Im stumped whats your input

[Kbarredo]

So i took these pics during sunrise. Now im stumped on how i can pp them. Here are my edits but I feel there are better things to do with them. Here they are pre processed

Here are the post process shots. What do you guys think and what would you do with them in photoshop and what would you have done differently at the shooting itself.

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[KmH]

First, get it as close to right as possible in the camera

With that bright a background, fill flash was needed.

The down the fence shot has insufficient DOF, to much of the image is blurry to have broad, general appeal.

 

[Paul D. Van Hoy II]

If you captured these in RAW - I'd try to create two separate exposures for each scene - one for the highlights and one for the shadows.

Then, in Photoshop, place one image over the other, thus creating two layers and then use a layer mask to paint in or paint out which parts of the top image you want to combine with the bottom image.

This will allow you to salvage the blown out details in those highlight regions.

Toronto Wedding Photographer

 

[Kbarredo]

First, get it as close to right as possible in the camera

With that bright a background, fill flash was needed.

The down the fence shot has insufficient DOF, to much of the image is blurry to have broad, general appeal.

I did use fill flash. My shutterspeed I was at top sync speed with my camera.

 

[KmH]

Then your flash unit didn't have enough power to balance with the amount of ambient light.

In that situation a lot of cameras have a mode that allows using a shutter speed faster than the flash x-sync speed. Nikon calls it FP-sync mode (FP = Focal Plane), Canon calls it HSS (High Speed Sync). Both require using a hot shoe flash unit also capable of doing FP or HSS.

In that kind of flash mode the flash unit has to fire several times during a single exposure, because the shutter is never fully open having one or both shutter curtains covering part of the image frame.

 

[Kbarredo]

Then your flash unit didn't have enough power to balance with the amount of ambient light.

In that situation a lot of cameras have a mode that allows using a shutter speed faster than the flash x-sync speed. Nikon calls it FP-sync mode (FP = Focal Plane), Canon calls it HSS (High Speed Sync). Both require using a hot shoe flash unit also capable of doing FP or HSS.

In that kind of flash mode the flash unit has to fire several times during a single exposure, because the shutter is never fully open having one or both shutter curtains covering part of the image frame.

what do I expose for. If I expose for the sun the lake is too dark and my sb-600 can't light a whole lake up. And if I expose for the post the sky becomes too blown out. Do I expose for the lake using fill in flash then take another pic exposed for the sky then merged the 2. Or do I expose for the post and sky them merge those 2. My big problem is that I have 3 different spots to expose for.

 

[KvnO]

I think I read exposing for the sky (to the right or left of the sun) is a good method. I imagine that would take care of the lake too. Then, use flash to fill the post.

Try some exposure bracketing and choose the best-looking one.

EDIT:

Yeah, here's a quick article on metering a sunrise/set:

http://www.nicholsonprints.com/Articles/suntips.htm

 

[Kbarredo]

Then your flash unit didn't have enough power to balance with the amount of ambient light.

In that situation a lot of cameras have a mode that allows using a shutter speed faster than the flash x-sync speed. Nikon calls it FP-sync mode (FP = Focal Plane), Canon calls it HSS (High Speed Sync). Both require using a hot shoe flash unit also capable of doing FP or HSS.

In that kind of flash mode the flash unit has to fire several times during a single exposure, because the shutter is never fully open having one or both shutter curtains covering part of the image frame.

sorry i also dont have fp sync mode on my camera. I have a d5000.