Tufa Mounds, Mono Lake, CA

[JB Ellis]

Tufa Mounds, Mono Lake, CA with early morning sunlight. Tufa mounds are perified springs that were exposed when the lake level dropped due to Los Angles robbing the feeder streams. Mono Lake is a salt lake near Lee Vining, CA.
ISO 100, f16, 1/25 sec. Canon 40d, Sigma 17-70 @ 28.

[Dave Mills]

Hi JB, Beautiful light which doesn't last long at Mono. Interesting play between dark and light within the image along with a pleasing sky.
Rather than cut the yellow bush on the left I might have wanted to see more of it though I don't know whats there. All in all nice comp making for an image one wants to keep viewing...

[Robert Amoruso]

Jim,

I agree with Dave on the yellow bush crop. Though the light does have a good quality too it, I find the dark shadows (especially the one in the BG right) overpower the image. I reposted with the following adjustments.

Shadows/Highlights in PSCS5

1) Shadows at 63/25/30
2) Highlights at 100/34/22 - lower the glow of the sun in the clouds
3) Midtone Contrast - 10

Sharpened image as it looked soft.

When I saved for web I think that introduced a magenta color cast. I also introduced Dave's crop suggestion and cropped from the bottom.

[Jeffrey Sipress]

Not bad, JB. Mono Lake is a very difficult place to make a meaningful image, and you had good conditions. I've been there dozens of times and still have not.

[Roger Clark]

Hmm... I like the mid-tone contrast in the original image but Robert's highlight fix to the bright clouds. Very nice image.

Roger

[Hazel Grant]

I like the first one...love the golden glow The clouds? Maybe a bit dark, but then the seem to add to the feel of the photo. The second one seems on my monitor a bit washed out in comparison....maybe my montor.

[Robert Amoruso]

I like the first one...love the golden glow The clouds? Maybe a bit dark, but then the seem to add to the feel of the photo. The second one seems on my monitor a bit washed out in comparison....maybe my montor.



Hmm... I like the mid-tone contrast in the original image but Robert's highlight fix to the bright clouds. Very nice image. Roger

Please consider that I am only working on a low res JPG and going back and forth from BPN download, to my computer, saving the image and then uploading all have degrading affects. I also exaggerated the processing so an obvious difference can be seen. It is up to Jim to either try it the way I suggested, to try another method like using curves and targeted masking, or stay with his original interpretation. I am only looking to suggest alternatives that he and others might want to consider when processing their images. :)

I looked at my reposted image on three different computers just now. The one I worked on looked OK, another washed out and another too saturated. Guess I have some profiling to do tomorrow.;)

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey JB,
As mentioned above.....tough place to get meaningful comps but I agree you got one! I like the OP and don't mind the darks (old film guys die hard:p).......overall great suggestions given above though and worth exploring. Nicely done!