Upon Reflection

Thought I’d share this reflective photo from New Zealand with you today.

This derelict jetty can be found somewhere around half way along the road between Queenstown and Glenorchy.

Sonia and I were excited to stumble across it on a random “scenery stop”.

It’s always fun to “discover” something new that you weren’t expecting, even when you dig a little deeper later on and find that it’s quite a popular spot for photographers.

Anyway…

This shot is a rare one for me, in that I took it in the middle of the day!

Normally, I’d have taken a quick reference photo and come back later at sunset or sunrise, but the lake was so still, the clouds were so pretty and the reflections were insane, so I took the time to get a “proper” shot for the portfolio.

The thing I like most about it is how the stumps kinda look like they’re floating in mid-air thanks to a weird optical illusion. Especially when you zoom out and view it at thumbnail size.

But coming in a close second, is how it reminds me that there ARE decent shots to be had outside of the golden hours. Something I could probably remind myself of more often, so not to get stuck feeling restricted to the colourful times of day.

Thing is, even with what looks like a reasonably un-touched final image, it took quite a lot of work to get the RAW files looking this un-touched.

Believe it or not, it was blended from 3 exposures because the foreground was so dark and shadowy compared to the bright sky.

The most important thing I had to remember though, to ensure a realistic result, was this:

Resist making the reflections as bright as the sky they’re reflecting.

Or in other words, don’t “over-blend” the exposures by making everything the same brightness.

The sky was brighter than the foreground in the original exposure(s), therefore it should be brighter (even if only slightly) in the result.

Remember this whenever you’re blending exposures too, and you’ll be on the right track.

Or if you want to really master layers, masking and exposure blending…

Then click here now 🙂

Steve