! I decided to drive to the Lake of the Woods down the road and try a few landscapes. Number one is an HDR attempt. The rest are not bracketed images. Feel free to critique if you like.

1

2

3

4

 

[Dinardy]

Beautiful captures man. Thanks for sharing

 

[jake337]

Beautiful captures man. Thanks for sharing

Thanks. Which one did you like the most?

 

[Woodsman]

All are lovely, my favorite is the last one.

 

[Dinardy]

2 oddly enough, I like the different layers and cloud definition. It reminds me of our old beach home.

4 is just classic, beautiful light all around.

3 is a very nice capture of the sun itself with a pretty good reflection going for it

1 I don't much care for this ones colors, but its still very nice.

 

[ceeboy14]

I'd lower that contrast a bit. They
re all over the top for my tastes in sunrises or sets.

 

[Derrel]

I like #1. I REALLY like #2 though. For me, the second one is the winner. I just love the orange, and also am very enthused about the grasses across the bottom of the frame, but would,like to see them brightened up just a bit. Not much brighter though, just a bit.

#4 has a very nice sky.

 

[jake337]

I'd lower that contrast a bit. They
re all over the top for my tastes in sunrises or sets.

These as pretty close to what I saw that morning and pretty close to what the RAW files look like. The scene itself was pretty over the top! Besides number 1. Number one was bracketed set of images I put together in post.

 

[jake337]

I like #1. I REALLY like #2 though. For me, the second one is the winner. I just love the orange, and also am very enthused about the grasses across the bottom of the frame, but would,like to see them brightened up just a bit. Not much brighter though, just a bit.

#4 has a very nice sky.

Thanks. #2 is my favorite as well. #1 is a sorry attempt for an HDR in my opinion. Maybe if I had a better grasp at HDR PP I could have pulled something better out of it.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Warroad!! Being a hockey fan I know the story of the town.

Back to the photos, I actually like the first one because of the texture of the grasses silhouetted in the scene and the shadows in the water, the yellow seems somewhat too vibrant or almost artificial. It just seems to capture the stillness of the moment and seems unique, it makes me want to look again.

 

[Trblmkr]

These are my observations... nothing personal, just trying to help you out.

#1 you are correct sir, it's an attempt at HDR. If it had been an HDR you would have brought out more of the rock in the foreground and the stuff on the left side of the screen. Because they are still black, it looks like you just exposed for the sunset. Personally I would crop out everything below the grass and use the grass for the bottom 1/3 of the picture.

#2 I like the colors in the sky, however I'm not sure I like the composition. Maybe included more of the grass in the front and drop the clouds up top, or drop the grass and focus more on the horizon/sunset and clouds.
#3 does nothing for me, sorry
#4 to me is the best in the bunch. Good composition, nice exposure, nice detail in the clouds from the sunset.

Thanks for posting

 

[play18now]

The last one is my favorite. Beautiful.

 

[sandollars]

Splendid. I especially like 1 and 4.

 

[ceeboy14]

I'd lower that contrast a bit. They
re all over the top for my tastes in sunrises or sets.

These as pretty close to what I saw that morning and pretty close to what the RAW files look like. The scene itself was pretty over the top! Besides number 1. Number one was bracketed set of images I put together in post.

All the raw file does is record what the camera saw via the settings you gave it. These are all overexposed or over-processed and I'd venture a guess at least three of them are bunched way over to the right on your histogram. You have little or no midtone values. Your blacks are clogged up, your whites are mostly blown and you have no details in your shadows. Either this is true, or my monitor just took a dive off the deep end and the spyder got stepped on. Out of the four, I like the second the best but I think there is far more to that file than you're getting from it.

 

[Trblmkr]

Here's how I would have cropped #1, and I played around with the colors a little bit in LR.