P#18: A Surreal Sunrise Image

The Magic Light

Tony Sweet: This sunrise image shot was taken locally. This is an often-photographed area. Just look at how beautiful it is. We go here a lot at sunrise.

This probably could have been pretty closely approximated using a hard edge neutral density filter, like a Singh Ray neutral density, where it's three stops darker on top than it is on the bottom. You could hold back the sky and show the foreground. But the good thing about the HDR, in this case, is that you're able to retain some color in the trees because they aren't truly black. (click the image for a larger version)

I brought some of the dramatic coloring out in the software. The green line in the pasture back there also would be quite as nice with a filter like that. It also balances out the light between the reflection and the sky.

It was a very good day to be out there.

Audri Lanford: You had mentioned that it's really good to shoot at those magical times. Both of these first two images were taken during such times.

Tony Sweet: Absolutely, yes they were. They were both shot at "magical" times. One was shot at the very last light of day, and the second one, the sunrise image, was shot at dawn, which is the very first light of day. These are at marginal times of day which are wonderful for shooting HDR photography.

In Closing

You've heard the saying, "Timing is everything." According to Tony Sweet, the best time to shoot HDR photography is often the first light of day or the last light of day -- or what Tony likes to refer to as the "magic light" periods. The breaking light of dawn is what allowed Tony to capture and create such an amazing sunrise image.