03/01/2021
A Glimmer of Light
First off, Happy New Year to everyone and thank you for all the follows and your support over the years. We did struggle for the past year, but, I hope this year will be much better. Please still continue to take care of yourselves.
Here's a photo of one of the most well known areas in the province of Batanes, the Chadpidan Boulder Beach. If I remember it correctly, when we arrive on this place to catch the sunset, the sky was just all gloomy and having a great sunset was pretty slim. I also remember that it was starting to rain a bit and that was a good sign. Its always a good thing to bring a camera hood or even just a plastic to cover your camera from any unexpected rain. Luckily for me, I do always have one in my bag.
Surely enough as soon as the rain stopped, there was a clearing just below that cloud formation just enough for the sun to blast its fiery color and it did as for this shot.
Getting the shot was the first step, processing it next is another mile long undertaking. The image is composed of five different exposure blended together and it was important for me to capture the light painting the structure of the rolling hills on the background, the light on the rocks on the middle ground, for the sun burst, and lastly just the timing of the waves enough to make it silky and flat.
I also did need to adjust the the white balance of the image because of the strong color cast, mainly because of my reverse edge filter, so I have to adjust it from the RAW processing down to the color balance adjustment layer. I think there is still a strong cast, but I think I've managed to lessen it significantly.
Next was to bring out the shadow details on the rolling hills just enough to bring out a bit of the details on the grass. Dodge and burn did the trick though on making the light pop-out more on the light on the hills.
The most challenging here is the is to remove the sun flares on the image. There was a BIG spot on near the sun burst, but, thanks to the frequency separation, I've managed to lessen that big flare. For the others, cloning and spot healing did the trick.
So here's a start for the year 2021.
Taken with Canon 5D Mark II, EF 16-35mm f2.8 L USM, Formatt Hitech Firecrest 6 stops, Haida Reverse Graduated Neutrail Density Filter 3 stops, Benro C2980T Tripod, and Phottix Aion Wireless Remote.
Copyright © 2021 Arwin Palac Photography. All rights reserved. No part of this image may be used for any purpose. Therefore, reproduction, modification, re-transmission, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise is strictly prohibited without prior written permission of the owner.
