Kaib795 Loc: Maryland, USA

This time I brought my camera with me while my daughter is attending a tennis session at Frederick, Maryland's Baker Park. This is a pretty active park so timing shots so people weren't right in front of me was a bit tricky. Early shots are with plenty of light but I decided to shoot these as bracketed shots and use HDR software to combine "my picks" of the shot sets. So you have a greater ability to see into shadows with HDR combined shots (look at the tree detail in pic #4 left of the fountain). Pictures taken just as sunset started, then as light fell and lastly one shot of the fountain after sunset.

Taken with Nikon D7500, 35mm f1.8, some shots at f5.6 and the latter at f8, tripod and camera timer used.
Looks like a bad crop in picture 1 (top right), off to fix one more problem.

arrived as sun is setting

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caught some flare

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the sun appears in the fountain

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sun is dropping, sky turning pink

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sun is going, going ...

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sun has set

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dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

I like your very nice photos of the area. Well done. I understand that some don't like other people in their scenes. But I think that in this case having someone sitting on the bench, or strolling through the scene would have added more of a human interest point to the scene rather than having it being more of a scientific type of example of the scene. I know I am not phrasing that as I would like and offer my apologies.

Dennis

Cwilson341 Loc: Central Florida

It interesting to the difference in tone based on the lighting. Makes a big difference.

Kaib795 Loc: Maryland, USA

I do agree having someone sitting on the bench would have helped otherwise all I had were people walking right in front of me. The first day taking my daughter to tennis practice I hadn't brought my camera and low and behold there was a lady reading on that very bench all the time I was there and of course she didn't come back two days later. I used that day to scout around and try and find where to shoot from for a evening light. It was fun and challenging as all I had was my 35mm prime lens (equal to a 50mm film lens) so moving the tripod about was the deal.

dennis2146 Loc: Eastern Idaho

I understand perfectly. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

Dennis

Kaib795 Loc: Maryland, USA

Thanks Carol.

I try and tell folks that great shots are sometimes lucky but often that of patience and knowledge. If you look at the trees to the left of the fountain and see the shades that give depth to the picture, this is because the sun is falling giving those long shadows and layers of light in the trees. I see many wonderful shots taken at or near noon and the light ruins the capture but the actual shot would be wonderful ... in the right light. So unless you are creating the light, we have to work with the given light. Getting that detail in the shot is easy by taking bracketed shots of 5 and trashing the brightest and the shot that's just short of the darkest. This leaves me with a bright shot but not blown in the highlights, a balanced shot and a shot mainly for the sky so it's the darkest shot. I put anti ghosting on and make the balanced shot my master and process the three in HDR software. The lens isn't a expensive lens and does have more CA than I care for but most of it can be removed in any software now days. The last shot in darkness I took showing a lady how HDR works and how to take the shots. It ended up a pretty neat shot.

DickC Loc: NE Washington state

Good job, I like it!!

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Beautifully done ⭐⭐⭐

Kaib795 Loc: Maryland, USA

Thank you for you kind comments Joe.

Normally shooting in less light means dark shadows. First shooting in RAW we can take dark pictures and often bring back the shadow detail but using HDR you can combine pictures which gives a much better shadow area, often with no noise at all. I've taken some sunset shots and using HDR I'm able to shoot very dark sunsets and able to see all the detail on the ground (a farm picture with pond and ducks) though I do keep the ground dark ... as I saw it. Certainly you don't have to shoot this way as it requires a tripod to setup but often doing all this setting up makes us think more about the shot and to take the right shot (and to show up early to get the right light). I remember a time when my family was on vacation and I was taking a sunset shot that I thought was very good, packed up and started walking away only to look back and see that the shot improved so much that I ran back for the final and best shot of that event. Most folks are eating while I was waiting for the right light, standing and hoping for that perfect light. Most of the time it isn't there or it's there and no clouds so no shot. Then it happens and everything comes together. This is where the persistence factor is very evident. The bad shots become practice and then the great shot appears and you have that wonderful picture. I do hope that showing these shots and talking about technique will inspire others to wait it out and see the light change and find the shot they really want. The gift is to be able to capture exactly what you see (and Not be creative and fabricate a picture that wasn't there). Looking back at this shoot, I didn't even know I caught the sunset in the middle of the fountain but what a neat discovery working in Post Editing.