Yosemite - Gates of the Valley

Hikin' Mike

Got to the park around 2:30 am the day after Thanksgiving. Had fun photographing different locations while the near full-moon was out. I spent sunrise at Gates of the Valley and then again in the afternoon (last image).

El Capitan at Sunrise

5D, 17-40mm, ISO 800, f/11, 1/8 & 1/20 sec hand-blended

Gates of the Valley at Sunrise

5D, 17-40mm, ISO 400, f/11, 1/50 sec 1/20 sec hand-blended

El Capitan

5D, 17-40mm, ISO 100, f/16, 1/30 sec

denisegoldberg

Very nice Mike. My favorite is the first shot.

--- Denise

Stumblebum

Sweet!

Eldon Shea

Really nice set Mike. Gates of the Valley really does it for me. I don't know what you mean by "hand" blended, but whatever that is, it really works. Great tonality and I love the touch of color in the center cloud. It makes my hands and feet cold just thinking about shooting there. Thanks for braving the cold and sharing.
Bryan

Hikin' Mike

Thanks!

Eldon Shea wrote: »

Really nice set Mike. Gates of the Valley really does it for me. I don't know what you mean by "hand" blended, but whatever that is, it really works. Great tonality and I love the touch of color in the center cloud. It makes my hands and feet cold just thinking about shooting there. Thanks for braving the cold and sharing.
Bryan

This: http://www.imagesinthebackcountry.com/blog/2012/11/23/hdr-photography-using-layer-masks-and-hand-blending-techniques-in-photoshop/

Eldon Shea

Cool tutorial, Mike. Thanks. I don't have Photoshop so have to make due with Lightroom. Not knowing what I'm missing, I don't think of it as a compromise. The new HDR mode in Lightroom 6 allows blending shots together without tone mapping, so images have extended exposure range without the HDRish appearance. That new feature was the reason I upgraded to LR6.
Bryan

sarasphotos

Hi Mike, I've been loving all of your recent Yosemite images. As others have said, thanks for braving the cold! My favorie from this set is #2.

Cheers, Sara

Hikin' Mike

Eldon Shea wrote: »

Cool tutorial, Mike. Thanks. I don't have Photoshop so have to make due with Lightroom. Not knowing what I'm missing, I don't think of it as a compromise. The new HDR mode in Lightroom 6 allows blending shots together without tone mapping, so images have extended exposure range without the HDRish appearance. That new feature was the reason I upgraded to LR6.
Bryan

I guess I'm the opposite. I don't own Lightroom and I'm still using CS2. I really don't know what Lightroom can do vs CS.

Hikin' Mike

sarasphotos wrote: »

Hi Mike, I've been loving all of your recent Yosemite images. As others have said, thanks for braving the cold! My favorie from this set is #2.

Cheers, Sara

Thanks, I just wish I could get out more. I obviously don't mind the cold...lol!

sarasphotos

Hikin' Mike wrote: »

I guess I'm the opposite. I don't own Lightroom and I'm still using CS2. I really don't know what Lightroom can do vs CS.

I've been a Lightroom user since version 1. I now have the CC Lightroom/Photoshop package so I always have the latest version. While LR is not perfect it satisfies most of my needs so that I hardly ever use Photoshop. (Of course I'm not a pro like you and don't prepare photos for sales.) It's also great to have almost all of my workflow in one program.

I love the keywording and organization features of LR use the export and publish features constantly. The Develop module has really matured and has plenty of very handy features and I couldn't live without the Map module.

Cheers, Sara