Second Sunrise – Light Stalking

This topic has 5 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 5d, 10h ago by bucweeet.

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- April 3, 2026 at 3:52 pm #547970
  LightandShadow
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  @lightandshadow
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  May, 2009, Canon 20D. Version 2 (or so) Lightroom processed at that time. Outer Banks, North Carolina atop 20 foot tall dune. Do you think it overcooked? Foreground too bright? All feedback welcomed.
- April 4, 2026 at 4:27 pm #548008
  bucweeet
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  @paul-3
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  I don’t think it’s overcooked @lightandshadow The image itself is nice.
  
  Not sure how you got the saturation in the sky, but… if it was using a ‘gradient’ brought down from the top, I might be tempted to bring it down so it covers the water…
  
  And as you allude to… bring down the exposure on the foreground.
  
  This is a very quick edit to provide an idea of what I’m referring to.
- April 4, 2026 at 5:08 pm #548011
  Robert Apple
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  Nope I don’t think it’s over cooked, my filter is does it look like something I would see with the “naked eye”, and yes it does, I got no improvements.
- April 7, 2026 at 8:03 pm #548111
  Rob Wood (Admin)
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  Looks good to me. Maybe the gradient to the right is a little dark, but that is a small criticism that I wouldn’t worry about. Good foreground. I like it.
- April 9, 2026 at 9:30 am #548197
  LightandShadow
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  Thanks for the feedback, @paul-3 @robertapple @admin-2. Sorry for the delay. I wanted to give plenty of time for comment and critique before responding.
  
  Paul, I nearly always used an ND grad on camera for my sunrise beach images. I have gone through the originals. The steps in processing aren’t there (didn’t migrate all the information from one computer to the other). I am quite sure, though, that I added an ND grad effect in Lightroom along with other exposure adjustments. Most of my beach pictures also resulted in making the Carolina beach’s sand lighter color than it actually is.
  
  I do like revisiting these old photos. In some respects, I don’t see a lot of progress in my skill, but it also makes me nostalgic for places that I haven’t visited in many years. On the rare occasion people ask me to do public talks about my photography, I highlight revisiting as one of the creative acts. It’s not just “oh, I remember that” but a journey of imagination.
  - April 9, 2026 at 9:23 pm #548212
    bucweeet
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    Totally agree with the enjoyment of revisiting the old images. Usually I find some of the images ‘tell me a different story’ than the original version. So when I do attempt another edit, I will push and pull the sliders to see what happens in the image. Quite often the result is a different image, sometimes there are only minor modifications.
    
    Either way… I always find joy in doing it. @lightandshadow
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