Sundown on Fire

End of a day's drive and arrived in Kakadu National Park for the night. Marion took this great shot at 24 mm of the sunset that ignites the trees, and I followed his lead on the next shot, but with a telephoto lens @ 400 mm (640 mm equiv.)

This picture was taken in the Landes region (France). To avoid an high contrast due to the direct sunlight, I've made shadows above the subject. The resulted picture was nice but too dull, so I've adjusted the picture this way (you can compare we the original photo right above, by using the comparison feature).

Conditions for this shot was not round up. It took more than 30 minutes to get this shot: wind, sun, choosing the branch, etc. Subject was also to far so I couldn't create a shadow on it myself because I also need to be present on the camera to release the shutter in the exact […]

I've deliberately used a very thin depth of field (ƒ3.5) to effectively enhance the outline of each leaf. I've made a test with a low aperture (higher ƒ); the result was way different, way less graphic and pleasant — at least for me —.