I often come back to the Flat Creek Overlook on the National Elk Refuge. It makes for an ideal location for a number of different types of photos. These can range from winter waterfowl shots, to birds in flight, or even, as is the case here, landscapes.
On this particular morning, I was preparing to pick someone up shortly after sunrise for a guided trip nearby. Having arrived a little early, I waited along the Flat Creek Overlook, noticing a subtle glow of color in the clouds. As I parked, the clouds began illuminating brighter as the sun began peeking through a crack between the mountains and lower cloud layer. I jumped out onto the overlook, and noticing one particular duck swimming into the scene, increased my ISO to account for a fast enough shutter speed to make sure the duck wouldn’t blur as it moved through. In that moment, the sky got as bright as it would before quickly fading back into gray as the sun crested the cloud layer.
How I Processed It
The main concern with processing an image like this is to brighten it enough without blowing out the highlights in the clouds. To do this, I added a linear gradient in the sky and subdued the highlights there to balance them with the reflection in the water more. With a scene like this, there’s already a great deal of contrast, so I added a bit, but careful not to overdo it, pushing up the shadows a bit as well in the process.
Color grading is a final step I employ if the subject can handle it. In this case, a gorgeously colorful sunrise is an ideal landscape setting to do just that. In this case, I kept the shadows a cool color already dominant in the scene, while warming up the neutrals and highlights also a similar color to what was already there. I’m not one to alter a scene very much at all – I prefer to let the image speak for itself and let nature be beautiful on its own. As a result, any color grading I do is minimal. It’s just enough to punch up what’s already there, but not overpowering the existing subject matter.
The result came out quite nice, and I would say is one of the better landscapes I’ve gotten from this overlook.