City Docks, Annapolis

Joined up with a shutterbug group early this morning (6:00 AM) at the city docks in Annapolis, MD to capture some sunrise pictures. Even though it was a really overcast morning with no visible sun, I knew there was still a sun behind the clouds - we just couldn't see it. I had a feeling I could get the sun in my images using some forensic processing that really digs into images and pulls out unseen details and colors. 

To capture the most dynamic range for helping get more details across the exposure range, I took three exposure bracketed images using a tripod and combined them in Photoshop HDR. The resultant HDR images werent that impressive since the cloudy lighting was pretty flat. They needed further tonal and contrast processing with Photoshop and additional filters to capture the details. 

Here are two of the images. Even if they are not purist photography, they do truly represent what was photographed, just with a little more detail and colors that the human eye or camera could not normally see with the heavy overcast. There is no cloning, no special brushes, no manual  dodging or burning - just pure computer image analysis and processing.

Capturing the Sunrise - City Docks, Annapolis

Sunrise - City Docks, Annapolis