You Gotta Love It

[Arthur Morris]

On Wednesday past Kristen Westlake and I awoke at 4am and left Portland Maine (after the seminar) in order to get to Conway, NH in the White Mountains by predawn. I drove past this scene as Kristen was sleeping but when she stirred I made a u-turn (and was glad that I did). This is a two-frame pano. The image was created with the 24-105mm IS L lens (at 24mm) and the EOS-1D MIII. The camera body (with bubble level in place) was mounted on the Giotto' tiny ballhead and a Gitzo 3530 CF tropod.

ISO 400. Evaluative Metering +2 stops: 1.6 sec. at f/13 set manually.

We left the Conway area aftetr 10 am, got to the motel in Providence RI at 4:45 pm, left to do a program in Newport, RI at 5:15, and did not get back to Providence until after 11pm. As the title says, you gotta love it!

Don't be shy; all comments welcome.

[Kristen Westlake]

Beautiful Artie. That morning was spectacular and you captured the mood & the experience in that brief moment in time....

[Rocky Sharwell]

Artie,

Great job---I feel like I am there. Images like this make me wonder why I ever left New England.

[Robert Amoruso]

What I particularly like about this image Artie is the curvature of the rocks in the FG. They act as an anchor to the image and keep the eye from flowing off the bottom in the direction of the water.

I reposted a version with a LCE using USM at 20/25/0 and then the opacity reduced to 67%. I also lowered overall saturation as well as yellows and reds.

What is really interesting is that the version I have on the computer right now, if I toggle back and worth from my changes, it is very obvious that I changed something but in the repost, it looks like your image. Go figure. Anyway, try the LCE.

[Arthur Morris]

Robert, What is LCE???

[Robert Amoruso]

Sorry Artie,

Local Contrast Enhancement. You use a BG copy and run USM on it using settings like I mention above. I am getting ready to post an update to my tonal tweaks how-to's at http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=20434 later today and have that included in the update. I also need to put a link in the Educational Forum to this post.

[Ed Cordes]

I like the image a lot. As Robert mentioned the anchor rocks in the FG lead my eye. I really like the way the river bends to the left at the last few mm before leaving the image. Of course Fall colors are super.

BTW, on my monitor I cannot see a difference between the images. I to would like to know what LCE is.

EDIT:
OOPS! As I was wirting my comment Robert responded and his post made it first. Thanks.

[Judd Patterson]

What a beautiful scene (I'm glad you went back as well). Count me as another who loves the great curve of the anchor rocks, although the middle rock seems a bit close to the bottom edge of the image for me. Maybe this would have been a situation where you would have had more compositional flexibility if you had taken 4 or 5 vertical images instead of 2 horizontal and then created the panorama.

[Robert Amoruso]

What a beautiful scene (I'm glad you went back as well). Count me as another who loves the great curve of the anchor rocks, although the middle rock seems a bit close to the bottom edge of the image for me. Maybe this would have been a situation where you would have had more compositional flexibility if you had taken 4 or 5 vertical images instead of 2 horizontal and then created the panorama.

Judd, Good point on the lower rock as it is cramped that close to the edge.

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for the cramped rock suggestion. I rarely print if ever print of sell these images so I am reluctant to shoot verts and use all that extra hard drive space. I do remember being at 24mm and wishing that I could go a teensy bit wider.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Artie,
I will be in the minority on this one........but this just doesn't work for me. I tried a bunch of different approaches............a heavy crop (just below the rock on the left edge of frame) to a pano being my most succesful........still didn't overcome the pinkish cast in the trees. IMO .........the FG rocks are too disconnected from the rest of the image and are not a strong enough presence in the frame.......to carry the image compositionally . I know that I am in the minority here.....but exploring the pano crop may be something to look into.........and maybe a color balance adjustment to get rid of some of the pinkish tone.

[Dave Mills]

I'm must say I happen to agree with you Roman. One of the problems for me also is the pinkish cast . I also agree that the foreground rocks do not give a strong enough presence to strengthen the image. The line of rocks on the bottom give you a floor to the image but as you stated there is a long disconnect from them to the rest of the image..

[Arthur Morris]

Sorry Artie,

Local Contrast Enhancement. You use a BG copy and run USM on it using settings like I mention above. I am getting ready to post an update to my tonal tweaks how-to's at http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=20434 later today and have that included in the update. I also need to put a link in the Educational Forum to this post.

Ah, the old contrast mask trick. Been using it in different forms for years.

[Arthur Morris]

Well, thanks to all; I still like it. Including the pink light. Perhaps having been there might account for that.