Monterey Bay Sunset

Posted by Don Smith (California, United States) on 23 August 2008 in Landscape & Rural.

The setting sun slips into a sea of Monterey Bay fog as seen from high atop the Gabilan Mountain Range in central California. This image was captured minutes prior to my last posting. For this image, I bracketed 9 frames at one-stop intervals (changing my shutter only) and combined each frame utilizing layer masks in Photoshop CS3. Photomatix Pro HDR software could not handle the subtleties in tone. Using layer masks and changing the opacity of the brush allows me to paint in and out localized sections of the image. I usually start with my highlight exposure (in this case the sun) and work backwards towards my shadows (the mountains) converting one RAW frame at a time. The key is to have a plan for each new frame you introduce; know what you want to accomplish and what section of the image you wish to work on. When the image composite was finished, I worked on maximizing contrast and color utilizing both a Hue/Saturation layer (isolating on one color at a time via the eyedropper tool) and Nik Viveza. This image took about an hour to complete, but I think the effort was worth it. If you are interested in learning more Photoshop techniques, I do offer private and group workshops, simply visit my website at http://www.donsmithphotography.com and click on the Workshop tab on my homepage.