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Sunset at Mount Sidney Road—Smoketown

What better place to catch a smoky sky than in Smoketown?

I’ve eyed up this location for a few years now. It’s not great in bright daylight, but I’ve thought it might make a nice view in the evening.

Last night, Kris and I had gone for ice cream, and afterwards were driving around in the post sunset glow. Canadian fires continue to tint the evening sky.

We parked off Mount Sidney Road, I had time to frame up the scene, set the ISO rating on my Z7-II to 8000, and lo-and-behold, there was the blue-white sheen of an ACS-64’s headlights on the rail.

Even at ISO8000 my exposure was f4 at 1.60th of a second.

I processed the NEF RAW file using DxO PureRaw to create a DNG file, which I then imported into Lightroom for minor adjustment. Among other corrections, PureRaw eliminated the granular effect of ISO.

Below is the straight NEF RAW scaled and converted to JPG but unaltered in terms of appearance (exposure, color, contrast, grain or vignette-control).

Straight NEF RAW scaled and converted to JPG but otherwise unaltered.
NEW RAW after conversion to DNG and cosmetically adjusted in Lightroom to enhance appearance.

Above is my interpreted NEF RAW file after conversion to DNG with changes to color, contrast, exposure etc.; below is the same file with extreme interpretation of color, contrast and exposure. The result is surreal.

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