Early Morning Copper Waters Photo

Photographer’s Note

This is an early morning view shot north east over the Man O’War Jetty, and the copper waters of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), towards Fort Denison. I was down in the CBD early and decided to do some shooting around the Opera House during the sunrise. I hadn’t considered this shot initially but I liked the colours seen here. I didn’t have my tripod, so made use of the steps of the Opera House.

Workflow was as follows:
Shot taken in Raw with JPG reference – (ISO 400 27mm @f4.0, 1/15)
NEF files adjusted for exposure, shadow, vignetting, brightness and contrast
After some trial and error the brightness was actually inflated higher than normal to throw more light on Fort Denison and the sky.
Levels – not used
Curves – S-curve for contrast
Added saturation layer +20 to master
Duplicated background layer, changed this to a multiply blend, set to 25% opacity but masked back on Fort Denison and the sky, to leave it light.
Saved as a tiff
Cropped (to block out light masts in the original), resized, selected on sky and inversed the selection, added a layer for sharpening with USM, modified sharpening with a layer mask, mostly on the water (70% opacity black brush), framed and saved for web.

mvdisco, mariandrea, daddo, siolaw, macondo, kschanna, bakes888, skippy007, jhm, zeca, jusninasirun has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

mvdisco (11669) 2008-04-16 19:39

Hi John,
Beautiful Nocturne picture, lovely composition and very sharp picture, Excellent POV. I love the sunrise in the morning on BG. lovely détails and note ,
well done.
Michel

mariandrea (973) 2008-04-16 20:15

Hi Jhon, great work! and thanxs for all the details of the techniques you used. Nice picture, i like the light and details of the deck, good composition and good colours, Chau chau,

Maria

daddo (11569) 2008-04-16 20:21

Hi John. A lot of work, but the end result is deserving of praise. Beautiful colours, still retaining their night spirit. The braking dawn is registered nicely- there but still somewhat impotent in an overall dark veil.Excellent result. Regards. Klaudio.

siolaw (25838) 2008-04-16 23:47

Hi John,
An interesting compo with just a bit of this early morning orange sky giving a copper hue to the waters.
The focus on the jety works well and progressively blurred the BG..
Greetings
Laurent

macondo (13275) 2008-04-17 6:21

Hi John.
You did a good job of this, making a good exposure and then cropping and framing it very effectively. The dawn sky looks great. Perhaps there's a little too much empty water in the middle of the shot, but you can't always have a boat appear when you want it. The work flow looks mighty complicated, but worth the result.
Regards,
Andrew

lousat (16194) 2008-04-17 17:09

Hi John,i like a lot this category of pics,very nice colours and light and excellent moment to take,my best compliments,luciano

kschanna (6) 2008-04-19 2:04

Hello John,

You rightly chose raw to preserve the sharpness. The colors are brilliant and the composition is perfectly balanced. There is just so much to see in the shot unlike a regular dusk shot.

Regards
Kamran

MLINES (10998) 2008-04-20 21:03

Hi John, A most original composition and well timed for this low light. I like the cropping with just a sliver of coloured sky. TFS. Murray.

bakes888 (18353) 2008-04-21 2:19

Hi John. Well timed shot. I love the warm colours captured in this shot. The softer texture of the water contrasts well with the sharp and angular forms of the pier. Well processed and thanks for sharing.
Cheers, Paul.

pablominto (41458) 2008-04-21 2:27

Hello John,
I agree, the light is often most interesting as it changes to night or to day!
The atmosphere is well recorded as the sun is advertising its arrival over the horizon...
A pleasant composition with good foreground interest!
Greetings,
Pablo -

skippy007 (7361) 2008-04-21 3:17

Hello John,
Beautiful night- sunrise-, shot, Excellent detail & light especially on the pier. NO tripod, well done. Your workflow information is very helpful.
Thanks
Santo

bracasha75 (22431) 2008-04-22 22:59

Hi John
I pray everyday to became a chance to visit this amaizing country and thank you for this excellent image who make my will harder for Australia visiting.
Cheers,Braca

jhm (83446) 2008-04-23 3:01

Hello John,

You play very nice with light and shadows, this care for a very well composition.
Nice sky together the extraordinarily light, also the light in foreground care for good ambiance.
Very well done, thanks for sharing.

Best regards,
John.

zeca (20026) 2008-04-23 19:38

Nice photo, with good exposition, very well balanced.
Regards,
Zeca

jusninasirun (10213) 2008-04-26 3:45

Hello John. You are up early and this is just one golden sky you captured here. The glow on the jetty is brilliant as foreground subject against the ripples on the surface and distant horizon. Thanks for sharing and best regards. Jusni