Just another boring sunrise

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Brian L

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Sunrise yesterday, French Creek Harbour, Vancouver Island.

These days my 24-70mm 2.8 often stays home in favor of my more versatile and lighter 24-120mm f4. But yesterday, I already had it attached to the camera from some earlier shots, so it came with me for the short drive from our home to French Creek, my favorite working commercial and sports harbour. I took a whole bunch of shots from blue hour to sunrise, including a few panos and HDRs.

These are two of my favorites from a cold, mostly clear morning. The first is a pre-dawn pano and the second is an HDR as the sun peeked over the harbour.

I remembered why I love this lens.

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I’d take that “boring” sunrise any morning. I am impressed with the sun star you managed to capture with the zoom lens, I normally have to use Voightlander to achieve something that defined.
 
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Wallie said:
I’d take that “boring” sunrise any morning. I am impressed with the sun star you managed to capture with the zoom lens, I normally have to use Voightlander to achieve something that defined.
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Thank you. I’ve managed to get sunstars with both my 24-70mm 2.8 and my 24-120mm f4 when I stop down to f16 or so and keep the lens zoomed out (say 24-30mm). The issue is controlling lens flare but in this case I didn’t notice any.
 
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Hooligans Imagery said:
How did you do the HDR? Great shots.
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Thank you. HDR is pretty simple on the Z8. I have HDR mode on my i menu so when I have high contrast scenes like sunrise or sunset, I simply open it on the i menu, the choose a three shot HDR, usually with a 2 stop variance between stops, from under to over. Then I get the base exposure centred using my exposure bar in camera and the histogram, set a 2 sec timer and hit the shutter. The camera shoots the HDR group and I’m done. Also, I try to do a single black exposure - hand over lens - before and after to remind me of the HDR bracket when processing.

Once I’ve got the shots in LR, I highlight all three, right click on the mouse and select HDR. Lightroom does the rest, creating an HDR DNG image. That shot has virtually no noise. Then I do my standard processing, typically lifting the shadows and dropping the highlights to taste.

if I made this sound complicated …….. it isn’t. It’s actually quite simple. The trickiest part is the processing, if I lift the shadows or up the exposure too much, the image will quickly look unnatural, much brighter and saturated than the actual scene.
 
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tomfranic said:
I was just sold 180-600mm and will buy 24-70mm 2.8. Miss only that range and to fill holly trinity. Can't wait. Beautiful photos 👌🏻🥂
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It’s a great lens, have fun with it. Like I said, I also have the 24-120mm f4. It’s actually more versatile and lighter but obviously less one stop of light gathering. But the 24-70mm 2.8 is a very special lens, one of Nikons best.
 
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Brian L said:
Thank you. HDR is pretty simple on the Z8. I have HDR mode on my i menu so when I have high contrast scenes like sunrise or sunset, I simply open it on the i menu, the choose a three shot HDR, usually with a 2 stop variance between stops, from under to over. Then I get the base exposure centred using my exposure bar in camera and the histogram, set a 2 sec timer and hit the shutter. The camera shoots the HDR group and I’m done. Also, I try to do a single black exposure - hand over lens - before and after to remind me of the HDR bracket when processing.

Once I’ve got the shots in LR, I highlight all three, right click on the mouse and select HDR. Lightroom does the rest, creating an HDR DNG image. Then I do my standard processing, typically lifting the shadows and dropping the highlights to taste.

if I made this sound complicated …….. it isn’t. It’s actually quite simple.
Click to expand...
Got it. I was wondering if you used in camera HDR. So when you say HDR mode do you mean bracketing. Because the camera will do HDR and combine the images.
 
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Brian L said:
Sunrise yesterday, French Creek Harbour, Vancouver Island.

These days my 24-70mm 2.8 often stays home in favor of my more versatile and lighter 24-120mm f4. But yesterday, I already had it attached to the camera from some earlier shots, so it came with me for the short drive from our home to French Creek, my favorite working commercial and sports harbour. I took a whole bunch of shots from blue hour to sunrise, including a few panos and HDRs.

These are two of my favorites from a cold, mostly clear morning. The first is a pre-dawn pano and the second is an HDR as the sun peeked over the harbour.

I remembered why I love this lens.

View attachment 98467View attachment 98468
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Looks like a nice place to be bored. 😊
 
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PhilG said:
Looks like a nice place to be bored. 😊
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For sure. One of my very favorite spots for sunrises, sunsets and harbour critters, from seals to gulls to herons. The same day I shot these, I heard a kingfisher chittering, so switched out to my 600mm 6.3 pf and started tracking it by its chitter. It was patrolling its territory in the harbour but I couldn’t get close enough and it didn’t get low enough for a decent shot.

thats my challenge for next time 😉
 
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Hooligans Imagery said:
Got it. I was wondering if you used in camera HDR. So when you say HDR mode do you mean bracketing. Because the camera will do HDR and combine the images.
Click to expand...
Yes, it’s bracketing, so I end up with three raw shots to combine in Lightroom. I haven asked the camera to do the combined image. I should have properly described it as Exposure Bracketing instead of HDR mode. That’s just how I think of it.
 
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Brian L said:
It’s a great lens, have fun with it. Like I said, I also have the 24-120mm f4. It’s actually more versatile and lighter but obviously less one stop of light gathering. But the 24-70mm 2.8 is a very special lens, one of Nikons best.
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Agree. I need that extra light bcs I mainly work indor sports and events. My 70-200mm 2.8 is my work horse. With weight I still yet don't have a problem 😊👌🏻Thank You.
 
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Brian L said:
Yes, it’s bracketing, so I end up with three raw shots to combine in Lightroom. I haven asked the camera to do the combined image. I should have properly described it as Exposure Bracketing instead of HDR mode. That’s just how I think of it.
Click to expand...
FWIW I have tried in camera HDR in the past, usually just setting the camera down on something, and for an image that you just want to share on social or in a family album it does a pretty decent job. I know others don’t like Snapbridge but it works fine for me once set up to Auto Link. Thanks for clarifying. Great job with the images.
 
Member's gallery
Brian L said:
Sunrise yesterday, French Creek Harbour, Vancouver Island.

These days my 24-70mm 2.8 often stays home in favor of my more versatile and lighter 24-120mm f4. But yesterday, I already had it attached to the camera from some earlier shots, so it came with me for the short drive from our home to French Creek, my favorite working commercial and sports harbour. I took a whole bunch of shots from blue hour to sunrise, including a few panos and HDRs.

These are two of my favorites from a cold, mostly clear morning. The first is a pre-dawn pano and the second is an HDR as the sun peeked over the harbour.

I remembered why I love this lens.

View attachment 98467View attachment 98468
Click to expand...
Fabulous photo! That sunburst is stunning!
 
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