Coskata Pond

This is Coskata Pond on Nantucket. It is only accessible by driving on the beach. This series of photos were taken almost two years ago while on our way to Great Point to watch the sunset. I had originally taken them with the purpose of a panoramic but I never actually stitched them together until now.

This photograph is composed of 6 different photos taken in series. I hand held the camera and didn't shoot in manual. So of course my camera picked different apertures and shutter speeds for different shots. The picture needed a lot of work to bring out the sky and water. I'm overall happy with how it came out, but I think I would do a bit more work before I consider printing it.

Canon 350D (RAW)
variable, ISO 800
41mm (17.0-50.0mm f/2.8 Tamron)

Adjustments made in Lightroom:
- Levels, Brightness/Contrast, Tone Curve, Clarity
- The main goal I had was to make all the pictures look as if they had the same exposure settings that way they would merge well.

Adjustments made in Photoshop:
- Stitched all 6 images together in photomerge to create a 35 megapixel image.
- Crop
- Added two layers each with its own mask. One for the sky and water, and the other for the land. First I made the land mask and then inverted it for the water and sky. The land I lightened up via lighten blend while the sky I added contrast and a little saturation via multiply blend. Then I adjusted the opacity and made sure everything blended together well.