Tuesday, December 18, 2018

New Rainbow Bridge Sunrise Photograph - And A Behind The Scenes Video


A few days ago, I got out to one of my favorite "go-to" spots for sunrise photography. It's a fairly easy spot to get to when I don't have a lot of time to spend hiking or driving further. Rainbow Bridge above Donner Lake and Truckee, California has provided many cool photos for me over the years. Although I was hoping for more explosive sunrise colors that were also higher in the sky, I really can't complain as the vibrant pinks were beautiful looking.

"Sunrise at Rainbow Bridge 4"


Photographed with a Canon 5DS R and a 16-35mm lens set at 28mm. A graduated neutral density filter was used on the lens in order to darken the sky above the bridge a bit. The ISO was 400, the aperture was f11, and it was a 30 second exposure. The scene actually looked darker to the naked eye but the long exposure helped lighten the scene and also bring out more color to the lights of Truckee and Hwy 80 in the background. The RAW image was worked on in Photoshop's Camera RAW feature where I lightened the shadow areas quite a bit.

The making of this photo can be seen on a recent dtube video:





 As always, fine art prints of this image are available through my website. Canvas prints, prints on metal, and photo gift items.

Thank you for looking, reading, and watching!

-Scott Thompson