Dreaming of Hawaii

[sdommin]

I "rediscovered" this photo today while looking for examples of long exposures for the G-Series Forum. It was taken in June of 2003 with a Canon G3, using the built-in neutral density filter, and the exposure came to 1 sec. at f8. It's a photo of the Na Pali coastline on Kauai. I never really gave this picture much thought when I first started weeding out photos for my Hawaii trip gallery, because it was too dark. Now that my post-processing skills are a little better, I could save this picture and enjoy it now that we're in the dead of winter here in the northeastern U.S.

http://home.att.net/~sdommin/napali1.jpg

[whereismykit]

What a horrible person you are. Now I'm dreaming of Hawaii.

Great photo

[Rendezvous]

Damn.

[Steve Parr]

You mention it was too dark. What time of day (or night) did you shoot it?

Steve

[Michaelmjc]

Great shot, and again the frame adds the finishing touch.

Mike

[berto]

i love the picture. great shot and great post processing

[rssfhs]

I love the Na Pali coast! Excellent shot!

[sparker1]

Beautiful picture, glad you found it again.

[TammieO]

Love the picture. Now I'm homesick. Gotta go call my mommy.

[zach]

I love the Na Pali coast!

Most beautiful coast I've ever seen!

Wonderful shot!

[Steve Parr]

Can you say "wallpaper"?

See? I thought you could...

Steve

[sdommin]

You mention it was too dark. What time of day (or night) did you shoot it?

Thanks everyone for your kind comments!

Steve, this was taken just a few minutes before sunset, but what I meant was that the exposure itself was too dark. I was on manual settings and I was trying to find the proper exposure settings.

[Youngster]

One of the best pictures that I've seen for a good while - Honestly. I absolutely love it!

[amitnike]

m wanting to go thr so bad now.......... awesome pic dude

[wonton]

I checked out your website and was looking at the Hawaii collection. They are really good. I went to almost all the same places you went to. How did you get the colors so nice? Did you use any filters? I know you said you used the built in one for the example you posted, but what about the others?

[John Trogdon]

That is a beautiful shot. Congratulations!

[Reigh Higgins]

Very nice! So restfull.

[HJMinard]

Wow ... beautiful shot! Note to self ... experiment with long exposures ...

[cocodel1st]

Guess I will have to take the invention of my brother-in-law to get out there. Nice Shot. Love the long exposure, makes the shot show action but yet it looks so peaceful.

[lomond]

That's just a great shot.
I like the composition and you've managed to retrieve some fine detail from the shadows.
It's worth looking back at some old shots now and then.
In this case well worth it.

[Littlenose]

WOW.... now i want to go back aswell !

[kiwigirl42]

Excellent shot, wow, absolutely stunning

[sdommin]

I checked out your website and was looking at the Hawaii collection. They are really good. I went to almost all the same places you went to. How did you get the colors so nice? Did you use any filters? I know you said you used the built in one for the example you posted, but what about the others?

Thanks, Wonton. Other than the built-in neutral density filter on the G3, no other filters were used. I'm sort of the "anti-filter" guy on these forums.

[stoneylonesome]

Just plain Beautiful Scott, It's what I like to classify as postcard quality.

[wonton]

Thanks, Wonton. Other than the built-in neutral density filter on the G3, no other filters were used. I'm sort of the "anti-filter" guy on these forums.

I am so jealous. Those are so much better than mine. I went in 2003 and only had a point and shoot at the time (Sony Cybershot). I just recently got more serious with photography. Been taking some classes and doing some research. I plan on getting the new Rebel XT. I hope my next vacation pictures turn out half as good!

[MauiTiki]

Beautiful shot . . . but then again I love all your photos

[marie]

really lovely
the smooth swirls of water make it seem like a painting of a dream scene

as you mention it was a darker photograph originally and the colour effect here is so different to what is maybe 'normal' I wondered is that particular aspect of the picture all down to photoshop

[JMAS]

I saw this photo last night and when Iwas going to reply my #$% computer broke down...
Glad I found it today.
Wonderful image. The 1sec at f8 gave the silky look that makes the photo, but those colors are also dead on.

[G3Hawaii]

Great shot. Hawaii provides so many opportunities for beautiful shots.

[walkien]

Beautiful picture, and I also love all the pictures in your website. Can you please share some of your photoshop technique with us? Please....Please... Please...

[TSEE]

That picture looks like a postcard I'd buy, its fantastic....so dream like. Very nice! Making me want to visit Hawaii myself!

[sdommin]

Thanks again everybody. It looks like all of you are as tired of winter as I am! I've been traveling around, so I haven't been able to post for awhile.

Beautiful picture, and I also love all the pictures in your website. Can you please share some of your photoshop technique with us? Please....Please... Please...

Shhh... Don't tell anybody, but i don't use PhotoShop. Actually, I have it, but I primarily use Corel PhotoPaint (I know, I know - same thing!). What would you like to know?

[walkien]

beside USM, did you use Corel Photopaint to adjust the color, highlights and shadows or something else you did? Because all of your pictures have the perfect lighting.

[stoneylonesome]

Thanks again everybody. It looks like all of you are as tired of winter as I am! I've been traveling around, so I haven't been able to post for awhile.



Shhh... Don't tell anybody, but i don't use PhotoShop. Actually, I have it, but I primarily use Corel PhotoPaint (I know, I know - same thing!). What would you like to know?

Actually now that Corel bought out Jasc it's probably closer to Paint Shop Pro9 :lol: :lol: :lol: all great progarms.

[sdommin]

beside USM, did you use Corel Photopaint to adjust the color, highlights and shadows or something else you did?

Here's what I did on this picture (I'm writing this from memory, so it might not be 100% accurate, but you'll get the idea).

This is the picture as it came from the camera (resized only). You can see its much too dark, and I didn't give it a second thought until recently.

http://home.att.net/~sdommin/napali2.jpg

I tried "auto equalize" in PhotoPaint, and this is what I got..

http://home.att.net/~sdommin/napali3.jpg

The horizon was tilted somewhat, so I rotated the image 1.3 degrees clockwise, then cropped the "wasted" parts of the edges caused by the cropping...

http://home.att.net/~sdommin/napali4.jpg

Notice the mountainside in the upper left - its much too dark. I created another layer, then increased the gamma of the layer from 1.0 to 2.1. It made the mountainside have detail, but the rest of the picture is now too bright...

http://home.att.net/~sdommin/napali5.jpg

I "erased" all of the upper (bright) layer except for the mountainside using the transparency brush, then I combined the 2 layers. I also used the clone tool to get rid of the distracting rock in the lower left...

http://home.att.net/~sdommin/napali6.jpg

Finally, I gave it a shot of intensity gain, and a bit of contrast adjustment. Very subtle, you don't want to overdo it...

http://home.att.net/~sdommin/napali7.jpg

I sharpened it with "adaptive unsharp mask", added a frame, and there you go.

http://home.att.net/~sdommin/napali8.jpg

[Wazza]

Excellent shot,and nice walk-through of how to edit a similar sort of image. :)

[walkien]

Scott,

Thank you for the tutorial, learn something new today.