{"id":990,"date":"2008-11-11T21:17:57","date_gmt":"2008-11-11T12:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2008-11-11\/990"},"modified":"2010-11-25T10:34:47","modified_gmt":"2010-11-25T01:34:47","slug":"todays-sunset-the-deepest-truest-orange-i-have-ever-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2008-11-11\/990","title":{"rendered":"Today’s Sunset: the Deepest, Truest Orange I Have Ever Seen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 70 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/4.5, ISO 560 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nFirst Photo of the Evening<\/span>\nfacing due west\n<\/div>\n\n

This evening we had perhaps the most stunning sunset I have<\/span> ever seen.<\/p>\n\n

Sadly, I saw it<\/span> from the photographically-unappealing vantage of the\nfifth-floor walkway in my condo, but at least I got<\/span> to see it. When I first<\/span>\ncaught a glimpse,<\/span> I literally<\/span> sprinted for the elevator, and the photo\nabove is the first I snapped<\/span> when I got<\/span> up there.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 120 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>125 sec, f<\/span>\/6.3, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nUnrealistic<\/span>\nit was actually more amazing than this<\/b>\nfacing south-west\n<\/div>\n\n

(By the way, that's Kyoto Tower in the lower left, seen previously on my blog\nhere<\/a>,\nhere<\/a>,\nhere<\/a>, and\nhere<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n

Some sunsets have a mesmerizing mix of reds, oranges, yellows, and a\ndeep<\/span> blue from the sky. Not this one<\/span>. It had orange<\/span>. Where it wasn't\norange, it was overcast gray, and where it was orange, it was searing,\ndeep, rich, monochromatic orange and nothing else.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 200 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/9, ISO 1600 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nBands of Color<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Sadly, those oranges were completely out of the range of colors that my\nD700 could capture, and even more-so out of range than can fit into an sRGB\ncolor space<\/a>, and super-duper wildly out of range of what a modern<\/span>\nconsumer monitor can display. As a result<\/span>, these images likely appear,\ndepending on your monitor, as a muddy<\/span> mix of oranges, pinks, and\nyellows.<\/p>\n\n

I've written about this\n“pushing bright colors toward white” problem<\/a> that plagues digital image\nprocessing, and it certainly rears its ugly head here. There wasn't the\nslightest tinge of red, yellow, or pink in today's sunset – not the\nslightest<\/i> – yet when I first<\/span> excitedly loaded the images into\nLightroom, they were all generally yellow instead of orange, with the\nbrightest areas white instead of deeply rich (but bright) orange. The color<\/span> channels were unevenly clipped, yielding a shift<\/span> in this case from red to\nyellow, and eventually to white.<\/p>\n\n

I ended up spending considerable time twiddling the develop dials in\nLightroom to try to return the colors to reality, but in doing so, I had to<\/span>\nlower the brightness of the entire scene so that all the color channels\nwould no longer be clipped. The end result<\/span> is that I get<\/span> oranges that are\nas close as Lightroom my mid-level semi-pro Eizo monitor<\/a> can produce,\nbut the shadows are now much darker than they really were. Considering the\nunphotogenic nature of the cityscape view from my place, this darkening is\nperhaps a feature.<\/span> \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 50mm f\/1.2 — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/8, ISO 3200 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nWispy and Finely Detailed<\/span>\n
Portrait-Mode Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n\n\n1050×<\/span>1680<\/a>  ·  1200×<\/span>1920<\/a>  ·  1600×<\/span>2560<\/a><\/small>     <\/span>\n<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

But then I take those mostly-okay colors that yield pretty dazzling\npictures, and squeeze the life out of them by shoving them into the sRGB\ncolor space that is the de facto<\/i> standard on the web, and further\nwring out and discard the last bit of amazement by viewing them on with the\nhighly-limited color\nrendering<\/a> of my MacBook LCD. Sigh. They appear muddy and splotchy.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 86 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>250 sec, f<\/span>\/9, ISO 6400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n
Portrait-Mode Desktop-Background Versions<\/b>\n\n\n1050×<\/span>1680<\/a>  ·  1200×<\/span>1920<\/a>  ·  1600×<\/span>2560<\/a><\/small>     <\/span>\n<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

Due to the way the sun was hitting the clouds from below (and often,\nshining through the wispy underside so that they sort of seemed to glow\nfrom within), the view was constantly shifting and changing.<\/p>\n\n

The wave-like clouds in the next shot kept drawing my attention, but\nmost of the detail is lost in these shots. Sigh again.<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f\/2.8 @ 110 mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>400 sec, f<\/span>\/2.8, ISO 900 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nFreaky Clouds<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Basically, I'm at a<\/span> loss on how to capture a scene<\/span> like this.<\/p>\n\n

I'm sure you're thinking that I created<\/span> these vast fields of color\n(muddy or not) during post processing, and frankly, I don't<\/span> blame you. I'd never<\/span> believe that these nuclear-winter kinds of views could possibly be\nreal if I hadn't<\/span> seen it myself. It was a<\/span> once-in-a-lifetime-(so far)\nevent. I'll be 84 before I see<\/span> another like it, if this rate holds.<\/p>\n\n

It makes the last sunset\nI posted<\/span> from my condo's fifth-floor walkway<\/a> seem utterly pathetic.<\/p>\n\n

Come to think of it, it makes every sunset I've ever posted seem\npathetic, including\nthis<\/a>,\nthis<\/a>,\nthis<\/a>,\nthis<\/a>,\nthis<\/a>,\nthis<\/a>,\nthis<\/a>,\nthis<\/a>,\nthis<\/a>,\nthis<\/a>,\nthis<\/a>,\nand sunrises too: this<\/a>,\nand\nthis<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

My scale for beautiful sunsets has been totally reset, but I still<\/span> don't know how to photograph them even remotely well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This evening we had perhaps the most stunning sunset I have ever seen.<\/p>

Sadly, I saw it from the photographically-unappealing vantage of the fifth-floor walkway in my condo, but at least I got to see it. When I first caught a glimpse, I literally sprinted for the elevator, and the photo above is the first I snapped when I got up there.<\/p>

(By the way, that's Kyoto Tower in the lower left, seen previously on my blog here, here, here, and here)<\/p>

Some sunsets have a mesmerizing mix of reds, oranges, yellows, and a deep blue from the sky. Not [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2,13,6,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}