[Nass]

Came across this and I like it very much. How do you think this is done - I've tried engaging with the photographer but not getting any replies. What I'm especially intrigued by is how the water is lighter than the sky. Whenever I do ND110 it's the other way around. Is it:

• Direction (sun facing)?
• Wind (windier = white waves)?
• 2 GNDs to block off sky and bottom?
• Silver Efex?
• PP with Levels?
• Image merging of some different type?

Anyone getting this effect themselves?

Cheers

[v5planet]

Came across this and I like it very much. How do you think this is done - I've tried engaging with the photographer but not getting any replies. What I'm especially intrigued by is how the water is lighter than the sky. Whenever I do ND110 it's the other way around. Is it:

• Direction (sun facing)?
• Wind (windier = white waves)?
• 2 GNDs to block off sky and bottom?
• Silver Efex?
• PP with Levels?
• Image merging of some different type?

Anyone getting this effect themselves?

Cheers

My money would be on some exaggeration of digital B&W conversion through a color filter, possibly through Silver Efex, yeah.

[twilight_samurai]

I'm not that familiar with IR photography but perhaps this might be of that type, combined with some PP work?

[ovim]

Maybe it's ice?

[keyser]

Yeah, this looks like photoshop to me.

[dsodko]

I think it's the rare North Sea ice fog. It's very elusive and short lived.

I saw ice fog in Colorado and similar !

[Fries]

I've seen Silver Efex using a red filter turning a red roof in the distance into something similar looking as in this photo but never on such a scale.

[Nass]

Well, ND110 is definitely involved because it's a 181s exposure. But when I do this my sea isn't anything like as white =) IR or red does make the sea light, but not white. Just piddling around with some old sea & land RAWs, I'm finding that to get this from my ND110s of similar length I have to add 4 stops to the foreground (to get the sea white) but lose 2 stops from the sky to get streaks. I'm guessing there's GND filtration on top of ND110, with extra PP fiddling afterwards.

[LowVoltage]

Came across this and I like it very much. How do you think this is done - I've tried engaging with the photographer but not getting any replies. What I'm especially intrigued by is how the water is lighter than the sky. Whenever I do ND110 it's the other way around. Is it:

* Direction (sun facing)?
* Wind (windier = white waves)?
* 2 GNDs to block off sky and bottom?
* Silver Efex?
* PP with Levels?
* Image merging of some different type?

To address the issue of lightness of the water, I suspect it's combination of post processing and using either the black-and-white adjustment layers or channel mixer adjustment layers. Depending on the color of the water before the conversion, a green, blue, or high contrast blue filter in the B&W adjustment layers would significantly alter the tonal values. I've used the blue filter option to make my skies go stark white with similar results. The same thing occurred here except the sky was not affected because it was over cast.

Also, this would have been a very long exposure, as there is no detail in the water. Such long exposures can give the impression of a fogged mirror or ice. Here's a link to another example that has some rocks in the foreground. In the distance you can see the merging of the details into a flat surface, but the rocks look more as if they are in fog. (Photo credit goes to Mark Adamus - I wish I shot the image, though!)

[ToGo]

This may be helpful. On the comments of the Long Pier Photo found this.

Q: I hope you don't mind me asking, what are you doing to get such a dark sky but retain such a white sea? Grad filters? Red filter? Polariser?

A: None of the filters you mentioned. It's a result of two entirely different things: shooting in a direction where the water is brighter than the sky, and pushing the contrasts further in PS.

May also have to do with the time of day. The sky might be darker than the light reflected off the water at sunrise or sunset especially with a long exposure.

[Nass]

Ahhhh thank you ToGo

[philippe]

Mirror like water and veil like clouds —> long exposure (tripod).
Dark earth and almost washed out whites with sharp lines (water, cabin an rocks) —> play with the levels.
Wait for the right weather...
The rest —> trial and error combined with some skills till the desired effect is achieved
Perhaps, really perhaps, a polarizer for the water, but I VERRY MUCH doubt it!
That's how I would do it, I don't know how he did it...

[Nass]

A polariser would, I'd have thought, have the opposite effect

[philippe]

A polarizer can sometimes be used in both ways, to stop reflections and to accentuate them, a lot has to do with the angle of the reflected light an the characteristics of that light.
Yes, I doubt too that a polarizer was used, but I wouldn't have wanted to rule it out...
I wasn't there, I am just guessing and a polarizer could be a part of the trial and error section...
BTW, trial and error is sometimes the fun part of photography, particularly digital because no film is involved, and errors can so easily be deleted.

[kheldour]

BTW, trial and error is sometimes the fun part of photography, particularly digital because no film is involved, and errors can so easily be deleted.

I totally agree - and that is the beauty of digital photography and plenty of hard drive space

I believe, that a very long exposure and a ND filter was involved in that picture.