haven't read all the posts Jim,
lovin number 2. though wish for less contrast as that's generally how it always appears to me at least at that time of day. a much flatter light.
ben egbert wrote:
I like both of these. The first for the color, the second for the nice twilight look. This is the perfect brightness for an early evening shot with stars. That Samyang is amazing.
Hey Ben,
Thanks! Yeah, the Samyang is quite the lens. I am glad you liked both.
Matt Tilghman wrote:
These are so good, Jim. #2 has the slight edge for me, just for uniqueness. Your photography has gotten so much better over the 3 years, makes me wonder what I've been doing with myself
edited to add: and as such, this means your website is LONG overdue for an update
Ha ha... thanks Matt! I am glad you liked the shots. I am glad you have seen my photography grow, I think for all of us who have been here a while we have all grown, I know yours has too. It's pretty cool to look back and see how we have progressed. I think a community like this helps foster that.
skibum5 wrote:
I like that first one, nice comp and colors!
I might pump up the whites higher so it looks a bit less HDR, they may not have been full mid-day white but considering the limited DR of displays usually setting white near max ends up more natural (not always but usually for a scene like this where you have a sky area that should be brighter than a ground area and where the DR was high and you still need good range and contrast in the ground area otherwise you get the pine needles feeling about as bright as the white clouds to the eye which would be a very thing in the real world)....Show more →
Thanks, I am glad you like the first one! I have never used HDR in my life... Manual layer masks is the only way I would increase DR. The D800 helps increase the DR and helps eliminate a lot of that too. But certainly scenes like this need the sky to adjusted separately from the ground layer since even the D800 has less DR than our eyes do. As for the whites, for me at least they don't appear like HDR. They have a bit of a blue cast which is normal as the whites will reflect the sky which was blue. I did leave it slightly blue to keep that cooler nighttime feel. On shots like these, it's super easy to make the whites totally white, but every time I try that, the whites end up looking unnatural to me. So I will usually leave a bit of a color cast.
Todd wrote:
Beautiful work Jim. I really like the composition and color. I'm surprised that the Sam yang 14mm yeilds good enough quality for the D800. What is your opinion of the lens? Thanks for sharing these..
Todd
Hey Todd,
I am glad you liked these. As for the 14mm Sanyang, don't be surprised, it's a really sweet lens. It has less diffraction than any of my good Nikon lenses... f13 is the max I push any of my Nkon lenses, but with the 14mm, diffraction doesn't really show up until after f22... I still usually aim for f13 on this, but if I need to shoot at f16 or f22 I can do it with confidence. Every landscape photographer ought to have one.
I just have to add my voice to the chorus on these, Jim. They are the quintessential expression of what mountain photography is about. You really nailed them both. I recently go my own version of the SamyRockBow 14/2.8. My first use of it was disappointing as I had trouble focusing in the dark (even though everything should be in focus) and I didn't feel it was at all sharp at 2.8. But I'm planning on an excursion where I should be able to give it another try.
Jim, Both of these are nice but I would pick #2 as my favorite I think you really caught it just right for the time of day you are representing here. The long exposure works very nicely on the fg river. Regards, Dean
JimFox wrote:
Thanks, I am glad you like the first one! I have never used HDR in my life... Manual layer masks is the only way I would increase DR. The D800 helps increase the DR and helps eliminate a lot of that too. But certainly scenes like this need the sky to adjusted separately from the ground layer since even the D800 has less DR than our eyes do. As for the whites, for me at least they don't appear like HDR. They have a bit of a blue cast which is normal as the whites will reflect the sky which was blue. I did leave it slightly blue to keep that cooler nighttime feel. On shots like these, it's super easy to make the whites totally white, but every time I try that, the whites end up looking unnatural to me. So I will usually leave a bit of a color cast.
It wasn't so much the color cast which is fine, it's true that things in nature are often not truly pure white, mostly various slightly off-whites, as the relative intensities that felt a bit odd. The clouds and something about the snow don't seem bright enough compared to the pine needles, although close. Perhaps it is entirely realistic but it seems surprising that the clouds would be darker than the snow on the mountain (in the second one) and that the snow and water would be so much darker than the rocks and such, although it's all very subtle. It's a tricky thing though (as playing around with it in Viveza now myself makes especially clear ).
Still looks cool though even if just a trace not quite natural and the scene and comp and all are great!
(It must be nice having all that nice D800 DR at hand. Perhaps some day we in Canon land will have that too.... maybe 2035?
But we do have access to the Samyang. That really has got to be the biggest bargain out there! I mean 14mm with no CA, sharp to the edges (on FF!), sharper than even most L lenses in the center. Tons of distortion, but that doesn't always matter quite as much for landscape and you can correct as much as needed (at loss of a bit of resolution granted). I don't shot UWA all that often so I could never really seem to justify a wide lens but then the $300 Bower 14mm came along and not is it justifiable, other than for extreme distortion, the performance is out of this world!)
Anyway it is a great composition and I really like the first one.
With permission I could post a crazed attempt at shifting the tone balance more to the lit mountain and sky than the foreground in a perhaps slightly more natural way.
skibum5 wrote:
Anyway it is a great composition and I really like the first one.
With permission I could post a crazed attempt at shifting the tone balance more to the lit mountain and sky than the foreground in a perhaps slightly more natural way.
For sure, play and post away. It's always cool to see someone elses take on a shot. And I appreciate your thoughts on it.
skibum5 wrote:
Anyway it is a great composition and I really like the first one.
With permission I could post a crazed attempt at shifting the tone balance more to the lit mountain and sky than the foreground in a perhaps slightly more natural way.
Oh about the Samyang you mentioned in your other reply. The Samyang does have a bit of strange distortion, but there are profiles to correct that in Photoshop. Though I have found with landscape, I can't pick out the distortion other than the typical WA distortion. I have shot some test shots of horizontal blinds and you can see the blinds doing some twisting, but I think unless you are shooting buildings you don't need to worry about it. Plus, the lens profile corrects it with the touch of a button if you need to correct it.
dsjtecserv wrote:
I just have to add my voice to the chorus on these, Jim. They are the quintessential expression of what mountain photography is about. You really nailed them both. I recently go my own version of the SamyRockBow 14/2.8. My first use of it was disappointing as I had trouble focusing in the dark (even though everything should be in focus) and I didn't feel it was at all sharp at 2.8. But I'm planning on an excursion where I should be able to give it another try.
Dave
Hey Dave,
Yeah, focusing it is a bit of a trick I think, because the focus has such a wide throw... So it takes some playing around with it to get used to it. And with night shots, as much as possible I try to get it focused while there is still light to see. I have a super bright flashlight I bought a while back that I also can use for focusing at night. In my tests, yeah in dim light 2.8 doesn't seem to resolve quite as nice. I usually don't go any lower than f4 even though I can with any of my lenses for shooting at night. I would rather raise the ISO than to shoot completely wide open.
And thanks for your comments about the look of the shot.
Manual layer masks is the only way I would increase DR. The D800 helps increase the DR and helps eliminate a lot of that too. But certainly scenes like this need the sky to adjusted separately from the ground layer since even the D800 has less DR than our eyes do. As for the whites, for me at least they don't appear like HDR. They have a bit of a blue cast which is normal as the whites will reflect the sky which was blue. I did leave it slightly blue to keep that cooler nighttime feel. On shots like these, it's super easy to make the whites totally white, but every time I try that, the whites end up looking unnatural to me. So I will usually leave a bit of a color cast.
).