Pond Experiments

Today is not about getting a breath-taking scene. Today is about experimentation. I have out-of-town visitors this week, and am pressed for time. Can't travel too far afield. I'm heading to a nearby shopping plaza. There is some stonework, several pleasant trees, and a bridge all positioned around a reflecting pond. I should get some nice reflections at least.

4:45am - On location, circling the pond. There's a large tree at one end I'd like to have in the shot, but too many surrounding buildings with harsh street lights ruining the more serene image I have in my mind's eye. Instead I put that tree behind me and aim toward a restaurant at the opposite end of the water.

5:00am - Ambient light is still low, cloud cover isn't breaking. I flip the camera to manual mode and start playing with long exposures, 60 to 70 seconds are looking interesting. This is fun. I've not done long exposures before - until about 2 weeks ago, I didn't know how to do this on my camera - chalk one up for reading the manual. I wonder about "self-bracketing". I can't bracket in aperture priority mode yet...the light's too low and save -2EV or -3EV, the shots are maxing out at 30 seconds. Hmm...how do I do this? Vary the length of the exposure with the same EV? Or use a fixed exposure time and play with the exposure compensation? Will Photomatix whinge if there's no EV variation? I try both methods.

5:10am - Quickly review the above experimental shots. Despite there not being rays from a rising sun, the images have an overall orange cast. Not unpleasant, but artificial...no doubt from the aforementioned street lights, now off camera left. Can that be make to work for me in post?

5:20am - Some blues coming into the sky, but patchy. I decide to keep the sky out of the shot. There's enough light to bracket now, switch to aperture priority, take several exposures.

5:40am - Sunrise has passed, without a sunrise. The morning haze didn't break up.

Reflecting Pond

What have I learned today? I'm more comfortable taking longer exposures. Also, I'm in dire need of a sturdier tripod. For all shots, I was setup on a large, sturdy rock. Little to no wind today. Yet much of the foreground, even the rock I used as a focal point, is not sharp. Is mirror movement really causing that much blur? And, I need to invest in a polarizing filter - the late in the center of the pond is a detractor for this photo.

UPDATE: I did another pass on the post-processing, blending the long exposure with the orange tones with the tone mapped image above. Gives more orange and sunrise-feel to the water and rocks. I think I like the blended one a bit more.

Reflecting Pong, Alternate Post-Processing