(YAS) Mount Nemo

[RobbieV]

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[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Nice light and colors.

But one question: What is "YAS?" Google gave me a bunch of possibilities, from "Yoga and Spinning" to "Yet Another Server." None seemed to fit.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Tsk, tsk, Eric! Yet Another Sunset

[RSL]

Hey, you guys, this is the street forum.

[Isaac]

User Critiques:
A place for reasoned and civilized discussion about user submitted photographs.

[petermfiore]

I do think that Russ's post is to be be taken in jest.

Peter

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

I do think that Russ's post is to be be taken in jest.

YAS = Yet Another Street 

[petermfiore]

YAS = Yet Another Street 

+1

Peter

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

As for critique, as reminded by our critic extraordinaire:

I very much like the lower parts. The upper parts suffer from either blown highlights (of the digital kind) or dulled highlights (a result of highlight recovery gone too far).

Dare I suggest a crop that would get rid of the sky completely, just above the sun, or even cutting a good part of it?

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Ouch! I shudda gnu that! I am getting old. Before long I'll be even older than Russ (unless, of course, he insists on getting older, too).

As for critique, I often find it hard to argue with Slobodan, and in this case I agree. For me, both pix are best if cropped to just above the sun (leaving about 1/5 of the sun's diameter above the sun).

[RobbieV]

Slobodan, you have my number.

The top I exposed to the right, and played with the highlights in an attempt to get the feeling I had when the sun just broke in the misty morning. It was quite a bright time in the morning, almost to the point where you had to squint. The dynamic range was huge, and I tried to recreate that moment through the retention of most of the details in the sky while also leaving some of it blown out to give that impression. I suppose I need to work more on making that feeling come out without drawing attention to the processing.


The second show is two exposures selectively blended to give a more natural feeling to the highs and shadows. I didn't blend via HDR, but rather soft-erased away the areas where there was blown highlights and blocked shadows so I had complete control and to make sure I kept away from the fake HDR look. I suppose I should have went for an even more subtle look, but I tried to process it as closely as I saw it while dancing only lightly on the sliders. I have much to learn still.

I appreciate your comments!

I've attached a crop of the lower section that I exposed for, although I left the sky blown. I may revisit as you had suggested with a subtle edit and a more subtle amount of sky.

[RSL]

I agree with Slobodan too (most of the time), and this is one of those times. But I'm surprised he didn't suggest a gradient to subdue the sky a bit.

[RobbieV]

oh, and this time it's Yes Another Sunrise.

Thanks, Russ. I think I'm gaining the eyes that you and others are looking at the image.

[RobbieV]

So I've been doing some thinking about this.

What I wanted to recreate was the almost blinding light that came through the cracks in the clouds for a brief few seconds as the sun rose.  To get this effect, I purposefully left some of the clouds blown out since my own eyes sometimes can't retrieve details from highligthts. So, I left some blown in my image.

The critique mentioned the process I performed, and to suggest darkening the sky. Should I have retained more details in the highlights to better achieve this affect? Is the surrounding sky left too bright?  How would "you" artistically recreate this scene that I am describing?

[luxborealis]

It's a dynamic range thing. The blown out sky is unfortunate if there is no colour to pull out of it. Are any of the exposures you made that morning less exposed by about a dtop or so?

Be sure the check your LCD for blown highlights, especially when shooting into the sun and especially when you are greeted with such an extraordinary view (gotta love that view from Nemo!). Use ETTR and be sure to shoot raw as you can recover up to a stop of detail/colour from highlights (depending on the camera).

If you are still learning the finer points of exposure, take care not to blow out highlights - once they're gone, they're gone for good. We can put up with blocked up deep shadows, but not blown out highlights. And, nowadays with proper use of HDR techniques, there is no reason to lose either.