Stormy sunset at Canal Rocks
We have had some rough weather down here. Last evening I took my D800E to Canal Rocks. It was hardly ideal conditions, wind gusting to 45 knots, spray everywhere, and shooting into the sun. The camera was in a rain cover to protect it from the spray. I couldn’t let go of the tripod or it would have blown over. I had seen some evidence that the D800E was very good at recovering detail from shadows, so I just braced myself, tried to steady the tripod and decreased the exposure until the sky was not blown out (except directly at the sun). The rocks and water all looked pretty black. Back at home and in Lightroom I was easily able to recover the shadows!
Stormy sunset at Canal Rocks
This was not the best image to judge the resolution of the D800E – at times it was all I could do to stand up, and focussing through the plastic of the rain cover was difficult. However a large print looks pretty good, so I am pleased with the result.
Ian Wiese's Photography Blog 
I like it Ian…showing off the dynamic range of the new camera very nicely! Did you use Multiply blend mode for the vignette?
May 9, 2012 at 1:06 pm
I had seen that the camera is outstanding in recovering detail from shadows, so I tried to avoid blowing out the sky. I will post the Out of Camera image without adjustments. Initially I used Lightroom and pretty much boosted shadows as much as I could, Blacks by a large amount, and reduced highlights and whites by a large amount also. It was still too dark so I sent it to Photoshop, and dodged the image (in Luminosity mode using a custom curve to avoid colour changes). The vignette came about because I didn’t dodge the edges so much. Watch for the OOC image.
I wasn’t confident of getting a result – it was blowing a gale, and it was shoot and hope – looking at the Liveview screen through plastic when you are battling to stand up isn’t ideal conditions. I wasn’t trying to test out the resolution, as it was all I could do to stop the camera blowing away, but the full size image is pretty respectable.
May 9, 2012 at 1:29 pm
Yep a very respectable image in those conditions mate! 🙂
May 9, 2012 at 1:38 pm