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Morning Watercolors
Morning Watercolors
giantmike


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Pastels II (Advanced Editing VII*)
Camera: Canon EOS-50D
Lens: Canon EF-S 15-85mm IS USM
Location: Madison, WI
Date: Jul 30, 2011
Aperture: 7.1
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/80 - 1/20
Galleries: Urban, High Dynamic Range (HDR)
Date Uploaded: Jul 30, 2011

 For the second straight challenge, I'm entering something completely different that what I expected when the challenge was announced. This time around I figured I could find some colorful chairs, pots, or other semi-artwork here in Madison that would fit the theme well.

But then, Saturday morning happened. I was hoping to get up early enough to make it to Lake Monona to watch the sunset. Without an alarm I woke up around 5am and quickly drove over to the lake and setup to take some shots while the sun was rising. I eventually landed on this spot that gave a nice view of downtown while the sun was just starting to peak out (the bright red is a reflection of the sun). At this time the lighting changed dramatically. By bracketing some exposures I knew I could get something with decent reflections via an HDR blend.

But I wasn't expecting the colors to blend exactly in this way. The sky did have this light pink tint, but the HDR conversion helped make that the dominant color, and I knew my Pastel entry was born.

Post Processing:
* De-vignette
* Chromatic Aberration
* Combine photos in Nik HDR Efex Pro
* Increase exposure and recovery
* Topaz DeNoise
* Increase exposure and recovery further
* Increase black point
* Decrease contrast
* Increase definition
* Increase saturation with lower vibrancy
* Export as TIFF
* Resize
* Sharpen Edges
* Save as JPEG

Statistics
Place: 14 out of 160
Avg (all users): 6.4931
Avg (commenters): 7.7500
Avg (participants): 6.1613
Avg (non-participants): 6.7439
Views since voting: 914
Views during voting: 238
Votes: 144
Comments: 6
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
 Comments Made During the Challenge
08/09/2011 04:22:01 PM
Lovely color... I'd crop out about half the foreground to make a panoramic print and avoid cutting the photo in half with the water line at bottom of buildings. Good focus!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/07/2011 08:31:36 AM
Great detail and nice reflections.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/06/2011 10:43:43 AM
Lovely scene, the pink hues are calming.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/04/2011 06:33:33 PM
Lovely subtlety. Beautiful photo.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/03/2011 07:41:51 AM
I love this shot and the soft colors. The vignetting in the corners takes away some of the perfection though. Still I'm giving it a 9.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 08/03/2011 12:21:10 AM
beautiful.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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