saw some nice color in the sky this morning at sunrise

dannylightning · Nov 27, 2015

well, what do you think. thew my 35mm 1.8 on and ran out to get the shot before the lighting changed.

John Hunt · Nov 28, 2015

Way too many trees in the way.

PropilotBW · Nov 28, 2015

Snapshots are good, too. I'm sure the rest of the day was just as nice as the sunrise.

Just a side note. the watermark needs a little work. Maybe add some transparency for less boldness? Or get rid of the massive DC? There's no reason to have DC plus your full name combo. Minimal is best, just a thought.

Tim Tucker · Nov 28, 2015

Stop running.

A quick deconstruct and we have a sky that can be seen through the pattern of the trees, all fairly good but your horizon is mid-frame so the lower half of your image is of interest as well.
This is how most viewers will see your image. Their eye will be first attracted to the brighter sky in the upper middle, then it will quickly exhaust that area and drop to the only other area with brightness and detail just below:

Which is cars parked in driveways on a suburban street, a subject most see every day and few find interesting.

Seriously, stop running, slow down, start anticipating. Sunrises can be anticipated, so be there and be ready. This gives you time to think and frame the shot beforehand, not fumbling with the controls of the camera to capture a moment that has just passed. It gives you the chance to choose the location and not just rush out into the street before you miss it.

So what you have seen is an element of a photo, some colour in the sky (which has been little over-saturated in PP), that you've not allowed yourself enough time to turn into a complete photo.

Here's one of mine, not great and a little over-processed and of sunset:

A little late getting back to the car | Photography Forum

But I was there before sunset, I chose the location, I set up the framing with the camera on a tripod and waited. No running. With a little thought and preparation what was an element in your image can become the main subject, the colours of the sky at sunrise/sunset.

Peeb · Nov 28, 2015

I like the color!

Maybe crop just a bit?
I'd love to calm those street lights down just a bit, too.

dannylightning · Nov 28, 2015

i played with the crop for about 30 min.. finally decided to go with that. i have never been good at cropping landscape type photos. or taking them i guess. i do not mind all the trees, would be better if they were not there. i do not usually see sun rises that look like this and most of the time i am at work when the sun does rise.

should i brush the street and cars and darken them up?

i have the saturation and vibrance both turned down to negative 10, the blue does look a bit over saturated still. but if i i turn it down any more the purple started looking faded and boring. i guess i could always just turn down the saturation on the blue.

Tim Tucker · Nov 28, 2015

dannylightning said:
i played with the crop for about 30 min.. finally decided to go with that. i have never been good at cropping landscape type photos. or taking them i guess. i do not mind all the trees, would be better if they were not there. i do not usually see sun rises that look like this and most of the time i am at work when the sun does rise.

should i brush the street and cars and darken them up?

i have the saturation and vibrance both turned down to negative 10, the blue does look a bit over saturated still. but if i i turn it down any more the purple started looking faded and boring. i guess i could always just turn down the saturation on the blue.

There is nothing really wrong with the crop. As for thew street why not find a view that doesn't include it?

With the saturation most of the tools that you're using will be altering the colour, especially contrast/sharpening/clarity.
Virtually every shadow just above pure black is 100% saturated blue and the orange below the first street light is 85-100% saturated orange. A colour is saturated when it is of a single wavelength, but you never get colour of a single wavelength in nature. It is always comprised of a combination of colours. The saturation slider (and contrast) subtracts until all you are left with is the dominant colour, which is what you have here. In the shadows where there used to be a variety of colour with a slight blue hue (a mix of lots of wavelengths with slightly more blue) all that variety has been subtracted and you are left with just the blue. The same with the orange. Now orange and blue are complementary and so go together rather well, but you never get fully saturated colours in nature and therefore they will always look slightly odd and unreal.
My point is that your saturation controls do not control or adjust colour in the way you think they do. Your primary colour control is the initial exposure and capturing the colours presented to you accurately. You've shot this at 1/50sec f1.8 and 6400ASA. You've ended up with an image that is mainly flat and underexposed with limited depth of field. The amount of editing you've done to try an rescue something is why your colours have gone astray. Back to my first point:

Seriously, stop running, slow down, start anticipating. Sunrises can be anticipated, so be there and be ready. This gives you time to think and frame the shot beforehand, not fumbling with the controls of the camera to capture a moment that has just passed. It gives you the chance to choose the location and not just rush out into the street before you miss it.

cbarnard7 · Nov 28, 2015

Nice colors- I like the trees being silhouetted. I have to say that I hate the watermark though! Much, much smaller and change the opacity- It takes the eyes off the photo and straight to the bottom right corner.