I took this shot on a beautiful August morning on my way home from work. It was taken right outside of Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt in Victoria, BC, at 6 a.m. The air was so crisp and the colours from the rising sun were breathtaking; it makes it difficult to picture living anywhere else.
Gear:
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM
Camera Settings:
Shutter Speed: 30 seconds
Aperture: f/22
ISO: 200
White Balance: Auto
Post-Production:
Photoshop Camera RAW: I increased the exposure and brightened the shadows to help bring the details out in the rocks. I brought the highlights and whites down to keep them from being too overpowering. I also darkened the blacks to prevent the photo from looking too washed out, and increased the clarity to bring out more detail. I then cross-processed the image in the curves section. Once that was done, I moved on to the colour portion of the program. I saturated the blues, magentas, and purples. I then slightly changed the hue of the blues to look a touch more green. After that, I increased the luminance in the blues to help give them a pastel look. In the split-toning section, I added a touch of pink in the highlights and a touch of blue in the shadows. I then went back to the curves to add a matte finish to the photo.
Photoshop: I had a few dust spots on the sensor so I removed those using the spot-heal tool with content-aware on. Then I used the quick selection tool to select the sky above the mountains, paying close attention to the peaks to prevent them from being selected. I added a new layer, keeping the selection in place. I used the graduated filter tool with a soft pink tone on this layer, starting from the bottom and going up about a third of the way into the selection. I then changed the blending option on the layer to darken and decreased the opacity to about 25%. While maintaining this selection, I added another layer and used the graduated filter tool again, this time with a blue tone I ink-dropped from the mountains. I repeated the process for the blending and opacity, which was the final step in completing the photo.