In photography, there is often a lot said about the golden hour, including the fact that there are two of them. Like a lot of the rules of photography, you get some great results by paying attention, it is a fabulous time for natural light to infuse your photography.
Very nice, but my life often doesn’t work that way. I have to make do with the light I have at the time. As a result, I’m almost always thinking about lighting and working with what I have to make a nice photograph. Here is a nice bit of light I found and exploited:
To me, this photo is all about the soft glow of red and orange tones. Here is the scene as I originally saw and shot it:
When I was taking this photo, I wanted to get as much of the scene as possible, so that included sky and surrounding trees, even though I thought I might be cropping later. When I went to edit the photo, I added an orange tinted filter and also boosted the orange and red tones in the photo, their saturation and luminance.
As far as cropping went, I used another rule of photography, and that is the rule of thirds. Here is a screen shot with the rule of thirds grid applied to the photo as I was cropping:
What I was thinking was that the docked boats were the point of interest and most prominent part of the orange tones. It was the way the light was illuminating the interior of the boats that made me take a photo in the first place. I have placed them at one of the grid intersections. This size crop also allows for the curve of the bridge and the people on it to be standing in a spot where your eye is likely to rest. These are things that strengthen the composition of this image.
What do you think, do you like my interpretation of the light and the crop of this image? Your comments are welcome below.
Cheers!
I like all of it, Amy. Love to be sitting on the bank, sipping a coffee and enjoying the efforts of the punters* (* I’m sure that “punters” is wrong, “puntsmen” perhaps? LOL)
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Actually, if punters is wrong, it is widely used 🙂 Thanks for your comment.
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Thanks for posting your process, I do similar steps, good fun AFTER the shot.
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Yes, I agree, editing is a fun part of the process.
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Wonderful that you can apply your own golden hour through editing. Yes it definitely creates that warmth and very soft tones. A postcard image and the boats adding pretty interest.
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Yes, for those times when you can’t be there for the real golden hour, you can just fake it 🙂
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I do like your crop choice. I think it bolsters the warmth you created through light and color by reducing the expansiveness of the sky. I appreciate the explanation of your thinking as well!
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Yes, I thought the sky needed to be reduced as well, it wasn’t really adding anything.
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Nice! Thanks for sharing your thinking process. Very helpful.
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Thank you.
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A lovely edit, Amy. What a peaceful scene. 🙂
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Thank you very much 🙂
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Beautiful scene.
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Thanks, it was a lovely walk.
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I like what you did with the original photo. 🙂
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Thank you.
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I always love when you show us your grid thinking. Very cool! And, I could see in the original photo that the orange-ness of the boats semed a bit more jarring, so it made the final photograph more enjoyable, having the added orange tones. Nice!
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Thanks, the rule of thirds is one of those “rules” that I end up using a lot.
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So beautifully composed, Amy!
Wonder if you would like to join the 7 day BnW Challenge?
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Hi Amy, Thanks for asking and I apologize for taking this long to respond, I was out of town this past week. Right now I am feeling too busy to take on another blog project. Kind Regards, Amy
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I really like the way you edited the photo.
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Thank you very much!
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Pingback: Weekly Photo Challenge: Glow — Photography Journal Blog – Smriti Freelancer
Thanks for showing the process. 🙂
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Thanks, it’s helpful for me to keep notes like this, helps me to remember what I have tried 🙂
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Thanks for sharing your creative process. The addition of the orange-tinted filter has made the photograph even more beautiful.
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Thank you very much.
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I also like the edit and for some reason I really enjoyed seeing the grid over it – and as others noted – so peaceful
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That grid is really helpful I think.
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I think your crop adequately cuts out superfluous details and keeps in what is necessary.
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Thanks very much.
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I’m new to photography and this is helpful! I’d love your thoughts on some of my photography at mcgeetraveltales.com. Thank you and save travels!
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Thank you for your visit.
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I really like the photo! It’s really calm, and nice to look at with the warm colors 🙂
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Thank you very much.
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Informative post! 👍🏼
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Thanks!
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This is lovely!
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Thank you 🙂
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I will be grateful if you will help me showing my talent to the world
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