Pantai Sri Tujuh, Tumpat, Kelantan

one of the stop of my previous visit to East Coast for details click here

never been a place so beautiful before, saw a clear Milky way while I reach … and it is like total mirror when the light is out … nothing I want to capture except try to show the beautiful and perfect reflection (someone is walking in the river …so actually not so calm while I shoot this)

even I only spent ~2hours there… I would rate this one of the best Landscape Photography spot for Malaysia .. the calm sea water with perfect reflection with angle toward ~135 degree south toward North west …. can do perfect fisherman life shooting, sunrise, salt water reflection …. I am sure I will be there again very soon ……….

milky through nake eye

... another milky way ...

– was using black card method/finger to shoot this where share it here

and the beautiful of the reflection

... the mirror ...

and will share more Kelantan pictures here

How I correct WB

Even I trust my 5d very much where I could say the AWB (Auto White Balance) accuracy is much better than what other body I use before … but in certain light condition, filter effect, and to have much perfect WB… I still correct my WB using 2 method below

*** before I start, I only shoot raw so these methods only apply with RAW and Photoshop , lightroom … (other software should be same concept but different interface)

A. look for white point

1at some case, I do not have time to shoot 2 picture (1 with grey card and the other without) .. then I will try my best to look for white spot in the picture

Blue cast due to filter

 

2. click on the WB tool on top

WB Tool button

 

3. simply use the pen point to the white point

WB after simple correction

the color seem more normal but still need little more work to bring back original e.g. contrast, saturation, ….

sample of coversion

simple white WB correction

 

B. Grey card, look for grey

I prefer this method where this can be useful to correct WB and even correct most of the color cast … but this need shoot additional picture with the grey card or sypder cube (come with white, grey and total dark)

picture with the sypder cube

2. use the same WB tool as A2 above, but this time point to the Grey card or gray part of the spyder cube

– remember the temperature and tint value to apply on the actual picture

where to point and remember

3. the correction

final WB

.. again, due to the blue cast…. we need little more work to bring back the other colors .. e.g. contrast, saturation …..

 

do drop me a message if any part of this not clear ….

*** again the final output still need further tune up due to the bad blue cast …

 

Exposures Blending

While we shoot landscape, to get right exposures for both foreground and background (sky) .. it is just not too simple … as discussed previously , we can either

1. GND filter

2. black card method

3. HDR

4. Exposures blending (where we will discuss here)

 

e.g. of 2 pictures

exposures blending1
exposures blending2

– normally we refer same sky but just different exposures but for this example … I got same position but the cloud actually cover the Starry sky

– how I do Exposures Blending

i. normally I will shoot one foreground 1st with right iso, exposure and sometime with light painting

ii. continue shooting the sky or background

iii. use software masking or blending both picture together

Manual masking - exposures blending

***for how I mask the 2 pictures click old link here

another test used Photomatix “Exposures Fusion” option

Photomatix Blending

 

*** not much editing done on the post blending picture