Mono Lake Sunrise 1

[Jay Gould]

This is a four image stitch; shot as six images however I did not like the look of six - the pano was too thin - results in the foreground rock perhaps (what do you think?) being a bit too centered.

I was participating in a Jack Graham-Mike Moats Fall Sierras/Macro colors workshop in October. Great teachers.

Camera: 5D2
Capture date/time: 10 Oct 09; sunrise
Light condition: clear and very cold
Lens: 24-105 f/4
Focal length: 85mm
Extender:
Tube: none
Flash/Comp: no;
ISO: 400
Exp Prog: Manual
Speed: 1/6 sec
Aperture: f/8
Exp Comp: 0
Metering: Evaluative
WB: Auto
AF Drive: One Shot
Tripod: yes
Filter: Singh Ray Reverse ND 3-stop
Crop: almost none other than overlap

All C&Cs gratefully appreciated!

[Robert Amoruso]

Jay,

You definitely got some good color on the BG mountains, but I am guessing that the red channel is clipped and I feel the reds are oversaturated. In the repost I desaturated the reds - I did it a lot to reveal the detail there. Your original tiff will yield better results.

The images terminus on the ends touches formations on either side of the image, best to allow some room there if there was some.

In the FG, the lower right is distracting and draws the eye. I reposted cropping bottom and right to make the rock in the left FG larger and less centered in the image. FG objects need to be prominent and interesting to help support the image.

When composing such an image ask yourself what do I like about the scene in front of me. Is it the mountains, the lake, the sky? How can I arrange the elements in the scene to be pleasing to the eye and guide the viewer around the image? If something in the scene is not supporting its visual interest, then it is detracting from it.

It would have been best here to move around to try to clean up the FG of the small distractions and isolate that large rock better - if that was at all possible.

[Dave Mills]

Robert brought out some very good points. I posted a slightly different crop to give you an alternative idea. I did clone out some rocks on the lower right rather quickly....

[Jack Graham]

Jay,

Good points from Robert and Dave's crop is exactly whay I would do. Remember how I keep preaching the John Shaw questions... What's the subject and what can you do to make it stand out Just a note regarding the saturation... Jay's images is really not over saturated. This light was very close to what is depicted in his image. I am in 100% agreement that over saturation is a no-no and can be seen more times than not these days, however this light on this morning was pretty amazing.

Good job Jay and remember to watch those corners..and I know you used my DOF method here...you nailed the DOF completely in this shot.

Safe travels
JG

[Jay Gould]

Hi Everyone, thanks for taking the time to consider and comment AND POST on my image. I like Dave's repost; as Jack indicated it was a magic moment and that deep color was what it looked like.

The histograms in the image say to me - if there is anything I love about BPN (besides everything :D) it is this ability to discuss your images with experts and learn - is that the red channel (Robert, did I show it correctly?) is close to the right but hasn't peaked).

For the moment I am using a public computer at the B&B; I will rework the image and do a repost later today.

Jack Graham did a rework for me and it includes a bit more from left side which I like the most.

Thanks again,

[Jay Gould]

Everybody, thanks for all of your assistance. Here is the repost based; I have done a bit extra "cleanup" (removed the headlights and the resulting line in the water). I like the repost much better!!

[Dave Mills]

Hi Jay,Repost looks good. Forgot to mention that this is a different view of Mono than I'm used to seeing...

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jay,
Nice to see the journey progressing nicely! Love the colors and nice job with the stitch. Final re-post crop works best for me and I love the vivid colors (old VS film guy!). Ideally.....a bunch of steps forward to include the rock and reflection while eliminating the stuff cropped out.....but not sure it was possible. Very nicely done!

[Ed Vatza]

Not a whole lot more to add to what the experts had to say! One thing I would have liked is to see a bit more definition in the sky.