Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Landscape Photography Locations => Topic started by: natas on April 19, 2009, 10:36:28 pm

Title: Yosemite south entrance sundown
Post by: natas on April 19, 2009, 10:36:28 pm
Well me and the wife just got back from our 10 day trip to california. We spent 5 days in Yosemite. I have a ton of pictures, but I wanted to share this one. Most people I saw were doing the usual shots (Tunnel view, mirror lake et al) and don't get me wrong I did those as well. However I found a neat little spot heading towards the south entrance that had wonderful sundown shots . I took this shot around 6:45 and underexposed it by 2 stops to get the look I wanted. This is a 1 second exposure at f/22 iso 200. I only have had a few hours to go through my photos and this was the first shot I did like this, I have a few more I need to look at. The others have more contrast layers of the background, but I don't believe they had the colors of the sky like this one...I will find out soon. So far I like what I see. Some may hate it, but for me it works.

Hope others enjoy the shot and can comment. I am always open for suggestions. Thanks!

(http://shuttershane.com/gallery/d/14286-2/_MG_3462-Edit-Edit.jpg)
Title: Yosemite south entrance sundown
Post by: wolfnowl on April 20, 2009, 01:33:51 am
Great colours!  If it was mine I'd probably trim some of the dark sky from the top, though.

Mike.
Title: Yosemite south entrance sundown
Post by: Jeremy Payne on April 20, 2009, 09:58:13 am
I agree with Mike - I think it would be stronger compositionally with a crop closer to the top of the big tree.

I also think the tree "skyline" is cool and the colors very interesting - even on my laptop.

One question - why f22?  My instinct would have been to shoot something like this with the lens opened up a bit more than that.
Title: Yosemite south entrance sundown
Post by: natas on April 20, 2009, 03:53:14 pm
Quote from: Jeremy Payne
I agree with Mike - I think it would be stronger compositionally with a crop closer to the top of the big tree.

I also think the tree "skyline" is cool and the colors very interesting - even on my laptop.

One question - why f22?  My instinct would have been to shoot something like this with the lens opened up a bit more than that.


I did f/22 to stop more light from coming in. I wanted the longest exposure possible without having to underexpose to much. I could of done it the other way...its just what made sense to me at the time
Title: Yosemite south entrance sundown
Post by: Jeremy Payne on April 20, 2009, 04:17:09 pm
Quote from: natas
I did f/22 to stop more light from coming in. I wanted the longest exposure possible without having to underexpose to much. I could of done it the other way...its just what made sense to me at the time

Not that big of a deal, but your lens/camera combo* likely produces a better quality image between f8-11 than f22 - where the effects of diffraction have likely started to become apparent.

I'm not saying you CAN'T use f22 - obviously, you produced a VERY nice image - but you need a reason in my book - two that come to mind are 1) to stretch the exposure in order to blur motion or 2) to deepen the depth of field.

In this case, I think you would have been better served by shooting a 1/4th of a second at f11 instead of 1 sec at f22 at the same ISO.  The shorter exposure could also help with the IQ by minimizing te effects of any wind motion in the treeline.

Again - not that big a deal, but you asked for comments and that jumped out at me.


* BTW - what was the camera and lens used to capture this?
Title: Yosemite south entrance sundown
Post by: summitgreen on May 16, 2009, 01:28:25 pm
very nice colors.. I'm jealous you got to stay there 5 days!  It's getting very very crowded now.  Maybe switch the shot into a panoramic shot?