Category Archives: INSIDE FLORIDA

Merritt Island – January 2012

January 8, 2012INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWRbirds, BPWD, Brevard Community College, building, Clapper Rail, cloud, Great Horned Owl, house, landscape, sunriseEd Rosack

Four of us from the Photography Interest Group visited the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge yesterday for the first time this year. It was a beautiful Florida morning and this place is rockin’!!

As usual, we looked for a sunrise photo first. We found this old house behind the Brevard Community College and the sky cooperated.

Old house and sunrise

It was really hard to decide on the highlight of this trip. Before I left yesterday morning, I Googled MINWR, and saw a report of “a Great Horned Owl on a nest on the left near 402 and SR 3”. Sure enough, we drove right up to it and it was there waiting there for us! The internet is really handy, isn’t it?

Great Horned Owl on nest

The second contender for highlight of the day was a Clapper Rail. I’d seen reports of these too, but I’d never seen one before and didn’t know what to look for. We parked at the first parking area on Black Point Wildlife Drive and were exploring when we met a tourist from Brazil. He pointed out the bird for us, but it was back in the shadows and with the glare from the sun it took me a while to see it even with him pointing right at it! Fortunately, it moved a bit and I was able to get a photo. We eventually saw three in this area and one more at the second parking area.

These Clapper Rails are hard to see…

There were more people / cars on BPWLD yesterday than I’ve ever seen before. A couple of times there were real traffic jams! There were also more birds than I’ve seen there in a long time – maybe ever. We saw Ospreys, Clapper Rails, Pintail Ducks, Coots, Moorhens, White Pelicans, Mottled Ducks, Green Wing Teals, Belted Kingfishers, Anhingas, Cormorants, Green Herons, Great Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Reddish Egrets, Little Blue Egrets, Cattle Egrets, Savannah Sparrows, Tree Sparrows, Tricolored Herons, Woodstorks, Roseate Spoonbills, a Great Horned Owl, Painted Buntings, various gulls, Red-winged Blackbirds, and others.

After BPWLD, we drove by the owl again and it was still there. Then we went by the visitor center to check on the Painted Buntings. There were at least two of them at the feeder. After that we had to return home – a couple of us had things to do in the normal world. 🙁

If you’ve meant to visit MINWR and haven’t made it yet – get out there now. I’ve never seen it better! You can click on the photos above to go to Flickr, where you can see a larger version as well as any comments and discussion about them. Click here to visit my Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge set, and click here to visit my Black Point Wildlife Drive set on Flickr.

By the way, I started an “Ed’s Life List” page to record the bird species I’ve seen in the wild. I’ll keep my list there and try to keep up to date as I go. Please visit if you get a chance.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!

Jetty Park, Cape Canaveral

January 1, 2012INSIDE FLORIDA, Jetty Park, Techniquebeach, birds, cloud, landscape, Northern Gannet, panorama, Pelican, reviews, sunrise, wildlifeEd Rosack

Intro / Description

Happy New Year! Back to basics with my first post of 2012: A photo-op review.

When I was in the Navy, I was stationed at the Naval Ordinance Test Unit at Cape Canaveral for a while – so I’m familiar with the port and Jetty Park. But I’d never really investigated it as a photo-op. I had some time last week, and decided to visit.

Jetty Park is located on the south side of Port Canaveral in Brevard County. Depending on where you leave from, it’s a little over an hour from Orlando, basically a straight line along the Beachline Expressway (528 toll road). In addition to the jetty and 1200 foot fishing pier, there’s also a 120+ site campground and beach (with lifeguard) at the park.

Info for Photographers

Photo hints:

The rocks, pier and seaside vegetation can provide some interesting foreground for sunrise landscapes.

The sun rises every morning…But no one know what it will look like. This was the view before dawn from the beach at Jetty Park.

You can also see a variety of shore birds. I saw Brown Pelicans, Northern Gannets, Ruddy Turnstones, Royal Terns, various Seagulls and others that I haven’t identified yet.

A place like this is also great for practicing your BIF (birds in flight) techniques. Pelicans make especially good subjects, since they tend to glide in a predictable straight line, but other birds are also flying in and around (see the last photo, below).

Tripod/Monopod:

No restrictions, so bring yours and use it.

Lenses:

This will depend on your subject. I used my tripod mounted Nikon 16 – 35mm f/4 VR Wide angle for landscapes and sunrise. When the light got a little better, I switched to hand holding my Sigma 150 – 500mm f/6.3 for birds. You can get up close to some of the birds, so a shorter telephoto might come in handy too. For example, this Brown Pelican wouldn’t fit in the field of view at 500mm. Since the bird was so still, I made a multi-shot panorama. I like to use this technique when I can since the result can be a higher resolution image (this one is 18.5 Megapixels, un-cropped).

Best time to visit:

Day visitor hours are 7am to dusk. Take this into account if you’re planning to make some sunrise photos. I didn’t and the morning I went, sunrise was at 7:15. I arrived about 6:45 and the gate was still closed, so I drove around a bit to see if there was somewhere else to make a sunrise photo (I didn’t find one). When I returned at about 6:55 they were unlocking it. I had less time than I wanted to find a good spot and setup, but I did manage to get some photos I like.

Winter is probably a good time of year to go. It’ll be less crowded (with people) and more crowded (with birds). Many of the birds could be winter visitors too.

Northern Gannet in flight: This Pelagic species is a winter migrant to the waters off of the Florida coast.

Other:

There’s a $10 per day usage / parking fee.

The morning I was there I saw a young man land a large fish from the end of the pier. This might be a good place to combine your interest in fishing, camping and the beach with a photo side excursion.

There’s a lot of shipping activity at the port. Cruise ships and fishing boats enter and leave regularly. I think you can still occasionally see a submarine that’s visiting too.

Jetty park is close to both Viera Wetlands and Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. If you have time for a little longer trip, you could combine a visit here with a second stop at one of those places. The morning I went, I also stopped by Viera to see what was going on there.

Summary

I added a few birds to my life list and a few photos I really like to my archives. You can too. Check out the other photos I made there in this set on Flickr. Let me know how your visit to the park goes.

My Gallery / Flickr photo set:	http://www.flickr.com/photos/edrosack/sets/72157628638922015/with/6606239041/
Their Website:	http://www.portcanaveral.com/recreation/beaches.php
Address / Phone:	9035 Campground Cir, Cape Canaveral, FLView in Google Maps
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating:	A sunrise and shorebird showplace!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!

St. Johns sunrise, and a ride 'round Viera

December 24, 2011INSIDE FLORIDA, St. Johns River, Viera Wetlandsbirds, black and white, Caracara, cloud, Great Blue Heron, infrared, landscape, nest, sunrise, wildlifeEd Rosack

Happy Holidays!

I had a rare mid-week day off last Wednesday and decided to spend the morning making photographs.

First up was a site I’ve driven by many times and always said “That looks like a great place for a photo”. It’s the boat ramp off of Highway 50 where it crosses the St. Johns river. I was there before dawn and had a good time watching the sun come up and the clouds evolve. And yes, it is a good place for a photo.

Dawn on the St. Johns River at the Highway 50 boat ramp

Next, I drove over to Viera Wetlands. I haven’t been there recently and wanted to see what’s going on.

Palms, clouds, and marsh at Viera Wetlands

There are a lot of the usual birds around: Herons, Egrets, Ibis, Anhingas, Coots, Grebes, Limpkins, Ospreys, Cormorants, a Caracarra, a Hawk, Gulls, etc. I also saw a lot of winter visitors there, including Kingfishers, Mergansers, Caspian Terns, Tree Swallows, and Northern Shovelers. By the way, another good place to find out what’s going on is the Viera Wetlands group on Flickr. I usually check it before I go so I’ll know what to watch for when I get there. Other folks are seeing Northern Harriers, Loggerhead Shrikes, Horned Grebes, American Kestrels, and many more.

Caracara with prey

The Great Blue Herons are all busy courting and building nests. This is a wonderful time to get some action shots, especially of these birds in flight. If you watch one of the couples for a while, you’ll likely see the male leave repeatedly to gather nesting material. They tend to leave and return from the same direction and this gives you a big advantage when setting up to take flight photos.

Great Blue Heron pair

You can see other photos I’ve made at Viera Wetlands in this set on Flickr. If you get some spare time over the holiday break, this would a good place to spend it.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Merritt Island Scouting Report – Saturday, December 10

December 17, 2011INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWRAmerican Avocet, birds, black and white, BPWD, Eastern Meadowlark, Horned Grebe, infrared, landscapeEd Rosack

Lutfi, Kevn M., and I set off for Viera Wetlands last Saturday, but on the way we kept passing through light rain showers. Since it’d rained off and on for the past week, we worried they’d close the area to cars, so we switched destinations and decided to visit Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge instead of Viera.

We got to East Gator Creek Road in time for sunrise, but the cloud cover was too dense for any blog worthy photos. After sunrise, the gloomy light made bird photography difficult too – it was a good thing I brought my flash along to help. We’d seen some reports of Horned Grebes at MINWR on Flickr, and sure enough one showed up almost right away. She wasn’t shy and swam right up to us.

Horned Grebe Female – My first photo of one. MINWR has been very productive for me as a source of “life birds”. These are winter visitors. Hopefully I can sight a male in breeding colors later this season.

Next we went over to Black Point Wildlife Drive.

It was a little cloudy that morning: Infra-red capture can really bring out the details and contrast in a somewhat gloomy scene.

Unlike some previous trips to BPWD, there are huge numbers of birds there now. It’s a great time to visit – The water levels are high and the winter visitors have started to arrive!

Eastern Meadowlark – another life bird for me. These are year round residents in Florida, but I hadn’t photographed one before.

We saw large flocks of Coots, Pintails, and many Grebes. There were a variety of shorebirds too. We saw Reddish Egrets, Belted Kinfishers, Great Blue Herons, Tri-Colored Herons, Little Egrets, Little Blue Herons, Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets, Anhingas, Savanah Sparrows, Lesser Yellowlegs, Green Wing Teals, Eastern Meadowlarks, American Avocets and others. There were also many spoonbills flying around (but none seemed to want to land near us).

Follow the leader: American Avocets, winter plumage – not my first sighting of these, but one of my best photos of them. These are also winter visitors to Florida.

Before heading home, we went by the MINWR Visitor’s Center to check on the Painted Buntings. Unfortunately, there weren’t any around this time – although the rangers told us they’d seen them that morning.

If you’ve wanted to visit MINWR, now’s a great time. For a preview of some of the things you might see, take a look at my MINWR set on Flickr.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Orlando American Photo Model Shoot Workshop, December 2011

December 9, 2011INSIDE FLORIDA, Must do list, Techniqueequipment, people, reviewsEd Rosack

Intro / Description

Well this is a bit different from what I normally photograph and post about. But to keep learning, it’s good to occasionally stretch your skills, move outside your comfort zone, and try something you haven’t done before. And as your intrepid Central Florida Photo Ops reporter, I have an obligation to report on more than just the landscape and wildlife opportunities in the Central Florida Area. Right?

Flavia, in color

So last Saturday, I found myself at the American Photo Magazine Model Shoot Workshop at the Marriott World Resort in Orlando, Florida. The magazine organizes the event, hires models, brings lighting equipment and sets everything up for you. You just need to show up with your camera and plenty of memory cards.

They also bring in an instructor for the day. For this session it was New York Photographer Lindsay Adler. She provided some very good information on lens choice, lighting, posing, and creativity in two different sessions during the day. She and the other instructors also circulated and offered advice and help while we were shooting. It’s a great opportunity to learn, especially if you’re not familiar with this kind of photography.

There were 15 different models there. I’ve included four photos of three of them in this post. You can see more photos I made (including the other models) in this gallery. You can also look at other photographers’ images at this link.

Tiffany, in fur

Since I’m normally a Nature & Wildlife photographer, I found it quite fascinating to think about the differences between those genres and Fashion and Model photography:

Nature and Wildlife Photography	Fashion and Model Photography
The light is what it is. You may be able to change it a bit with flash for fill and catch lights.	You control the light. Indoors, you control it completely.
High Dynamic Range is common for landscape photos to control large contrast levels.	Since you control the lights, you control the contrast. HDR isn’t required.
You rarely interact with the subject. And if you do, you usually scare it off.	You must interact with the subject. Building a rapport and directing the pose is critical.
Very wide (landscape) or very long (wildlife) lenses are favored.	Large aperture lenses are favored: 50mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.4, 70 – 200mm f/2.8
It’s all on you – a one person show.	You’ll require a team: models, make up artist, costumes, sets, etc.
Knowledge / experience and persistence are necessary to find good subjects.	Portfolio, reputation, and relationships are necessary to find good subjects.
You go to where the subject is.	The subject comes to you in a set or studio.
Post processing: Color adjustments, HDR (landscapes), Selective sharpening	Post processing: Color adjustments, Retouching, Selective sharpening

I’m sure I must have missed something. What else is different about these two types of photography?

Info for Photographers

Photo hints:

At this type of event, everything except you and your camera are provided: backdrops, lighting (hot lights and soft boxes), sets, models, costumes, makeup, etc. The instructors will help with light adjustments and offer advice if you’re having any problems. Flash isn’t recommended, since the lighting is provided and flash will interfere. It will also be a lot harsher than the large soft box hot lights that are used.

You do need to use a higher ISO setting. I used ISO 800 almost all day. I shot with my lens wide open and my exposures ranged around f/2.8 between 1/60 of a second and ~1/320. A capable high ISO camera will come in very handy as well as a large aperture lens with VR. The Nikon D700 and 70 – 200 f/2.8 VRII combination worked well for me. I did have some issues with overexposure. I don’t know why these scenes were fooling my meter (maybe the dark backgrounds?), but I sometimes had to dial in some negative exposure compensation. Make sure to check your histogram often.

Flavia, in black and white

White balance was tungsten on some sets and daylight on others. I shot in RAW mode, so I didn’t worry too much about it. I just set my camera in auto white balance and then corrected it (if needed) in post. If you shoot in JPG mode, pay attention to the changing white balance. I overheard a lot of discussion that day from different people about “degrees Kelvin”.

The overall experience sometimes resembled a paparazzi shoot out on a red carpet. Popular models would attract a crowd of photographers. Courtesy is very important. Take your turn and let others have theirs – there was plenty of time for everyone. It was also fascinating to be one of the photographers in the crowd and hear shutter clicks sync up when a model changed position or where they were looking.

Tripod/Monopod: Not recommended – it’s too crowded and would definitely be in everyone’s way – including yours. It would also slow you down. The models do move around, so you need to react quickly to get the compositions you want.

Lenses:

One of the event sponsors was Sigma. They brought a couple crates of lenses and would let you borrow one for a session. This is a great chance to try glass that you haven’t used before. I checked out an 85mm f/1.4 for the first session, but ended up not using it very much. I wasn’t getting many sharp images even when I stopped it down. I didn’t have time to diagnose the issue but I think my problem was a combination of very shallow depth of field and blur caused by slower shutter speeds with no VR. I switched to my 70 – 200 f/2.8 and used it the rest of the day. It was occasionally a bit long at the 70mm length, but I compensated when needed by taking multiple shots.

Jennifer, in close

Best time to visit:

You’ve missed your chance for this year. To see when they’re coming back to Orlando, you’ll have to check the American Photo Website. They told us they’d be posting the 2012 schedule soon.

Other: I had a great time, but it was a long day. You’ll be on your feet a great deal of the time, and you’ll be shifting positions often to get a good vantage point. I was quite tired at the end of the day.

Summary

You can view a higher resolution gallery of other photos I made at the link in the table below.

My Gallery:	https://edrosack.com/APMS
Their Website:	http://www.americanphotomag.com/modelshoot/
Their Contact Info:	apmodelshoot@bonniercorp.com
Central Florida Photo Ops Rating:	A different kind of CFL Photo Op must do!

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog. Now – go make some photos!
©2011, Ed Rosack. All rights reserved

Fotobug Podcast Interviews Ed

December 4, 2011Circle B Bar Reserve, INSIDE FLORIDA, VARIOUSBobcatEd Rosack

Jim Caldwell and Fred Rodgers posted episode 40 of their Fotobug podcast today. It’s located here: http://fotobug.podbean.com/2011/12/04/fotobug-elusive-image-episode-40/, and you can also subscribe via iTunes.

One of the things they talk about this time is the Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland, Florida and they interview me for the show. I got to tell them about my Bobcat encounter from a couple of weeks ago.

It’s a good show – you should add them to your regular listen list.

Landscapes and Bobcat at the Circle B Bar Reserve

November 24, 2011Circle B Bar Reserve, INSIDE FLORIDAblack and white, Bobcat, Flowers, infrared, landscape, Marigold, sunrise, wildlifeEd Rosack

Last weekend, I went over to the Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland, Florida with Kevin M., Lutfi E., and Frank B. I almost didn’t go – we checked Flickr for new photos from the area and didn’t see much being posted. But I remembered seeing yellow flowers blooming there at this time last year and wanted to see them again.

Early morning at the Circle B Bar Reserve – The yellow flowers are Burr Marigolds. These are all over the Circle B Bar in mid to late November.

Sunrise sure does happen early since the time changed. We met at 5:15am to drive over and arrived just as it started to get light. I find it very hard to predict how sunrise will look. Weather and clouds can shift over the time / distance of the drive. But this morning turned out nice and I managed to make a good image or two.

Sunrise at the Circle B Bar Reserve

The bird population was a bit disappointing. We saw the usual suspects, including Anhingas, Cormorants, Woodstorks, Ospreys, Herons, Egrets, Coots, Moorhens, and Whistling Ducks. I attempted a few bird photos, but none came out blog worthy. Here’s a landscape that includes a few birds:

Tree and Woodstorks

So – I didn’t see any new birds or make any great bird photos, but I did make some landscapes I like. Enough to count the trip as a success. And then…

A jogger came by us and told us about “a Bobcat up in tree about 300 yards away on the right past a palm tree”. That got my photo adrenalin going! I’ve seen Bobcats in the wild three times or so. In one case at dusk I was able to get a single underexposed, blurry photo before it moved off a trail at Orlando Wetlands. In my experience they take a look at you and then they’re gone. You only have a few seconds to make the photo. So this situation sounded exciting.

We took off down the trail – and Frank and I walked right by it! Lucky for us, Kevin was trailing us, saw it and called us back. It was very well camouflaged and it sure helped to have multiple sets of eyes searching. There was no one around at first. The Bobcat looked healthy, and appeared to be resting and watching from about 35 – 40 feet up. I was really happy that I had my long lens and flash with me. It was backlit against the sky and a real tough exposure without flash. We made some photos and moved on down the trail. When we returned, there was a crowd gathered and it was pretty famous on Flickr the next day! Judging from the photos in the Circle B Bar Flickr pool, it’s a good place to see Bobcats.

Bobcat in Tree, Circle B Bar – I’ve seen Bobcats in the wild before, but I’ve never been able to take a good photo of one. We saw this one resting up on a branch and it posed for a while. In this image, I think it was trying to figure out how to get through the crowd of humans at the base of the tree.

So the moral of this story is: You won’t make any good photos if you don’t get up and get out there. You’ll never know what you could have seen if you don’t make the effort to go out and see it. You may be surprised and if you are, I hope you’re ready!

You can view other photos I’ve made at the Circle B Bar in this set on Flickr.

Oh, and have a Happy Thanksgiving. Even with all the problems we have in the economy, country, world, and our personal lives – we can each find many things to be grateful for.

Veterans Day 2011

November 10, 2011INSIDE FLORIDA, VARIOUSbattle cross, day, For the Fallen, holiday, Laurence Binyon, veteransEd Rosack

The Armistice ending World War 1 was signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Armistice Day for November 11, 1919 to commemorate. President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation in 1953 renaming it Veterans Day and extending the holiday to honor all veterans and their service to our country.

Especially in today’s world, those who choose to volunteer for the military endure long periods far from home and loved ones. They live under conditions without comforts that all of us take for granted. They face danger and overcome fear to protect our freedom and way of life. And they give their all – in far too many cases sacrificing life and limb.

To all veterans and active duty service members: Thank you. You honor us with your service.

Fallen Soldier Battle Cross Sculpture in the Winter Springs, Florida Veterans Memorial Park – The Fallen Soldier Battle Cross is a symbolic replacement of a cross on the battlefield or at the base camp for a soldier who has been killed.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

From “For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon

Previous Veterans related posts:

Two life birds today at MINWR!

November 5, 2011INSIDE FLORIDA, Merritt Island NWRbirds, black and white, BPWD, infrared, Painted Bunting, Peacock's Pocket, White Crowned SparrowEd Rosack

Well, the weather report for this morning was clear, cool and windy – but whoever arranges the weather didn’t pay attention. They got the cool and windy part right, but it was very cloudy on the east coast with occasional light rain. We persevered and ended up having a great time at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.

We arrived a bit before sunrise and had time to scout new locations along Peacock’s Pocket Road. I brought an Olympus E-PL1 camera that I had converted to Infra Red by LifePixel. I’ve dabbled in IR before – both film and digital, but this is my first experience with a modified digital camera and I think I’m going to like it. Here’s a sample:

Somewhere along Peacock’s Pocket Road – In the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Infra Red capture, converted to B&W

Our next stop was the MINWR Visitor’s Center. Painted Buntings migrate to the Refuge in the winter and are often seen there. Sure enough, there was one – and I was able to get a photo, although the light was very poor. These are amazingly colorful little birds!

Painted Bunting – At the MINWR Visitor’s Center. My first sighting and photo of one.

While there we also saw another bird that I didn’t recognize. It turns out this is a White Crowned Sparrow and they’re supposedly quite rare in Florida. My second life bird of the day!

White Crowned Sparrow – Sighted at the MINWR Visitor’s Center even though both iBird and Peterson’s guides say this bird isn’t found in Florida. My first sighting and photo of one.

Before heading home via Cracker Barrel, we also took a turn round Black Point Wildlife Drive. All together, we saw a large variety of birds: Ospreys, a Bald Eagle, Great Blue Herons, Tri-Color Herons, Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets, Reddish Egrets, Belted Kingfishers, Coots, Grebes, Grackles, Vultures, Anhingas, Cormorants, Moorhens, Painted Buntings, White Crowned Sparrows, Wood Storks, a Raccoon, and more. Another wonderful visit to MINWR!

You can see more of my photos in this MINWR set on Flickr.

Using Selective White Balance to Fix Problem Photos

October 30, 2011INSIDE FLORIDA, Technique, Washington D.C.Potomac River, sunrise, sunset, white balanceEd Rosack

I thought about going to Orlando Wetlands Park on Saturday before it closes for the winter (in mid-November), but the weather was quite bad. This morning, I wanted to get up early in search of a sunrise but instead had to deal with a migraine headache (I need to be much more careful about restaurant MSG). So anyway, no new shots to post this weekend.

Instead, let’s go over a technique that can be quite useful in certain situations. Normally I shoot in RAW format and use Lightroom to adjust color balance globally over the whole photograph. This works well in most situations, but sometimes a photograph can be improved substantially by correcting white balance selectively.

How do you do this? The way I do it is to open the photo in Photoshop, duplicate the image in a second layer, and adjust the white balance globally in each layer, but for different areas of the photo. So in layer 1 the sky may look good, but the ground may be off – while in layer two the opposite is true. Then I blend the two layers together using a layer mask, taking the best portions of each. If you don’t already use layers and layer masks in Photoshop, you should really learn about them. They provide a very useful tool in many situations and the ability to paint in (and erase) from one layer to the other gives you a great deal of flexibility and control over the results.

In this first example, I initially used a “day light” color balance and this brought out the sunset colors in the clouds, but the clear sky and terrain are a little too warm.

: Neighborhood Sunset – before selective white balance adjustment

In Photoshop, I left the color balance as is in one layer, and in the second layer, I made it much more neutral. I then painted the clouds from the first into the second.

Neighborhood Sunset – after selective white balance adjustment

This second example is even more dramatic than the first. The scene included both the pre-dawn sky and artificial lights along the far shore of the river. No matter what I did with the global white balance adjustment, I couldn’t get it to look right.

: The pre-dawn Potomac River – initial white balance

Again, duplicating the image into a second layer and blending with layer masks allowed me to neutralize the color balance of the lighting on the far shore and still make the sky and water more natural looking.

The pre-dawn Potomac River – after selective white balance adjustment

You owe it to yourself and your photography to try this technique. It some situations it can save a photo.