simply poetic Marc, congrats on some amazing photographs

thanks for sharing these


J

Beautiful series, Marc. I'm amazed at the foreground clarity and detail in the third, but they are all magnificent.

Kevin

Outstanding work Marc! The clouds radiating out in the second image is fantastic... wow. The last one seems like it just fits.

The good superlatives have all be used already...thanks again for another vicarious thrill from the high places. Dave

Amazing work as always Marc.

Absolutely stunning images; they'd easily be at home in any gallery I've ever been to.

Hey Marc,

Wow, what awesome shots as usual! Great to have you come in and show these, I know I am always inspired and appreciate it.

Did you use that 8 stop ND filter for #2? Are you using a hard or soft edge grad ND filter? I know some really like the hard edge, but for me when I use a hard edge it is just too noticable. So I have stuck with using a soft edge so that it blends in better.

Thanks!

Jim

Hello Marc,

I knew I would be in for a treat when I saw this thread and boy was I ever? With all the superlatives used I can only emphasize the light captured on ALL of these is stunning.

Like Jim and some of the others I am interested if you can share which filters and experience you have found successful. The 16 -35 sounds like a phenomenal lens.

I look forward to viewing more of your work and seeing your comments.

Al B

Awesome pics no doubt! Personally I find the foregrounds a bit
underexposed. A slight s-curve that hightens midtones and
highlights while keeping the shadows where they are works
better for me. Otherwise they're adorable, especially #2 to #5.
I just love the blues and magentas.

Fantastic series Marc! Really inspiring.

Without shadow of a doubt the best series I have seen on FM. The second is particularly nice, I plan to try this technique myself over Christmas.

Alex

Marc:

Beautiful work! Could you share with us a few details about the second one (the time exposure)? Specifically the time of day it was taken, filters used, etc.

Thanks!!

Ron S.

Wonderful series - these all show what photography is all about - capturing the light. Everything is totally perfect here....

JimFox wrote:
Hey Marc,

Wow, what awesome shots as usual! Great to have you come in and show these, I know I am always inspired and appreciate it.

Did you use that 8 stop ND filter for #2? Are you using a hard or soft edge grad ND filter? I know some really like the hard edge, but for me when I use a hard edge it is just too noticable. So I have stuck with using a soft edge so that it blends in better.

Thanks!

Jim


Hi Jim. No ND filters were used for #2 except the grad. A polarizer was on there too. With the color in the sky and on the background peaks being so vibrant I can see how someone might believe the image was taken closer to sunset. It was actually taken 45 minutes after the last direct light left the peaks. At the time of the exposure only the faintest color and light was percievable to my eye. The camera picked up a great deal of the remaining glow on both the peaks and clouds. Exposures long after sunset often result in colors much more rich than we can actually discern at the time of capture.

I almost always use hard edge grads and I almost always hand hold them. I can move them a little during longer exposures if I need to reduce the transition line, which can also be corrected to some extent in post processing. This just works best for me. It's different for some. Soft grads tend to darken the tops of the frame too much at times and often don't emphasize the areas with the greatest exposure challenges around the horizons.

MarcR wrote:
Awesome pics no doubt! Personally I find the foregrounds a bit
underexposed. A slight s-curve that hightens midtones and
highlights while keeping the shadows where they are works
better for me. Otherwise they're adorable, especially #2 to #5.
I just love the blues and magentas.




Hi Marc. Thanks for the comment. It's worth noting that the foregrounds in each image are actually considerably brighter in relation to the highlights than they would have appeared naturally (and more contrasty) with the possible exception being #2, so I'm a little hesitant to bring them up even more. I understand that some may have a personal preferance towards more dramaticly bright foregrounds as have been popularized by some mainstream landscape photographers of late.

Al B wrote:
Hello Marc,

I knew I would be in for a treat when I saw this thread and boy was I ever? With all the superlatives used I can only emphasize the light captured on ALL of these is stunning.

Like Jim and some of the others I am interested if you can share which filters and experience you have found successful. The 16 -35 sounds like a phenomenal lens.

I look forward to viewing more of your work and seeing your comments.

Al B




Thanks Al. Good to hear from you. I am especially prone to using 2, 3 and 3 stop reverse graduated filters. The big 4x6 ones, by Singh-Ray. I often slap on a polarizer also and rotate it to get the maximum definition out of any clouds in the frame unless the clouds were pretty dramatic anyway. #5 is a great example of how that polarizer/grad combo really makes the sky 'pop'. My version without the polarizer rotated over the sky just isn't nearly the same thing. Gotta be careful to not over-do it though. The effect of a polarizer and 3-stop grad on a sky is strong stuff.

I never use any warming filters these days. I haven't since I shot film. RAW processing gives me too much color control to warrant it. I also have a 2 and 4 stop ND in the bag that don't come out often.

Edited by Marc Adamus on Dec 11, 2007 at 09:39 AM GMT

Marc Adamus wrote:
I understand that some may have a personal preferance towards more dramaticly bright foregrounds as have been popularized by some mainstream landscape photographers of late.

Hehe. I guess I'm one of those then (the ones with the preference, not the mainstream
landscape photographers ) Thanks for back-commenting. I appreciate your taking
my comment seriously

Amazing series. I can't believe you can hand hold the camera and get shots like these. I'm jealous! The third shot is my favorite.

Sharon

Amazing shots as always, Marc. I sent you an email a few weeks back about the specifics of your grad ND/polarizer/etc. setup. I'm moving to FF soon and will need to make the switch (my current setup is fine on a crop body, but will be too small on FF).

Obviously, you were out in the field doing some great work... I understand the delay in the response.

pearlstreet wrote:
Amazing series. I can't believe you can hand hold the camera and get shots like these. I'm jealous! The third shot is my favorite.

Sharon

Sharon, I highly doubt Marc was hand-holding the camera for these. He might have been hand-holding the Grad. NDs (don't we all at times?) but I doubt the whole setup...

- Scott

Yes. I referred to the grads, not the camera. NEVER hand hold the camera for shots like these!

Excellent shots. Thanks for sharing.

What are the biggest prints you've made with your 5D Marc? I'm curious if you've ever thought of trying of trying a Zeiss or Leica prime to get more resolution out of your camera like some have.

One other quick questions as well. What do you do about batteries? Do you take that many extras, or have a solar charger or what? I know cold is hard on batteries, and I'm just curious how you overcome that.

roberto1979 wrote:
What are the biggest prints you've made with your 5D Marc? I'm curious if you've ever thought of trying of trying a Zeiss or Leica prime to get more resolution out of your camera like some have.


I did some 40x60's for a medical center in San Diego last week. I did a 40x120 for a guy working a tradshow once too. It's all about viewing distance and clean files to start with. Any noise or mishandling of color/contrast gradient is really going to show up at that size. The detail is understandably not LF. quality at 40x60, but stand back five feet and who cares! I'd put up 20x30's to be scrutinized in galleries without hesitation though.

To answer your second question, I actually feel that any possible advantage in quality is so small that it's simply not worth it for me to carry the extra glass. I carry too much as it is.

roberto1979 wrote:
One other quick questions as well. What do you do about batteries? Do you take that many extras, or have a solar charger or what? I know cold is hard on batteries, and I'm just curious how you overcome that.


Take extras, keep them warm in your pockets before using them if you need to.