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hougaard — Heaven

Published: 2008-08-14 10:47:56 +0000 UTC; Views: 39331; Favourites: 1430; Downloads: 0
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Description This is a panorama of 2 shots. It had to be square crop due to limits of the composition in the area, and cropping one shot didn't give me the angle I wanted. The sky was amazing and I wanted to show a lot of sky and a lot of the grass, while not shooting from a too low angle because then the lit fringes of the grass would get too 'flat' in the photo if you know what I mean....The lower you shoot, the more immediate foreground you get and less of the more distant foreground.

I blended 3 different exposures in each photo, one for the grass, one for the highlight around the sun and the last for the darker part of the sky. Except for the blended exposures, not much processing. The color on the RAW images was already amazing.

Western Cape, South Africa
Sigma 10-20mm
Lee 0.9 hard grad

I know the lighting looks surreal, I know the grad line is visible. If you have advice on improving it, feel free to shoot.

I honestly don't want a comment on rule of thirds, I always compose 3rds where it works the best, if it doesn't then I won't. Respect the artist's opinion and skill on the composition of his art. It's really irritating and infuriating if you went to a mountain of effort and you produced, to the best of your abilities, what you consider to be one of your best images, and everyone just bitches and moans about things like rule of 3rds. It should actually be the 'handy tip of 3rds', it's not a rule, some people consider it a law punishable by death if betrayed.

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Comments: 242

oceaniclove [2011-11-06 19:37:44 +0000 UTC]

Beautiful!

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flanggan [2011-11-05 01:26:07 +0000 UTC]

heaven it is...with your eyes and creativity, highlighting/blending/cropping is an instrument towards VISION! great!

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indianagem25 [2011-10-09 22:20:40 +0000 UTC]

Wondrous!

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hougaard In reply to indianagem25 [2011-10-10 06:23:16 +0000 UTC]

Thank you

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Leeloominai08 [2010-08-20 09:10:12 +0000 UTC]

absolutely awesome!!!

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Poetic-Aesthetic [2010-08-06 16:35:40 +0000 UTC]

Landscapes are not usually my thing but I love this.

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Schroe03 [2010-07-14 20:09:25 +0000 UTC]

Featured in [link] - COLOR

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xp-karan [2010-03-26 07:39:53 +0000 UTC]

Cool

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aQayed [2009-11-09 21:57:10 +0000 UTC]

Thats about the most beautiful colors ive seen with a very nice landscape. I love it.

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Puppykit [2009-06-07 11:29:50 +0000 UTC]

amazinnnggg

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burning-breeze [2009-05-09 20:08:27 +0000 UTC]

awesome!

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DagHagerius [2009-03-27 12:09:33 +0000 UTC]

Who gives a fuck bout rule of thirds? Sure I use it sometimes, when I think it fits

It's creativity to break it!

That's an splendiferous shot you got there by the way

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SigmaEnigma [2009-03-26 07:23:47 +0000 UTC]

Great shot. I agree that blending was the way to go. I assume bracketed exposures? I hate the beauty of the sun low on a hard horizon like that . I suppose a softer grad would help lessen the line, but of course you'd have more exposure compensation issues. You could always do some gradient overlay touchups in photoshop if that suits your style. it's been a lifesaver for fixing oddities like that grad line for me several times. I also agree on the rule of 3rds topic. calling it a hard rule regarding artistic creativity is similar to phrasing something like "the liberties of a jail cell" .

Keep up the awesome work!

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hhryah [2009-03-22 15:37:00 +0000 UTC]

I think the composition is beautiful. The sunlight makes me smile!

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andrewphotography [2009-03-22 13:43:08 +0000 UTC]

Amazing!

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robincorinnewatts [2009-03-02 03:25:29 +0000 UTC]

this is gorgeous, i would love to live there.

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faizal-edrus [2009-01-24 15:59:55 +0000 UTC]

very well done

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selley [2008-12-29 10:43:21 +0000 UTC]

Your art has been featured here: [link]

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Almeruve [2008-12-07 14:01:54 +0000 UTC]

That's one of the most gorgious pictures I've ever seen!

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Taanilinna [2008-12-06 10:39:34 +0000 UTC]

Hi! Your work is featured here [link]

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tearsoftheangels [2008-11-06 19:19:35 +0000 UTC]

featured! [link]

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knowleser [2008-11-02 11:02:16 +0000 UTC]

Lovely photo, real punchy colour and crisp!!!

Thanks for writing the detail of on the shoot and post production, it's really helpful. I've been having trouble with the sun burning out and taking out the surrounding colour and hadn't tumbled taking a specific exposure for this. I use a similar technique for my photos, but have avoided shooting in to the sun as I'd didn't have a work round. Life's so much simpler when you share isn't it, haha. Thanks man.

I use a similar technique as HousePhotographer for the line of a grade filter, masking and a soft brush like in this shot of mine [link]

As for rule of 3rds, well some days I only use a 1/3rd of them

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resada [2008-10-13 18:49:10 +0000 UTC]

This is so beautiful!!!

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Pinguboi [2008-10-10 20:41:52 +0000 UTC]

Just is an amazing picture. Love everything with it!

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Sesjusz [2008-10-05 11:28:57 +0000 UTC]

i prefer soft gradient then you can't see gradient and sun looks more real

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hougaard In reply to Sesjusz [2008-10-05 14:31:38 +0000 UTC]

yeah but it's impossible to resolve this kind of exposure with an ND, would need a reverse centre spot kind of gradient...if you know what I mean

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Sesjusz In reply to hougaard [2008-10-05 16:51:30 +0000 UTC]

with hitech ND 0.6: [link]

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hougaard In reply to Sesjusz [2008-10-05 17:24:13 +0000 UTC]

The light of these clouds is very different from those in yours photo

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Poisons-Toad [2008-09-30 12:55:05 +0000 UTC]

like a dream (:

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Safiro15 [2008-09-28 01:35:03 +0000 UTC]

Wow...
I'm in paradise *..*

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otho [2008-09-23 03:32:54 +0000 UTC]

That's amazing. I really just sat here for a few minutes with my mouth open, examining every little piece.

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Febo-theRealOne [2008-09-18 08:27:08 +0000 UTC]

great portofolio. like your photos a lot. good sense for ethetics, design and composition. so young and so good photos....one can expect so much goodlooking new photos from you. hat down. best regards.

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hougaard In reply to Febo-theRealOne [2008-09-18 10:10:15 +0000 UTC]

thank you

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Greg-McKinnon [2008-09-15 15:21:37 +0000 UTC]

Beautifuly sharp

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Sir-Fluffums [2008-09-13 18:09:21 +0000 UTC]

AMAZING!
absolutely beautiful!
i wish i could go to south amerca

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aiyoshi [2008-09-11 12:43:42 +0000 UTC]

a very beautiful photo..

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DSil [2008-09-09 23:09:11 +0000 UTC]

I'm blown away by those colors.

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PadawanLinea [2008-09-09 16:28:27 +0000 UTC]

Beautiful colors and a beautiful shot! The only thing I noticed wrong was that one of your fence posts on the left side isn't lined up right. Other than that, awesome job! Where did you take these pictures?

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gryphoneyes27 [2008-09-05 18:29:45 +0000 UTC]

This is absolutely glorious! The colors are breathtaking.

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Brynn-From-Levin [2008-09-05 11:00:44 +0000 UTC]

Beautifull

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rachel-am [2008-09-03 18:36:52 +0000 UTC]

Lovely scene.
Nice colors.

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Renesmee134 [2008-08-31 22:09:11 +0000 UTC]

Its beautiful. It almost doesnt look real.

Absolutly amazing! 11 out of 10.

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Banan6-PancaKes [2008-08-31 15:38:10 +0000 UTC]

amazing shot!!

very great work

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Furiousxr [2008-08-28 13:46:44 +0000 UTC]

Great shot mate ,
love the colors and the foreground

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Burkaset [2008-08-26 16:25:50 +0000 UTC]

rules are made to be broken, the flare of the sun helps emphasize the attention to center and in my opinion makes the 1/2 ratio work very well, in my opinion the image is more effective this way in comparison to the thirds route.

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Xander890 [2008-08-25 16:10:24 +0000 UTC]

Wow! Great composition! I love it!

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vanillainjectedapple [2008-08-25 09:39:14 +0000 UTC]

the greatest colours that could ever be on a picture!... so refreshing and energyzing!

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lostlook [2008-08-24 20:09:01 +0000 UTC]

amazing

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lum1neuz [2008-08-20 06:09:34 +0000 UTC]

amazing colors

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julienpier [2008-08-19 15:48:58 +0000 UTC]

Boundaries are made to be broken
And it works very well!

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