My favourite shot of my favourite spot

[mibreit]

Yesterday evening the time was due for the sunset I had waited for more than 3 months since I discovered this place. Everytime I went there I had either a clear sky which also looked quite nice or the sky just didn't have the right color to harmonize with the field. As I was drivin to Heidelberg yesterday I noticed some nice soft clouds building up in the sky, not real clouds just those soft strokes of white and I thought well let's give it a try this might get nice. And finally I was rewarded, the 5th or sixth time I went to this location all was in place. The field had turned golden, no wind so I could get a sharp shot of the field, beautiful sky and great sunset.

I'm quite happy that I didn't skrew it :-) I did focusstacking with f/11 here + 3 exposure bracketing + I used my Lee 0.6 GND. All in place and this was the last shot I took.

Only thing which wasen't so perfect where the mosquitos and me wearing shorts in this field. wow this was quite itching :-)

Here's the shot -> "Summer Glow"

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4082/4779040213_c12f4dd864_b.jpg

have a nice weekend!

[Iguanasan]

That is a very beautiful shot. The colours are wonderful. Love the lone tree again in this scene. Great work! :thumbup::thumbup:

[Bambi]

That is a very beautiful shot. The colours are wonderful. Love the lone tree again in this scene. Great work! :thumbup::thumbup:

I agree. I have to figure out this focus stacking thing.

[Matt K.]

well done, indeed. Beautiful leading lines. Great expression.:highfive:

[edG]

beautiful capture Michael

[Peter]

I hope I can do that one day.

[Marko]

Gorgeous shot for sure.:highfive: I'd love to know a bit more about the post processing if you'd care to share.

Thx! Marko

[JAS_Photo]

Beautiful shot!

[mibreit]

Thank you all!

@Marko: no problem, I'll do a short summary here

1. Shot consists of two manual focus settings one at the fg at around 1 meter and one around 3 meters -> that's from experience for my equipment what I know I get best sharpness over the whole dof from. For full format DSLRs one might need 3 focus shots for the best stacking. I used f/11 so no diffraction on my EOS40

2. At both settings I used bracketing of 3 exposures + I had inserted my Lee 0.6 GND filder together with a polarizer which already gives a very good single exposure here but I always want to have some room to play and brighten shadows or darken some highlights.

3. I get 6 Images and load them into layers in PS after I did removal of CA in Camera Raw + some presharpening

4. 3 layers are for the foreground (group) , 3 layers are for the background (group)

5. In both groups I activate the normal exposure and mask out the +2 and -2 exposure. Then with a soft brush I paint white in those masks to brighten some areas or darken others. No harsh adjustments here just with around 10% opacity to keep things natural, with repeated strokes I can build up the result

6. Then I blend both groups together to get the focusstacking. For such a scene a simple gradient mask is sufficient. In the 100% view you can check where the transition should be placed. with my settings it's somewhere in the lower half of the frame.

7. I have an Image which is sharp from front to back and has a perfect exposure -> make a smartobject of it

8. Now do your normal postprocessing work -> curves (a lot), selective color, saturation and in the end Sharpening for the web

please feel free to ask where something is not clear. This helps me to write it better.

cheers

[Marko]

Thanks so much for that detailed explanation :highfive:

What i was really curious about though is #8

"8. Now do your normal postprocessing work -> curves (a lot), selective color, saturation and in the end Sharpening for the web"

Gotcha!

many thx!

marko

[Richard]

Absolute stunner.

Thanks for sharing your method, sounds like a lot of work, but totally worth it. :thumbup: