Some of the best light you can find as a photographer is in a storm. But you don’t want to be in the storm, you want to be on the edge looking in. That’s something you can’t plan for; you need to get lucky.
And so it was with this shot looking across Derwentwater.
Here the snow storm is passing across the other side of the lake. It also helps that the sun was setting at the same time. Talk about being lucky. When you spot moments like this you need to be ready. Fortunately, I was ready with the Fuji X-T2.
The image was captured from a tripod using the 16-55 Fuji lens. The RAW file was then converted in Lightroom using the Fuji Provia profile. Enhancement of the warm area on the horizon was applied using Nik Viveza. Processing was then completed using On1 Photo RAW 2018 by adding Dynamic Contrast to the dark areas of land, followed by the Glow and Vignette filters.
Hope you have a great weekend.
The Lightweight Photographer 
Wow! Lovely shot. I was there last weekend but didn’t get anything as good as this with my X-T2! Well done. Hope you have a good weekend.
Roy
Thanks Roy. As I say, I was lucky. All the best. Robin
Love this lovely shot. I’m not a great fan of most sunsets – over saturated and looking so false, but this one is delicately beautiful. Thanks for sharing. Happy Easter to you and yours.
Thank you for the kind words. Much appreciated.
Beautiful in capturing that elusive magenta color. Just slightly off subject, but I was wondering about your current use of graduated filters especially to balance wide spread contrast values of sky and land. I am currently contemplating completing my set of Lee filters but that is an expensive proposition if one believes most of this work can be done in editing. So do you use grads or not? If yes, what are your favorites?
Thanks, John Marsh
Hi John,
Yes a lot of post processing can be done to recover shadows and highlights. You can also blend multiple images using techniques like Luminosity Masking for very natural results. BUT I find shadow and highlight recovery doesn’t produce optimum quality and problems with image blending can occur if there is movement in the scene such as waves or trees. My default position is to use filters and to try to create the best exposure possible in camera. By best exposure possible, I mean one that has great quality. I therefore tend to over expose slightly, and the filters help me to compress the histogram towards the midtones and highlights.
I used to use Lee filters but have recently switched to glass filters from a company called Kase. These are excellent but expensive. I bought a couple to start but was amazed by the neutrality of the filter, the way the transmit light and that you can usually shoot directly into the sun without flare. The images shot with these filters seem to have “clean light” – I don’t quite know how to explain the look. I have a 0.6 and 0.9 hard grad, a 0.9 soft grad, 0.9 and 1.2 reverse grad and 3 stop ND. Out of these I find myself using the 0.6 ND grad and 0.9 reverse grad the most. The 0.9 reverse grad shocked me the first time I used it because the result was so good.
Hope this helps
PS I should have said that I am possibly biased because I now supply Kase filters. BUT I only started to supply them because I was so convinced about the quality and results I was getting. They are also shatter proof which is a nice touch. In all honesty, these are expensive filters but well worth it in my opinion.
Thank you for your concise and informative reply. Your views seem to mirror those that appreciate getting it as right as possible in the camera and then only “fine tuning” in software. The main reason for my concern in pursuing these questions is in regard to my using the Foveon format within the Sigma SD Quattro system. I am new to this sensor and have not yet really implemented it yet in the field, waiting instead for warmer weather. This system has been identified as having limited dynamic range and blowing highlights. So it seems imperative to correct this in the field. The Kase filters look good at about 40-60% higher cost than the Lee ones and having shatter proof is great insurance.
Thanks again, John Marsh
Thanks John, you’re welcome. Given what you say, if I were in your position, I would be shooting with filters. I realise not everyone likes to use them and that they don’t suit every situation. But, I you don’t mind using them, I would suggest they are a starting point. When circumstances dictate, you can easily switch to bracketing and then use exposure blending later.