I love the dramatic and luminous effects created by strong back lighting from the sun. Objects are rimmed with light and translucent leaves and flower petals seem to glow from within. However, such lighting almost always means that the sun will also be in the frame. This creates certain photographic challenges. One is the enormous dynamic range of light between the sun itself and the more shadowed portions of the scene. Another challenge is lens flare, which is only made worse by the use of graduated filters. For such scenes as this I take several exposures, bracketing for all the different light values in the scene. For this image three exposures were necessary. In my foreground exposure I even held my hand over the sun to block out flare. Later in the computer I carefully blended the three exposures together using layer masks, keeping only the properly exposed portion of each. In this way I am able to create a realistic photograph of a brilliant natural scene that would have been impossible to capture using more traditional techniques.
'Andy Phillips', lovemyblackcat, and 9 other people added this photo to their favorites.
Garrett Costanzo Photo 37 months ago | reply
Beautiful scene, with gorgeous light and colors.
mm767cap 37 months ago | reply
Love that light on the purples. Beautiful.
Jessica Frinkster 37 months ago | reply
Imo, manually blended is the only way to go. This is stunning. I love the flowers in the foreground and the clouds in the sky. Everything seems to balance out perfectly.
David Copley 37 months ago | reply
Wonderful image! Thank you for the beautiful image and the description of the process you have used - inspiring.
"Dawn" of Photography by Mel 36 months ago | reply
What a beautiful sun shot!!! I love that there is a whole range of colors, all in one great shot!
'Andy Phillips' 36 months ago | reply
That's a lovely shot! Wish it was mine!
Edi Eco 36 months ago | reply
Amazing!
Cifra Web Master 36 months ago | reply
The wonderful place!
Alper Design 36 months ago | reply
woah.. what a wellbalanced composition... instant Fave!
Bloomingshots 30 months ago | reply
Stunning colours!