The Chatter > Show Your Images

Tybee's Tower

(1/2) > >>

auroraskyeimages:
Nikon D700 – Nikkor – 24 – 70mm – at 70mm – f/8 – 0.6 sec – ISO 200

Savannah, GA is rich in history and with that history comes some amazing sights. I wanted to capture a piece from Savannah that was uniquely in tune with the area but also set it apart from the traditional images commonly seen of Savannah. With a little research I came upon Tybee Island and the Tybee Island Light. The original light house was constructed in 1736 by General James Oglethorpe, Governor of the 13th colony of GA. This image of the light station is the 4 reconstruction of that original house and sits 164 feet from its original site and 64 feet taller.

The final image of Tybee’s Tower was taken on the second trip to the island after scouting and taking a few frames the evening before. After reviewing the original images taken of the light station I put more thought into how I wanted the final composition to appear and set out the next evening at 7pm to set up for the final image. The sky this evening was filled with more color and drama than the previous and with the area scouted I wasted no time in composing the shot. I took a few readings with my Pentax digital spot meeter and proceeded to dial them into my camera manually. Shooting in full manual mode gave me total control on exposure and as I took a few test frames I was pleased with the results. I waited as the sun sunk lower on the horizon as a mass of large puffy purple clouds rolled in behind the light station. Again I metered the white base of the station exposing for the highlights as this was clearly my subject in this image. I was using a singh-ray gold and blue polarizer which enhanced the sky and textures of the image. I also had my white balance set to cloudy which added to the warmth of the gold and blue polarizers effect helping the clouds appear a bit more purple than to the naked eye. As the light began to fade the large Fresnel lens of the light house came to life and it was time to capture the final images I would choose from to create Tybee’s Tower. I continued to meeter the base of the tower taking a frame every few minutes, watching the clouds change shape and grow in mass behind the station. Then for a few moments as the sun began to slip behind the horizon and the clouds behind the house grew dark, there was a small funnel of pink and blue light swirling to the west of the house. I knew I had a picture and snapped off the final image that would become Tybee’s Tower.

 

When I returned to Michigan I began working the image in Lightroom. I knew I was going to work from just one RAW file but wanted to carry the details and control the tonal range through three specific areas of the image, the light station, the foreground grasses and the background sky. I processed the same image 3 time with emphasis on the key areas before importing them into photoshop where I lightly blended the three layers for a natural HDR effect. I then merged the three layers and then applied slight burn and dodge both to the lighthouse, foreground grasses and the highlighted portion of the sky. Once I was happy with the outcome I brought the image back into lightroom for some light clarity, subtle warming of the white balance, some more careful highlight control of the sky with the brush tool and a light vinette.

I was pleased with what I had been able to create from this shoot of the Tybee Island light station but as always there are subtleties I would have liked to correct. I did some angle adjustments to the lighthouse in lightroom but would have preferred to have made the correction with a 85mm PC-E lens in the field. All in all I think it came out quite well and am happy to add Tybee’s Tower  to the ASI Chromatic Collection.

Gavin Seim:
Well done. props for the planning and visualizing. IT always pays off.

auroraskyeimages:
I guess listening to your rants is paying off!

Gavin Seim:
Perhaps. But in truth it's careful planning and taking a scene seriously as would a painter that really pays off ;)

auroraskyeimages:
Just glad to be here! :headband: thanks for putting this on.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page