Yosemite: Tunnel View: Sunrise

Nikolai

Jeff, here you are:


Sony 828, jpeg, processed in CS2.
I'd like to thank Marc Muench for the advice on how to take this shot.

jwear

OK buddy now I can go to bed --at sun rise ?? you sure did get what Mark said you would the forground looks dark but that may be this monitor I am not at home good night Nik

Nikolai

Sunrise, sunset:-)

jwear wrote:

OK buddy now I can go to bed --at sun rise ?? you sure did get what Mark said you would the forground looks dark but that may be this monitor I am not at home good night Nik

Nah, it's not your monitor.
It WAS dark. I got some of it out, and I could have done more, but it would be a bit unrealistic to have nicely lit foreground when you're staring right into the rising sun:-)

Have a good one, Jeff!

wxwax

OK, now I'm starting to understand what Marc was talking about. It had me stumped. Thanks.

Nikolai

You're mostly welcome!

wxwax wrote:

OK, now I'm starting to understand what Marc was talking about. It had me stumped. Thanks.

It got me, too. But I just decided - what the heck, I'm here to learn, it cost nothing to try - and it turned out ok. Too bad I only have f/8, you guys with your big berthas can go f/22.. Next time I'll have ND20 ready:-)

Cheers, Sid!

ginger_55

I don't know what Marc was talking about, but I think it is too dark, gorgeous sun, but that could be anywhere.

I agree that there needs to be a natural light and darkness. I think it is too easy to use the shadow highlight control to take the drama, for better for worse, out of a shot.

But I really do think you need a touch of foreground in order to set the piece.

You do so well on your own....... I would give it a shot at lightening it, just to where we see the shapes. You can't lose anything except sleep and time. None of us has those.

Gorgeous sun, is there a tunnel? Or an area where the rocks make a tunnel?

ginger

Nikolai

Ginger,

ginger_55 wrote:

I don't know what Marc was talking about, but I think it is too dark, gorgeous sun, but that could be anywhere.

I agree that there needs to be a natural light and darkness. I think it is too easy to use the shadow highlight control to take the drama, for better for worse, out of a shot.

But I really do think you need a touch of foreground in order to set the piece.

You do so well on your own....... I would give it a shot at lightening it, just to where we see the shapes. You can't lose anything except sleep and time. None of us has those.

Gorgeous sun, is there a tunnel? Or an area where the rocks make a tunnel?

ginger

I tried, it becomes lame. If it was not for the Bridal Veil falls, I would make it total silhouette, since the Half Fome pretty much guarantees it's not "anywhere"..

Speaking of the tunnel and the rocks.. No, ma'am, the tunnel is 300 feet behind me. And at this distance it's not the rocks either. This is "shoot-straight-against-the-sun" tirck Marc taught us. The only problem is - you only have about 10 seconds to get it, maybe 30 top..

CatOne

ginger_55 wrote:

I don't know what Marc was talking about, but I think it is too dark, gorgeous sun, but that could be anywhere.

I agree that there needs to be a natural light and darkness. I think it is too easy to use the shadow highlight control to take the drama, for better for worse, out of a shot.

But I really do think you need a touch of foreground in order to set the piece.

You do so well on your own....... I would give it a shot at lightening it, just to where we see the shapes. You can't lose anything except sleep and time. None of us has those.

Gorgeous sun, is there a tunnel? Or an area where the rocks make a tunnel?

ginger

This is an extremely difficult shot to take. The problem is, the sky is VERY bright, and the foreground is in shade.

There are really 3 ways you can take this shot, and make it work:

1) Use a graduated neutral density filter, probably 3 stops in this case, over the sky, bringing back down in a range that the camera can handle. Digitals can do MAYBE 6 stops... and the sky in this picture is at least 5 stops brighter than the foreground. That's the difference between "white with detail" and "black with detail" on the zone system. Which means if you make the sky blue, the foreground will be black. This is really the only way you can do it with slide film.

2) Take the exposure twice -- once exposed for the sky (looks properly exposed here), and then once exposed for the foreground (probably 3 stops brighter), and then use Photoshop to merge the two photos together -- sky from one, foreground from another.

3) Use Photoshops new "Merge to HDR" feature to blend 5 or 7 bracketed shots. I tinkered with this a bit this weekend, but don't have any great results to show from it. It's probably not an option with this particular shot, because the key thing was to use the camera stopped to a particular aperture to get the star points on the sun. HDR would not look right here.

You may be able to create a mask and bring the foreground up a bit in this photo, but practically it's quite dark so if you really push it, the foreground will look bad. There will be a ton of noise.

Nikolai

Totally agree

CatOne wrote:

This is an extremely difficult shot to take. The problem is, the sky is VERY bright, and the foreground is in shade.

There are really 3 ways you can take this shot, and make it work:

1) Use a graduated neutral density filter, probably 3 stops in this case, over the sky, bringing back down in a range that the camera can handle. Digitals can do MAYBE 6 stops... and the sky in this picture is at least 5 stops brighter than the foreground. That's the difference between "white with detail" and "black with detail" on the zone system. Which means if you make the sky blue, the foreground will be black. This is really the only way you can do it with slide film.

2) Take the exposure twice -- once exposed for the sky (looks properly exposed here), and then once exposed for the foreground (probably 3 stops brighter), and then use Photoshop to merge the two photos together -- sky from one, foreground from another.

3) Use Photoshops new "Merge to HDR" feature to blend 5 or 7 bracketed shots. I tinkered with this a bit this weekend, but don't have any great results to show from it. It's probably not an option with this particular shot, because the key thing was to use the camera stopped to a particular aperture to get the star points on the sun. HDR would not look right here.

You may be able to create a mask and bring the foreground up a bit in this photo, but practically it's quite dark so if you really push it, the foreground will look bad. There will be a ton of noise.

Unfortunately, I was kinda unprepared for this at all. Setting up all the filters, bracketing and such would take me an eternity and I'd lose the moment. I only had time to take two shots, and second one was already goofy.

And you also totally right about noise. I could push it, but it becomes ugly.

Thank you very much for your input, I will play with this new HDR merge CS2 feature, I have some bracketed shots for the other targets!

Looking forward to your version of these few seconds:-)

Cheers!

CatOne

Nikolai wrote:

Unfortunately, I was kinda unprepared for this at all. Setting up all the filters, bracketing and such would take me an eternity and I'd lose the moment. I only had time to take two shots, and second one was already goofy.

And you also totally right about noise. I could push it, but it becomes ugly.

Thank you very much for your input, I will play with this new HDR merge CS2 feature, I have some bracketed shots for the other targets!

Looking forward to your version of these few seconds:-)

Cheers!

I'd like to show you my version, but I only hiked half way up that rock. So I was set up and facing the same direction, but I didn't hear what Marc was planning.

I looked at the scene, saw the light levels, and didn't find anything inspiring to shoot. I knew how troubling it was; I was there in February and took a few shots from that spot, but I didn't like any. I took a few from the gates of the valley (below that spot, on the river), and also had issues with the light.

Here's the best I got from the trip in February:



I think I only took 2 shots from that location, and one was to the side (which, actually, I sort of liked but you can't tell it's Yosemite )

Nikolai

Sweet!

CatOne wrote:

I'd like to show you my version, but I only hiked half way up that rock. So I was set up and facing the same direction, but I didn't hear what Marc was planning.

I looked at the scene, saw the light levels, and didn't find anything inspiring to shoot. I knew how troubling it was; I was there in February and took a few shots from that spot, but I didn't like any. I took a few from the gates of the valley (below that spot, on the river), and also had issues with the light.

Here's the best I got from the trip in February:..

Nice shot, I like the mist. I am now wondering what if the same shot had been taken with like 30 sec exposure and a stack of NDs..

Cheers!

aero-nut

Cool! Yours turned out better than my try. It was definately a challenge to capture what Mark was refering to...but I think yours is the closest I've seen yet.

Nikolai

For some reason

aero-nut wrote:

Cool! Yours turned out better than my try. It was definately a challenge to capture what Mark was refering to...but I think yours is the closest I've seen yet.

..I haven't seen a single one from the same "moment". I mean - I've seen a lot from the Tunnel, but not the "star"..

aero-nut

Nik,

This was my try:




And a pic of the other photog's near by...



(I think that's Mark on the right)

Nikolai

I see...

aero-nut wrote:

Nik,
This was my try:
(I think that's Mark on the right)

I think you were simply a few seconds too late. I took two of mine within about 10 sec difference, and the second one was no good whatsoever..

The first one of yours is still possible to save in the post, although that flare killed the fog patch:-(

And yes, that was Marc:-)

Cheers! Check out my new "reflection" series:-)

aero-nut

Here's about 5 minutes after sunrise:

Nikolai

Verrry nice!!

aero-nut wrote:

Here's about 5 minutes after sunrise

Great work..
Essentially, all you have to do is to find SOME object that blocks your lens for the direct sun light - but man, sometimes it's so hard to find it..:-)