AustralianPhotography

Hi Catherine,

This is a great little location, and at this time of the day it looks even more spectacular. One of the challenges that you have photographing into the shadows while you have the sun rising behind the scene though is managing all the contrast. 

Nowadays one of the more common techniques used by photographers in shooting a scene like this is to use HDR (High Dynamic Range). Basically a series of images are made at different exposures to capture the full tonal range of the scene, from the highlights to the shadow details but often these can look fake.

My preferred technique is either to shoot in RAW mode (being certain to make and exposure that captures the highlight detail and the shadows) and then I use the Adobe Raw Converter software to both darken the sky and lighten the shadow areas of the picture.

With this image my one complaint is the flower garden. From what I can tell for the moment the garden bed has been lightened too much and I am simply not convinced by what I am seeing. My solution would be to go back to the original file and start again.

If something looks too bright then chances are your audience is not going to be convinced by what we see.

Cheers,

Anthony