Yo Yo Yosemite

dls

My second photo post to Dgrin. These were pix from late January in Yosemite. From the iconic Tunnel View site, awaiting the rise of full moon. Pleasantly surprised by the location of the moonrise, but irritated by my crummy tripod that could not keep still in the wind during the exposures. Lighting would have been better the day before, as the moon would not likely have been so blown out. Still need to try HDR some day...

1. Awaiting the rising moon



2. Classic view from Tunnel View



3. Full moon/Half Dome



4. El Cap




Thanks for looking, C&C welcome!

JC

I really like number 3. It definitely puts a unique twist on a fairly common viewpoint. I'd like to see what it would like with a different white balance, to remove the blue cast from the snow. And I think you can play around with the curves to increase some contrast in the mid tones and shadows without blowing out the moon and other highlights too much.

morgan20

2 is stunning. Amazing. Incredible.

schmoo

WHOAH on the #3 full moon shot! It doesn't look like a moon so much as the burning eye of The Beast.

...... in other words, I love it

dls

Thank you all for your kind comments. It is encouraging.

Kolibri - Thanks for the C&C. I was not entirely happy with the shot, and appreciate your suggestions in post-processing. I tend have a lighter touch in PP, and I guess it needs a little more coaxing at times! I hope this looks a bit better. Let me know if you think it is overcooked/grainy/overly contrasty. Mostly just adjusted the white balance and the curves.

JC

dls wrote:

Thank you all for your kind comments. It is encouraging.

Kolibri - Thanks for the C&C. I was not entirely happy with the shot, and appreciate your suggestions in post-processing. I tend have a lighter touch in PP, and I guess it needs a little more coaxing at times! I hope this looks a bit better. Let me know if you think it is overcooked/grainy/overly contrasty. Mostly just adjusted the white balance and the curves.

Take what I say with a grain of salt, I'm on a laptop, and it isn't very faithful for color or luminance, but I think you overcorrected there. Can you split the difference? Just playing around with the jpg, I get this (which is probably too cyan, but you can probably do better playing with the raw file):

and what is the fogging in the lower right? Was your exposure long enough to get someone's headlight?

coscorrosa

Very cool! My favorites are #2 (awesome clouds!) and #3. For #3 - keep it as the original - it's the best of all the versions in this thread. Also - if you haven't been infected with the HDR disease yet, I would suggest staying away and trying manual exposure blends first (I have nothing against HDR in principle, just in practice, most people abuse it and use it when it's completely not necessary). A lighter post-processing touch is not something you should be moving away from IMO

deb22

Dan,I don't come into landscapes often but #3 is awesome. I like the lighter shades that kolibri did on the mountains but I think you would lose the mood if you did too much.So it is probably better as is.

dls

kolibri wrote:

Take what I say with a grain of salt, I'm on a laptop, and it isn't very faithful for color or luminance, but I think you overcorrected there. Can you split the difference? Just playing around with the jpg, I get this (which is probably too cyan, but you can probably do better playing with the raw file):
and what is the fogging in the lower right? Was your exposure long enough to get someone's headlight?

Thanks for the input. I did the correction on a netbook (still waiting to update my hardware), so it is good to know what others think about the photos with a more calibrated set up. Initially, I had kept it rather dark and favored a cooler white balance just to maintain the evening/moonlit feel. I agree that my over correction probably made it look a little too much like the sun, and lost too much detail in the shadows. The fuzzy thing in the lower right is my attempt at an unobtrusive watermark.

dls

coscorrosa wrote:

Very cool! My favorites are #2 (awesome clouds!) and #3. For #3 - keep it as the original - it's the best of all the versions in this thread. Also - if you haven't been infected with the HDR disease yet, I would suggest staying away and trying manual exposure blends first (I have nothing against HDR in principle, just in practice, most people abuse it and use it when it's completely not necessary). A lighter post-processing touch is not something you should be moving away from IMO

Thanks Ron, for the encouragement. In regards to HDR, my current setup is so woefully underpowered that I can't do it even if I pined for it! So you can count this photog out of that arena at least for a next few months...

dls

deb22 wrote:

Dan,I don't come into landscapes often but #3 is awesome. I like the lighter shades that kolibri did on the mountains but I think you would lose the mood if you did too much.So it is probably better as is.

Glad you ventured to this forum this time. And thanks for the input. Am quite envious of your Snowy Owl shots, BTW...

dseidman

Excellent series of images, Dan. I especially like the second one.