Shine, a photo from Ticino, East

Photographer's Note

A morning view over Lago Maggiore, taken from the church of Madonna del Sasso on the hillside above Locarno. Another beautiful day was in store, with just some low cloud lingering above the lake. In the foreground is the shoreline of Locarno – a bit underexposed given the conditions – while the opposite side of the lake is in Italy.

I have to admit that I was inspired to take this photo having seen many TE postings, mostly over the winter months, shot directly into the sun. I have tried this technique on several occasions now, with varying success. Here I stopped down to f22 to try to achieve a star-like effect around the sun. The only drawback with small apertures is that it shows up every blotch of dust on my now rather dirty sensor. In addition to this, the sunlight caused quite some flare. In both cases I did some cleaning up with the clone tool, and this is what I ended up with. Does anyone have any tips for how to clean a sensor effectively without damaging?

Song title: “Shine” by Aswad

Dragonheart, ALIRIZA, pitai has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Dragonheart (8434) 2006-04-22 15:29

Hi Susanna,
This is wonderful shot, feel warmth and peace watching it. Good work:-)

Best regards,
Vivek

danyy (0) 2006-04-22 16:02

Bonsoir Susanna,
très esthétique comme photo, un format vertical allongé me semble le meilleur pour traiter cette scène.
Le problème des halos lumineux est ici flagrant, le filtre polarisant a rempli son office.
J'aime beaucoup.
Daniel.

ALIRIZA (16423) 2006-04-22 17:03

Hi Susanna,
Excellent shot. Point of view, composition, shine, colors and framing are wonderful. TFS. Congratulations...
Ali Rıza

PixelTerror (0) 2006-04-23 5:53

Salut Susanna,
Un sujet difficile ou tu as pu preserver certains details mais ou la lumiere du soleil a quand meme pas mal explose ton objectif, c'est toujours un peu la loterie ces photos la j'en rate aussi beaucoup mais c'est bien de ta part d'avoir essaye.
Bon dimanche,
JY

nwoehnl (122) 2006-04-24 11:45

This came out quite good for shooting directly into the sun, Susanna - closing the lens to f/22 was certainly called for at this occasion. A beautiful morning ambience with the quiet setting by the lake, and I also like the vertical format which doesn't look like an obvious choice but works really well for what you wanted to show here. Nice photo.

pitai (3985) 2006-04-24 22:00

I only can dream with an aperture of f/22! Wow I only get to 8! hehehehe. lovely colors and excelent perspective. I think you done a fine job with the clone tool. Well done, Gabriel