Yosemite, quick!

schmoo

Dgrin never ceases to be one of my favorite places. All of you here bring not only great views and light from all corners of the globe, but the energy that you have to pursue these adventures is the perfect poke to break free from the mundane.

Some of us are a little nuttier than others, but the important thing is that we all speak the same language. :lol3

That said, I didn't have time to drive out to Yosemite this weekend, but I did. I was coming down with a nasty cold, my car needs service, it was a really long week at work and we were exhausted, and we had plans on Sunday. But there was the chance of snow in the forecast, so while all signs were pointing to "No," we said "Yes" anyway.



It was an absolutely wonderful time even though it was raining cats and dogs from the Bay to Mariposa. There was indeed snow on the ground once we got into the park, but it was tired old snow from earlier in the week, dampened squishy with the rain that continued to fall.

Crappy weather isn't really crappy. It just keeps the majority of tourists away. Crappy weather + Mountains = phenomenal opportunity. Google "Yosemite+tunnel+view" and you'll see the same blue sky green leaf shots until the end of time. Yawn! I wanted something different and Mother Nature was kind enough to oblige.



Yosemite is one of those places that takes a lot of warming up to. It's so accessible and "close" (in CA terms) and it was quickly becoming another one of those things we take for granted here. I'm glad that the first time we got to really see it was so different. We drove the Yosemite Valley loop several times and never saw El Capitan or upper Yosemite Falls. And probably a gazillion other things that Dgrinners have posted over the years.



Any feedback or assistance with processing or black/white conversion would be quite welcome. I can't put my finger on why my conversions are always either too contrasty or too flat. But I've been processing the same way for 3 years and I'm starting to think that maybe there's something I'm missing that can give it more oomph! without losing dynamic range. :scratch

Thanks, guys. For real!!

Richard

schmoo wrote:

Any feedback or assistance with processing or black/white conversion would be quite welcome. I can't put my finger on why my conversions are always either too contrasty or too flat.

These are way too flat. Use curves to raise the black point and increase the contrast in the darker tones. If it still doesn't look good, duplicate the curve and put the new one in one of the overlay modes and adjust the opacity till it looks good. I'll send you a sample by PM.

schmoo

Richard wrote:

These are way too flat. Use curves to raise the black point and increase the contrast in the darker tones. If it still doesn't look good, duplicate the curve and put the new one in one of the overlay modes and adjust the opacity till it looks good. I'll send you a sample by PM.

Hi Richard, thanks for the help!

I do that already. Actually, what I do first is set the black and white point using curves. Then use several adjustment layers to tweak, masking out areas that don't need the extra bump.

All of that is already covered in the tutorials here on Dgrin. And that is the general method that I've been taught on the workshops I've attended.

When I look at my work from 2007 or so I wince because I had such a heavy hand with the curves. Maybe now I've just eased up too much?

Richard

schmoo wrote:

Maybe now I've just eased up too much?

At least in this set you did.

schmoo

Richard wrote:

At least in this set you did.

I am so paranoid about losing shadow detail I try to keep only the very darkest areas truly black (or at least a value of 7, which is the number I think our house tutorial recommends). When I get home I'll try pushing it a little further. I got your PM!

Richard

schmoo wrote:

I am so paranoid about losing shadow detail I try to keep only the very darkest areas truly black (or at least a value of 7, which is the number I think our house tutorial recommends). When I get home I'll try pushing it a little further. I got your PM!

I hear you, but you have to think about whether seeing every twig is more important than the overall dramatic impact. As always, it depends on the image and what your goals are. Dunno--maybe I've been spending too much time looking at BD and Rutt's pics .

LiquidAir

schmoo wrote:

When I look at my work from 2007 or so I wince because I had such a heavy hand with the curves. Maybe now I've just eased up too much?

I find that how far I push down the darks depends on my target ouput device. I'll push them down less when printing that I do for the screen.

That said, I think what you want to do with these images is selectively darken the greens to get more separation between the rocks and the trees. Try an orange or red filter before you convert or, if you are using ACR/Lightroom for your conversion, drag the green luminance slider down a bit. I like the detail you have preserved in the trees, so take it easy; just push them down far enough for the granite to pop out a bit more.

scole

I agree with the general comment about the need for a little more punch in the blacks. I love the first shot since the cloud level actually morphs this much photographed vantage into something new. Regarding the third shot, I would crop the bottom just above the people and viewpoint. The main subject of the photo (the waterfalls) finish well before this point in your photo so cropping them out wouldn't hurt the photo.

schmoo

LiquidAir wrote:

I find that how far I push down the darks depends on my target ouput device. I'll push them down less when printing that I do for the screen.

That said, I think what you want to do with these images is selectively darken the greens to get more separation between the rocks and the trees. Try an orange or red filter before you convert or, if you are using ACR/Lightroom for your conversion, drag the green luminance slider down a bit. I like the detail you have preserved in the trees, so take it easy; just push them down far enough for the granite to pop out a bit more.

Great point, Ken! I somehow completely forgotten the basic idea that how you process for printing should be different from how you process for viewing on a backlit device.

When processing these I actually pushed the greens/yellows UP to bring out detail, while pushing down the cyans/blues to give more contrast to the rocks and clouds. I'll try doing the opposite and seeing how that works. You and Richard are right about going for the overall effect rather than catching every single pine needle in the bg. Thanks! (and hope things are going well for ya too)

schmoo

scole wrote:

I agree with the general comment about the need for a little more punch in the blacks. I love the first shot since the cloud level actually morphs this much photographed vantage into something new. Regarding the third shot, I would crop the bottom just above the people and viewpoint. The main subject of the photo (the waterfalls) finish well before this point in your photo so cropping them out wouldn't hurt the photo.

Thanks for the feedback! It sounds across the board that these are a bit flat, which confirms my fears. As for the third shot, I intentionally framed the people there to show just how big the trees and the waterfall are. Think cropping them out would still leave an impact?

Mazlim

I also am in agreeance about the 'flatness' of the images, but that has been said already. What I like about the first two images is the cloud detail, and especially the first one, where the tops of the mountains are rising up into nothingness.

I actually prefer the people in the last shot because it gives me a sense of scale for the waterfalls and trees. Here in South Australia (and Australia, even) we don't have anything near as high as these falls and when I saw it I went, "Whoa, that is HUGE". So I like them in there. :-)

CWSkopec

schmoo wrote:

Thanks for the feedback! It sounds across the board that these are a bit flat, which confirms my fears. As for the third shot, I intentionally framed the people there to show just how big the trees and the waterfall are. Think cropping them out would still leave an impact?

WOWZER!!

Nice shots, Schmoo! And excellent conditions!

I agree that a little darker black point would help them really pop, but great comps! I generally don't like to see peoples in landscape shots, but I absolutely wouldn't crop the folks out of the falls shot. I think you'd lose the scale and impact entirely. I have some shots from '08 of the falls and very patiently waited until I could get shots without people and while they're still nice shots, they lack a scale to show how impressively massive the falls/trees are.

coscorrosa

schmoo wrote:

Some of us are a little nuttier than others, but the important thing is that we all speak the same language.

Hey now!

Here's my opinion on the conversions: For the first one, it could definitely benefit from an increased contrast, the second could benefit a little too (though not as much), and the third one is perfect as-is. The softer contrast gives it a sort of timeless appeal, it could have been taken yesterday or 50 years ago. Most people (including myself) try to emulate the high-contrast type stuff of Ansel (especially in Yosemite!), so it's nice to see something different.

And yes, the people help with the sense of scale so I'd leave them in there.

Glad that you had a chance to visit Yosemite, even if for a day.

Thwack

Congrats on making it to Yosemite! Now you just need to find time to get back when Tioga Road is open, and Glacier Point, and…

I think cropping out the people in the Yosemite Falls shot weakens the shot. The people give it scale but you'd also lose the base of the trees in the foreground.

Marc Muench

Sorry, I'm a bit late on this post, but better late than never.

I really like the first image as is

You actually have a great black point, its just tiny. I think its great high-key and making the only black point on the FAMOUS tree is cool.

Regarding adding more contrast to any of these, I think that would be misleading, IMO!
What these need is not a darker black point but simply darker mid tones. I think Liquidair is on to that!

It looks as though the light was flat in the first place, so I say go with that and make em all a bit high-key

schmoo

Thanks to everyone for the additional feedback. And Marc I really, really appreciate you checking in!

Part of the reason why I kept a soft hand for these is because one of the things I picked up through MU was that distance and fog lend themselves to low-contrast. It certainly had both going on for the two panos, but yet to me they still don't look quite "right."

I never thought about darkening midtones before. Since I have been working on my site and not on these photos, I still have time to play with these more.

Thank you!

(And Thwack, I appreciate your vote of confidence! Since you're local, I'm surprised I didn't see you there too )

dlplumer

I'm really late to the party although I did comment on these in FB.

Much smarter folks than I have already given you their opinions on conversion so I will just leave you with this:

schmoo

dlplumer wrote:

I'm really late to the party although I did comment on these in FB.

Much smarter folks than I have already given you their opinions on conversion so I will just leave you with this:

Thanks, Dan! You're very kind... and you don't give yourself enough credit!

acowan

Nice set......especially #3...really captures the scale! Regarding the contrast, I agree with Marc about darkening the midtones. I use a midtone luminosity channel and apply a curve to that, but then again I get a little carried away with the contrast at times. However, I've noticed that Ansel Adams' photos really work that broad 10-zone spectrum of brightness/exposure. These three photos aren't lacking too much, just a tweak can make a big difference.

dls

Glad you made it out to Yosemite! Looks like I missed you by a week. I don't have much to add, except I rather like the shots. Great comp, and #3 is particularly striking. Hope you get a chance to get out there some more and show us some more of this iconic spot of earth.

Tharhawk

I like them...cause I've never been there...even though I drove there too, but the passes all closed on me and I couldn't get back over in time.

The clouds are great and I like them...even if a bit flat. Finding those good cloudy/sunny days are hard.

Thwack

schmoo wrote:

(And Thwack, I appreciate your vote of confidence! Since you're local, I'm surprised I didn't see you there too )

I was out there the weekend before with my son. We spent most of the time at Fern Spring (posted a pic in the Waterfall thread). Caught some weird ice crystal patterns on the paved parking area at Bridalveil Fall but need to do more post-processing to see if they're worth sharing.

So, missed you by a weekend, sorry. I'm hoping to get back later this month for a few days to try capturing Horsetail Fall with a buddy. I know where to shoot from, just need the weather to cooperate.

thapamd

Beautiful, moody shots...I haven't been to Yosemite in a long time...it's high time I went, I think.