Archive 2024 · Dream Lake moonset alignment - RMNP
p.1 #1Dream Lake moonset alignment - RMNP
The stars were right this weekend. Not just in terms of the moon phase/position, but that it landed on a weekend when I could go both days.
Saturday, I went up with my wide angle lens mounted. I had my standard zoom in my pack, but I wasn't going to try swapping lenses given the conditions. Very, very windy. As it was, I had to patrol the lake back and forth a few times, because the wind blew my lens cap about 200m away.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53549662505_75c0219bcb_h.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53548354027_5d3b4ce1ff_h.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53549222216_d2e5d750f9_h.jpg
After looking at how they came out, I saw other things I wanted to try. (Who among us hasn't looked at a shot that we thought would come out nice and started nitpicking it?) The moon was still going to be aligned Sunday morning, albeit the time would hit a tad later. I swapped out to my standard zoom while at home and use that for this attempt. Wanted to get closer to the mountains and the moon. In this case, the blue hour light started creeping in when the moon was losing visibility. It was still very windy, but at least this time just on the lake itself rather than up the entire trail.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53551642764_9790a8ac8c_h.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53551642749_5f97e949b2_h.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53551307011_59e1fdf7a5_h.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53551749975_c589d5b5df_h.jpg
I hung around on Saturday for sunrise, though I had to pace back and forth on the trail below the lake for over an hour to stay warm. Ironically it was one of the worst sunrises I've had here; heavy haze out east really diffused the light and color. Yesterday I saw that the haze was still there and didn't stay for it.
C&C welcome! I kept trying to find an ideal foreground, but never hit something that I was totally pleased with.
Saturday, I went up with my wide angle lens mounted. I had my standard zoom in my pack, but I wasn't going to try swapping lenses given the conditions. Very, very windy. As it was, I had to patrol the lake back and forth a few times, because the wind blew my lens cap about 200m away.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53549662505_75c0219bcb_h.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53548354027_5d3b4ce1ff_h.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53549222216_d2e5d750f9_h.jpg
After looking at how they came out, I saw other things I wanted to try. (Who among us hasn't looked at a shot that we thought would come out nice and started nitpicking it?) The moon was still going to be aligned Sunday morning, albeit the time would hit a tad later. I swapped out to my standard zoom while at home and use that for this attempt. Wanted to get closer to the mountains and the moon. In this case, the blue hour light started creeping in when the moon was losing visibility. It was still very windy, but at least this time just on the lake itself rather than up the entire trail.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53551642764_9790a8ac8c_h.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53551642749_5f97e949b2_h.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53551307011_59e1fdf7a5_h.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53551749975_c589d5b5df_h.jpg
I hung around on Saturday for sunrise, though I had to pace back and forth on the trail below the lake for over an hour to stay warm. Ironically it was one of the worst sunrises I've had here; heavy haze out east really diffused the light and color. Yesterday I saw that the haze was still there and didn't stay for it.
C&C welcome! I kept trying to find an ideal foreground, but never hit something that I was totally pleased with.
Feb 26, 2024 at 11:41 AM
p.1 #2Dream Lake moonset alignment - RMNP
first set are by far my favorite.. great work
Feb 26, 2024 at 01:34 PM
p.1 #4Dream Lake moonset alignment - RMNP
Goodonya for getting up and out in those conditions! Thanks for sharing the back story and the progression of images. I like them all for different reasons, but not a fan of lens flare so I would clean those up in the first set. The last one is my favorite.
Feb 27, 2024 at 09:08 AM
p.1 #5Dream Lake moonset alignment - RMNP
Jim Dockery wrote:
Goodonya for getting up and out in those conditions! Thanks for sharing the back story and the progression of images. I like them all for different reasons, but not a fan of lens flare so I would clean those up in the first set. The last one is my favorite.
Thanks! What method do you use for cleaning up the larger lens flares like that? I currently use DxO Photolab for processing, and the repair/clone stamp works fine for smaller areas, but those flares were on the large side.
Side note, I've been working my way through the book you recommended (Photography And The Art of Seeing by Freeman Patterson) and really liking it.
Goodonya for getting up and out in those conditions! Thanks for sharing the back story and the progression of images. I like them all for different reasons, but not a fan of lens flare so I would clean those up in the first set. The last one is my favorite.
Thanks! What method do you use for cleaning up the larger lens flares like that? I currently use DxO Photolab for processing, and the repair/clone stamp works fine for smaller areas, but those flares were on the large side.
Side note, I've been working my way through the book you recommended (Photography And The Art of Seeing by Freeman Patterson) and really liking it.
Feb 27, 2024 at 11:42 AM
p.1 #6Dream Lake moonset alignment - RMNP
Rat, no perfect easy answer for the large flares. I use PS, so first try a healing brush, next would be to select and generative fill, if that didn't work I've had some luck with a photo filter adjustment layer of the opposite color that is applied just to the flare - far from perfect, but can reduce it so it doesn't stand out as much. If none of that works, and I can't crop it out leaving a good image, I move on and leave it for the next generation of tools!
Feb 28, 2024 at 06:50 AM
p.1 #7Dream Lake moonset alignment - RMNP
The Rat wrote:
The stars were right this weekend. Not just in terms of the moon phase/position, but that it landed on a weekend when I could go both days.
Saturday, I went up with my wide angle lens mounted. I had my standard zoom in my pack, but I wasn't going to try swapping lenses given the conditions. Very, very windy. As it was, I had to patrol the lake back and forth a few times, because the wind blew my lens cap about 200m away.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53549662505_75c0219bcb_h.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53548354027_5d3b4ce1ff_h.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53549222216_d2e5d750f9_h.jpg
After looking at how they came out, I saw other things I wanted to try. (Who among...Show more →
Nice series in some very difficult shooting conditions -- #2 is my favorite and the last one is very close to that.
It's been 13 yrs. since I was at Dream Lake, and got the attached 'Twisty Tree' shot. You had to have been seriously cold taking these photographs -- I was cold and the sun was out!
Greg
The stars were right this weekend. Not just in terms of the moon phase/position, but that it landed on a weekend when I could go both days.
Saturday, I went up with my wide angle lens mounted. I had my standard zoom in my pack, but I wasn't going to try swapping lenses given the conditions. Very, very windy. As it was, I had to patrol the lake back and forth a few times, because the wind blew my lens cap about 200m away.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53549662505_75c0219bcb_h.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53548354027_5d3b4ce1ff_h.jpg
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53549222216_d2e5d750f9_h.jpg
After looking at how they came out, I saw other things I wanted to try. (Who among...Show more →
Nice series in some very difficult shooting conditions -- #2 is my favorite and the last one is very close to that.
It's been 13 yrs. since I was at Dream Lake, and got the attached 'Twisty Tree' shot. You had to have been seriously cold taking these photographs -- I was cold and the sun was out!
Greg
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E-3 14mm f/22.0 1/5s 100 ISO -0.7 EV
Feb 28, 2024 at 07:45 AM
p.1 #8Dream Lake moonset alignment - RMNP
I’ve been cold there in June! We should pin a medal on your chest for getting these shots!!
Feb 28, 2024 at 09:56 AM
p.1 #9Dream Lake moonset alignment - RMNP
Jim Dockery wrote:
Rat, no perfect easy answer for the large flares. I use PS, so first try a healing brush, next would be to select and generative fill, if that didn't work I've had some luck with a photo filter adjustment layer of the opposite color that is applied just to the flare - far from perfect, but can reduce it so it doesn't stand out as much. If none of that works, and I can't crop it out leaving a good image, I move on and leave it for the next generation of tools!
Gotcha, thanks! I'll have to play around with it. Would like to get one of these printed and on my wall, and I want to make sure I tweak it before that happens.
gmccroskery wrote:
Nice series in some very difficult shooting conditions -- #2 is my favorite and the last one is very close to that.
It's been 13 yrs. since I was at Dream Lake, and got the attached 'Twisty Tree' shot. You had to have been seriously cold taking these photographs -- I was cold and the sun was out!
Greg
Love the shot! I have maneuvered around that tree from time to time.
Al Trujillo wrote:
I’ve been cold there in June! We should pin a medal on your chest for getting these shots!!
It was certainly cold! Was in the teens and winds gusting pretty hard. Thankfully had appropriate clothing for it, though after an hour of being on the ice and in the wind, I was very ready to get moving and warm up again.
Rat, no perfect easy answer for the large flares. I use PS, so first try a healing brush, next would be to select and generative fill, if that didn't work I've had some luck with a photo filter adjustment layer of the opposite color that is applied just to the flare - far from perfect, but can reduce it so it doesn't stand out as much. If none of that works, and I can't crop it out leaving a good image, I move on and leave it for the next generation of tools!
Gotcha, thanks! I'll have to play around with it. Would like to get one of these printed and on my wall, and I want to make sure I tweak it before that happens.
gmccroskery wrote:
Nice series in some very difficult shooting conditions -- #2 is my favorite and the last one is very close to that.
It's been 13 yrs. since I was at Dream Lake, and got the attached 'Twisty Tree' shot. You had to have been seriously cold taking these photographs -- I was cold and the sun was out!
Greg
Love the shot! I have maneuvered around that tree from time to time.
Al Trujillo wrote:
I’ve been cold there in June! We should pin a medal on your chest for getting these shots!!
It was certainly cold! Was in the teens and winds gusting pretty hard. Thankfully had appropriate clothing for it, though after an hour of being on the ice and in the wind, I was very ready to get moving and warm up again.
Feb 29, 2024 at 12:24 PM
p.1 #10Dream Lake moonset alignment - RMNP
I'm usually not a fan of lens flare, but the atmospherics you got in the 1st series are fantastic. I'd like to see what you get with reducing the lens flare as per Jim Dockery.
Feb 29, 2024 at 04:39 PM
p.1 #11Dream Lake moonset alignment - RMNP
Had a spare moment tonight, so I tried to work on those lens flares. Here's the results. The first one felt clumsier than the others, due to the flares themselves being bigger and requiring broader repair brushes.
https://i.imgur.com/s8bX8v9.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/XL1vL76.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/O2o3ZHP.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/s8bX8v9.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/XL1vL76.jpeg
https://i.imgur.com/O2o3ZHP.jpeg
Mar 04, 2024 at 10:41 PM
p.1 #12Dream Lake moonset alignment - RMNP
Nice work with that second one - a perfect candidate for a B&W conversion (which eliminates the magenta).
Mar 08, 2024 at 09:13 AM
p.1 #13Dream Lake moonset alignment - RMNP
as jim said, in ps, careful work with the clone tool and the remove tool will get you a long way.
most important (for my own practice, i successfully removed it all on a downloaded copy of your first shot), use an adjustment layer with 100% desaturation, masked and then brushed in over the various colored bits of flair (magenta, a little blue, a spot of green). the image is pretty close to monochromatic already and simply locally desaturating those colors will take you a long way.
great image well worth freeing of the distraction of the flares. anomolies, subconsciously, get more attention than they deserve, detracting from an otherwise phenomenal capture.
most important (for my own practice, i successfully removed it all on a downloaded copy of your first shot), use an adjustment layer with 100% desaturation, masked and then brushed in over the various colored bits of flair (magenta, a little blue, a spot of green). the image is pretty close to monochromatic already and simply locally desaturating those colors will take you a long way.
great image well worth freeing of the distraction of the flares. anomolies, subconsciously, get more attention than they deserve, detracting from an otherwise phenomenal capture.
Mar 10, 2024 at 04:38 PM
p.1 #14Dream Lake moonset alignment - RMNP
Nice work, kudos for braving the elements!
With respect to lens flare, I can't locate the article at the moment, but I've read where you take the exact same photo twice, but use your finger within the second image to block out the sun, and thus mostly eliminate lens flare in the rest of the photo. You can then blend the second image over where the lens flare would impact the photo in the first shot. I'm sure it's not perfect, perhaps multiple shots with your finger coming in from various directions would help as well. A lot of post work but perhaps less work and more natural looking than cloning?
With respect to lens flare, I can't locate the article at the moment, but I've read where you take the exact same photo twice, but use your finger within the second image to block out the sun, and thus mostly eliminate lens flare in the rest of the photo. You can then blend the second image over where the lens flare would impact the photo in the first shot. I'm sure it's not perfect, perhaps multiple shots with your finger coming in from various directions would help as well. A lot of post work but perhaps less work and more natural looking than cloning?
Mar 12, 2024 at 11:10 AM
p.1 #15Dream Lake moonset alignment - RMNP
D. von Briesen wrote:
as jim said, in ps, careful work with the clone tool and the remove tool will get you a long way.
most important (for my own practice, i successfully removed it all on a downloaded copy of your first shot), use an adjustment layer with 100% desaturation, masked and then brushed in over the various colored bits of flair (magenta, a little blue, a spot of green). the image is pretty close to monochromatic already and simply locally desaturating those colors will take you a long way.
great image well worth freeing of the distraction of the flares. anomolies, subconsciously,...Show more →
Thanks for the tip on the desaturation! I tried again on my first image since that's the one with the most challenging lens flare to correct (at least from my rudimentary attempts.)
I wasn't able to get it looking 100% clean, especially the part in the trees around the center of the image, but I hopefully got it to the point that it would be mistaken by an average viewer to be snow dust in the wind rather than a corrected lens flare. If nothing else, hopefully it looks better than my last correction attempt above.
https://i.imgur.com/W8WJcbm.jpeg
pbraymond wrote:
Nice work, kudos for braving the elements!
With respect to lens flare, I can't locate the article at the moment, but I've read where you take the exact same photo twice, but use your finger within the second image to block out the sun, and thus mostly eliminate lens flare in the rest of the photo. You can then blend the second image over where the lens flare would impact the photo in the first shot. I'm sure it's not perfect, perhaps multiple shots with your finger coming in from various directions would help as well. A lot of post work...Show more →
I've heard of that technique too, but never tried it. Well, there's a few cases I've taken exposures like that, one clear, one with my thumb over the sun, but then I get home and I'm able to repair tool the lens flares out passably enough. The specific trouble for it on this application is that the Olympus hi-res mode was taking 8 second exposures, multiplied by 8 for every image. So I'd have to hold my thumb in front of the camera over the moon in the wind for over a minute. I don't think my hands would be that steady!
I do appreciate all the feedback guys, I've been learning for several years from this forum and I hope to continue learning.
Edit so as not to double post: I was looking at other shots in the folder while working on the lens flare above and found this one that I apparently overlooked when doing my initial selection. I applied the lens flare technique with desaturating mentioned above, and I really like the result. Debating between this one and the horizontal one for a large all print, what do y'all think?
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53584617041_236f2302a1_o.jpg
as jim said, in ps, careful work with the clone tool and the remove tool will get you a long way.
most important (for my own practice, i successfully removed it all on a downloaded copy of your first shot), use an adjustment layer with 100% desaturation, masked and then brushed in over the various colored bits of flair (magenta, a little blue, a spot of green). the image is pretty close to monochromatic already and simply locally desaturating those colors will take you a long way.
great image well worth freeing of the distraction of the flares. anomolies, subconsciously,...Show more →
Thanks for the tip on the desaturation! I tried again on my first image since that's the one with the most challenging lens flare to correct (at least from my rudimentary attempts.)
I wasn't able to get it looking 100% clean, especially the part in the trees around the center of the image, but I hopefully got it to the point that it would be mistaken by an average viewer to be snow dust in the wind rather than a corrected lens flare. If nothing else, hopefully it looks better than my last correction attempt above.
https://i.imgur.com/W8WJcbm.jpeg
pbraymond wrote:
Nice work, kudos for braving the elements!
With respect to lens flare, I can't locate the article at the moment, but I've read where you take the exact same photo twice, but use your finger within the second image to block out the sun, and thus mostly eliminate lens flare in the rest of the photo. You can then blend the second image over where the lens flare would impact the photo in the first shot. I'm sure it's not perfect, perhaps multiple shots with your finger coming in from various directions would help as well. A lot of post work...Show more →
I've heard of that technique too, but never tried it. Well, there's a few cases I've taken exposures like that, one clear, one with my thumb over the sun, but then I get home and I'm able to repair tool the lens flares out passably enough. The specific trouble for it on this application is that the Olympus hi-res mode was taking 8 second exposures, multiplied by 8 for every image. So I'd have to hold my thumb in front of the camera over the moon in the wind for over a minute. I don't think my hands would be that steady!
I do appreciate all the feedback guys, I've been learning for several years from this forum and I hope to continue learning.
Edit so as not to double post: I was looking at other shots in the folder while working on the lens flare above and found this one that I apparently overlooked when doing my initial selection. I applied the lens flare technique with desaturating mentioned above, and I really like the result. Debating between this one and the horizontal one for a large all print, what do y'all think?
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53584617041_236f2302a1_o.jpg
Mar 12, 2024 at 07:28 PM
p.1 #16Dream Lake moonset alignment - RMNP
I love nightscapes so much! Thank you for sharing this
Mar 13, 2024 at 04:52 PM
p.1 #17Dream Lake moonset alignment - RMNP
FYI shooting into the sun...low sun daylight gives ya the same effect. Shooting into light, often eliminating sky is usually pretty awesome. That had to be super fun!
Mar 18, 2024 at 10:26 PM