Sunset at Mendocino Headlands

Posted by Don Smith (California, United States) on 16 June 2008 in Landscape & Rural.

This is one of those images that I envisioned in my mind's eye an hour before I made it. I had scouted this location earlier in the day and spotted these wildflowers (actually my friend did) in various stages of bloom (if anyone can help me identify these wildflowers I would appreciate it). I was not quite sure where the sun would be setting but knew it would be in some general line to the flowers. The wind had been gusting at over 30 miles-per-hour earlier in the day and had calmed to perhaps 15-20mph by sunset. I had not only the wind to deal with but because of the vertical framing, I needed as much depth-of-field as I could get. Knowing the illumination would be low at sunset, I opted to shoot two separate frames and combine them later in Photoshop. The first was shot 12 minutes prior to sunset at f/13 at 1/200th of a second at 1600 ISO with my Canon 1DsMKIII. I had to shade the top of the frame with my hand to eliminate flare, thus I had a silhoutte of my hand in the top 1/3 of the frame. The key concern with this frame was to get the proper depth-of-field for the flowers and to freeze them with the strong wind. The second shot was captured as the sun kissed the headlands using a combination of a +3 and +5 Singh Ray split neutral density filters stacked (and handheld) at f/5. At the time I was trying to pull the shot off in one frame (nearly impossible as I look back now), but the lack of depth-of-field yielded too much softness in the flowers. I combined the two images using 4 separate blends with masks in Photoshop to produce my original vision. I ran the finished image through Noise Ninja software, though there wasn't that much noise to filter. Canon's latest line of comaeras have a custom function which allows you to filter high ISO noise in-camera. For it to work in post processing, you must use their software. To see more of my landscape images and to learn how you can join me at a Mendocino woekshop next June, please visit my website at http://www.donsmithphotography.com

Comments (15)

bruno from les Ollières, France

Really nice shot.

16 Jun 2008 5:24am

Ana Lúcia from Leiria, Portugal

I’m speechless, just beautiful.

16 Jun 2008 8:22am

Hoshisato from Ealing, United Kingdom

Very beautiful and thanks for the very detailed description of the way you took this photo; it really helps me to learn.

16 Jun 2008 8:25am

Stéphane from Near to BXL, Belgium

Beautiful picture. Great to read how you use your skills to translate your ideas to picture. May be there is not a lot emphasis on it but I noticed that the starting poitn of this story was your vision in your mid. This should remember us that prior to great pictures there must fist be great ideas. If I understand correctly you captured the flowers at f/13 to have enough dof and the backgound at f/5 to have a soft backgound. I suppose that you keeped the focus on the flowers for the f/5 picture. The end of the flower seems to come from the f/5 picture to assure a soft transition, is this correct ? Are you also using the canon DPP noise reduction when converting the RAW file into tiff ? (I use it quite often but nearly only for chromatic noise and mostly limited to option "medium").

16 Jun 2008 10:29am

Don Smith from California, United States

Good morning bruno, Ana, Hoshisato and Stephane,

Once again thank you for all your nice comments. Hoshisato, where is Ealing? My wife grew up in Ottley near Leeds in Yorkshire.

Stephane, thanks again for your great questions my friend! I have not yet used Canon's DPP but plan on testing it this week to take advantage of the high ISO noise reduction (as I'm sure you are aware, it does not work with third-party converters such as ACR). Would love to hear what you have to say about it. For now, my files are processed through Noise Ninja software. You are correct that the flowers were captured at f/13 when the illumination was brighter to gain adequate dof. The headlands and setting sun frame was at f/5 only because I was hoping to capture the image in one try (silly on my behalf) but it ended up working well for my second frame. In retrospect, I should have bracketed. The end of the flowers is still from the f/13 frame. The blend begins with the dirt just past the flowers. The wind was blowing hard making it impossible for me to blend the flowers; there was simply no way to keep them properly registered. When making blends, I find it easier to work with extremely soft-edge brushes, then I simply play with the opacity on the blends (ususally starting at 30%). Lastly you are correct that I envisioned the finished image in my mind an hour before I photographed it. I do this quite often; however, because I am in nature, and it is a fluid experience, things do not always go as planned. Quite often I am reacting to changes on the fly. To me, this is part of the excitement - part of the game! I tell my shooting companion Mike that this all comes with experience. I have found over the past 30 years that my greatest learning experiences come from the situations that don't work as oppossed to the ones that do.

16 Jun 2008 1:46pm

HoMo from Tehran, Iran

realy is nice - good luck

16 Jun 2008 2:28pm

Marion from Nanaimo, BC, Canada

Beautiful. Thanks for all of the wonderful lessons Don. It is nice to learn from an expert.

16 Jun 2008 4:41pm

lidia from Barcelona, Spain

really fantastic.

16 Jun 2008 5:25pm

Don Smith from California, United States

Thanks HoMo, Marion and lidia. I enjoy sharing my techniques for creating many of my images. Thanks for the input.

16 Jun 2008 5:40pm

Observing from Chester, United Kingdom

Fabulous image. The colors and backlight highlights are great.

16 Jun 2008 8:18pm

Don Smith from California, United States

Thanks Observing.

17 Jun 2008 2:55pm

shahab from Qazvin, Iran

Beautiful capture!It was really a great idea to emphasize the flowers in foreground(taking 2 pictures & combining them)!They look really beautiful specially through the magic lighting of sun set.
Thanks for your fast response to my questions.I appreciate the time you dedicate to replying the comments!It was really useful to me.And the Galen Rowell`s works was really fascinating!
Thanks for everything!

17 Jun 2008 9:54pm

Don Smith from California, United States

Hi shahab,

Thanks for your interest in my work. I'd have to say that besides Ansel Adams, Galen Rowell has been perhaps the most influential photographer for me as far as the respect I have for his work. His style has shaped much of my vision. Unfortunately, he and his wife passed away 5 years ago in a plane crash 2 miles from his gallery in Bishop, California. His gallery, Mountain Light, is still in business and much of his work is still sold. It is a very inspirational place.

18 Jun 2008 2:27pm