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Archive 2013 · Yosemite Valley Fall + Edit

  
 
Timmeh
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Yosemite Valley Fall + Edit


We made it up to Yosemite (probably a week late), for the three day weekend. Oaks were looking pretty scraggly and all the maple color was on the ground, but the cottonwoods were still good. Clouds weren't terribly cooperative, so I worked with what I had El Cap seems to be the central spot of sunrise and sunset golden light in Fall.

Two questions:
#1 was shot at sunrise and is a two shot blend in Photoshop. Are there are any artifacts (obvious or not)?

Does #2 feel cut off at the top?

Tim




#1 El Cap with a Maple Beach






#2 Cathedral Beach Sunset






#3 The Two Faces of El Cap






#4 Merced Morning Ice






#5 Golden Cottonwood on Blue Ice



Edited on Nov 20, 2013 at 01:01 AM · View previous versions



Nov 17, 2013 at 03:49 PM
Kee Woo Rhee
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Yosemite Valley Fall + Edit


Well captured and processed. Bravo!
Tim - "Does #2 feel cut off at the top?" I say "No! Just perfect! "



Nov 17, 2013 at 04:12 PM
gdanmitchell
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Yosemite Valley Fall + Edit


#1: In this small presentation (though too big for me to see at once on my laptop screen!) the blend looks great to me. I look for artifacts around the edge of trees and cliff (considering the possibility of a hard selection to define the areas) and for awkward gradients (when the blend is done with masks and a feathered brush), but I don't see any here. So, nice work with the blend. It may just be my own personal preferences coming through, but I might consider a bit of selective (masked) work with curves to possibly brighten some areas of the darker foreground. Oh, and the photograph seems to tilt to the right - look at that slender tree in front of the monolith and a bit to the left and I think you'll see it.

(Back again, and now on a larger monitor. I think I may see a bit of an unnatural gradient around the rock in the water near the lower part of the frame, and perhaps the lower section of El Cap looks a bit unnaturally light. For the former, if I'm right, a trick you can try is to do whatever adjustments you need to do on the rock and other things at the bottom of the from, then create a soft mask to define the area of the effect, but keep the boundaries of the mask inside the area your are working. We're much less likely to see that introduced gradient there than if it ends up in the water, since our eyes/brain "know" that the water shouldn't have that gradient. If you see what I see on the lower part of El Cap, you might try to apply a slight curve, masked to that area, to compensate.)

#2: This is a tricky scene and a difficult composition. That bit of foreground color - a cottonwood? - is a very attractive thing, especially backed by the darker evergreen trees and then the bulk of El Cap. And who isn't attracted to the beautiful golden hour light slanting across the granite? However, for me there are a few things that make it less successful than a couple of the other photographs you have posted. I feel like there are perhaps too many conflicting primary subjects - is it the yellow tree at the bottom, the beautiful expanse of granite between the trees, or the light on the upper face? And in the case of the yellow tree and the light on the upper face, the fact that both are cut off seems to argue against them being the primary subjects - they sort of feel to me like they aren't all quite there. To be honest, this is one tough composition. I've also found myself attracted to such scenes and their real beauty while standing there, and then found them challenging to pull off as a photograph. (To answer your specific question directly, to me it does feel cut off at the top and at the bottom. YMMV.)

You didn't ask about it, but I like your #4 quite a bit. It has a bit of an unconventional composition, which helps me regard it as an abstraction rather than as a purely real image of ice. The bit of blue at the lower right is a striking surprise. (As is so often the case, there is beauty everywhere in that Valley once you start looking around and down. :-)

Take care,

Dan

Edited on Nov 17, 2013 at 09:37 PM · View previous versions



Nov 17, 2013 at 04:15 PM
dswiger
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Yosemite Valley Fall + Edit


Tim
Nice set!
Glad to hear there's some cottonwood color as I will be up there on Tues/Wed.
But Yosemite always shows me something new!

Dan



Nov 17, 2013 at 08:42 PM
JimFox
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Yosemite Valley Fall + Edit


Hey Tim,

Very cool shots here. #1 looks very well processed. I don't detect any blending in it. My favorite is #4, a very cool and different shot.

Jim



Nov 17, 2013 at 09:08 PM
AMaji
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Yosemite Valley Fall + Edit


Great series, No. 1 is my favorite. I think it is good to read Dan's comments.


Nov 18, 2013 at 11:37 AM
gnbuzz
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Yosemite Valley Fall + Edit


Tim,

I have a very large monitor and it's still difficult to view Nos. 1 and 2 without scrolling. Just FYI to you and others who post so large. That hopefully does not detract from my expression of utmost admiration for No. 4! The converging lines in the ice, with the leaves as an anchor, with a truly "icy" feel - I really like it!

Glenn



Nov 18, 2013 at 11:54 AM
kellyakinsart
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Yosemite Valley Fall + Edit


I don't know if everyone knows this, but if you double-click on the photo (especially if it's too big for your monitor) it then fits on your screen with a nice black background. Then just click again, close it, and it goes back to normal.

BTW, great photos. I love the two close ups.

Kelly



Nov 18, 2013 at 12:50 PM
Timmeh
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Yosemite Valley Fall + Edit


Thanks for the comments all (especially Dan for the thorough write-up).

For #1, if you mean the rock just down from the El Cap reflection from the strange gradient, I can see what you're talking about. However, there are a number of things that look weird to me with the original RAWs. The very bottom bit of water seems to have a stripe that is present at the very bottom of the water (which is why I ended up overcompensating and ended up with a dark rock edge). As for the bottom of El Cap, I took all of it from one of the photos, and it looks weird there as well.

For #2, I borrowed some inspiration from your recent Lembert Dome shot as a "you don't need all of the lit granite to make a comp." It didn't feel as good as my other shots, and my wife gloated a bit about your response because she agrees with you (she only gloated a bit though).

#4 was my favorite take away from the trip (I ended up looking for leaves in ice for a good two hours).

Thanks for the tip Kelly, I accidentally did that once, but it appears to be a recent addition along with the lens included in EXIF.

Tim




#1 Edit



Edited on Nov 20, 2013 at 01:00 AM · View previous versions



Nov 18, 2013 at 10:39 PM
B Landau
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Yosemite Valley Fall + Edit


#1 is a nice composition with a good job in blending the images, but there is a definite tilt to the right side. The main tree in the reflection should be on a vertical line with its complement.


Nov 18, 2013 at 11:09 PM





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