Landscape: Peter Lik Sunrises

[Luke.Spence]

Hey guys!

I'm new to this forum - Peter Lik's "Sacred Sunrise Photo" with the arc and the sun rising in the background. I am always amazed at how the sky is still blue and not blown out by the sun. And I also wonder how he makes the sun itself look like a little gem on the horizon (you know what I mean?)

If anyone knows how to achieve this kind of effect please let me know!!

(if you don't know the photo, it comes up in google images if you type in "sacred sunrise" .

Thanks!

Luke.

 

[quiddity]

timing and a grad ND i suppose

 

[arifbd111]

Hi Luke

Search for GND (Graduated Neutral Density) filter and its use.. there are Hard, Soft, Normal glasses and other kind of color glasses. With proper combination and setup you'll find excellent wow landscapes

 

[Big Mike]

My dental hygienist mentioned today that she saw a gallery of his in Vegas, a few weeks ago.

Apparently he limits his prints to only 1000 copies (or something like that). The early ones sell for $800, while the last one can go as high as $500,000. Sounds like B.S. to me, but maybe.

As for the photo, yes...the use of filters, along with careful exposure and processing (she said he still shoot film, and with a 70 year old camera)...it's possible to get shots like that.

As for how the sun looks, that will be a result of the lens design an the aperture it's set to. Usually, the smaller the aperture, the more 'star-like' a specular highlight will look.

 

[ann]

Also, where is the sun in relationship to lens. You can have the sun at your back at highnoon and get the most amazing blue skies, with a CPL

Big Mike, it is amazing, as I find his postcard style boring but he does sell. Recently someone on ebay sold one of his photos for over 11,000. A field of sunflowers. It made me go back and look at my field of sunflowers and laugh. I would have sold mine for $500

 

[Buckster]

I love Lik's work. Super-saturated just grabs me. There's nothing quite like seeing it up close and in person at one of his galleries.

He holds the distinction of selling a single photo for one million dollars. He definitely has it going on when it comes to making money with his craft.

 

[JG_Coleman]

...she said he still shoot film, and with a 70 year old camera)...

He shot film for quite a while, but he shoots digital these days.

He is an excellent photographer... no doubt. And you need a great photo to get such great colors in the final result. But the truth is, all of his photographs get developed in Photoshop.

I'm not trying to devalue his work by any means... his photos ARE spectacular. And, after all, most photographers use Photoshop. It's just that he has somehow developed this sort of mythical story surrounding his photography: as if he pulls these perfectly-processed masterpieces directly out of his camera. That's just not true. Like most all photographers these days, he too takes digital photographs, pulls them into PhotoShop and tweaks them here or there to enhances colors, open up shadows, accentuate contrast, etc, etc. And even before he shot digital, he made high-resolution scans of his work and pulled them into PhotoShop that way.

Again, not trying to devalue his work, at all. I'm just trying to debunk the myth (largely spread by the employees of his galleries, it would seem) that he has some sort of magical film camera.

My guess about how he got "Sacred Sunrise":

- He was positioned to get the shot at the perfect time... probably by arriving early enough to scout the exact location he envisioned.
- Balanced the foreground and sky with a soft GND
- Liberally added saturation in PhotoShop
- Probably opened up the shadows a bit (especially in the arch) in PhotoShop, as well

I could be wrong, but that's my take on the recipe.

 

[mjhoward]

I've been to his galleries many times as well... the prints are fantastic and really immersive. If you've not ever been, the prints look like they are backlit, but they arn't. Even with the faintest light source, the prints just seem to glow and pop. There are 2 things that pull this off. They are printed on Pearl Fuji Crystal Archive Paper AND they are face mounted to acrylic. The Acrylic face mount is perhaps the most important part to getting that super contrast and saturation.

 

[spacefuzz]

his is a good photographer no doubt

He is even better at selling himself and his product, and thats what makes him stand out honestly.

I will admit though, I do dig the super saturated look. for the arch shot I agree with what others have said and would add perhaps a layer of clouds in the sky for that deep blue? Low contrast on the back of the arch just screams HDR to me.

Is there haloing around the arch? tsk tsk

 

[Luke.Spence]

WOAH! thanks so much for all the replies. I 1/4 suspected a little bit of what has been said above but thanks so much for the detail of the responses. makes it seem so much more possible now . I am even more excited now to take some more photos and wake up early!! and ye, spacefuzz I noticed that haloing, pretty bad right? I still love the shot and I still think he is an unbelievable photographer!

mjhoward, thanks for that vid, pretty insightful. amazing how much it makes the photo pop

thanks everyone

 

[mjhoward]

mjhoward, thanks for that vid, pretty insightful. amazing how much it makes the photo pop

You're welcome! If you end up with a shot that you're real proud of, the company in that video will do the print and mount for you. It's not terribly expensive, but you certainly wouldn't want to pay the fee for just any old landscape photo. Here's their price list: Substrates | BumbleJax