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View Full Version : Sunset in Yosemite



Michael Yessik
02-24-2011, 11:58 PM
The week before last the weather was beautiful, clear and warm. This is one of many shots taken close to sunset, and stands out for me due to the light on the trees.

Comments and suggestions please.

D200, f5.6, 18mm, 1/320s, ISO 800. I bracketed 3 shots and manually layered two of them to reduce the sun intensity.

Chris Korman
02-26-2011, 03:45 PM
The scene is very beautiful. There is a very nice array of warm and cool tones. I might investigate bringing back some more shadow detail in the trees and valley as they are a little dark. The sun's position at the edge of frame keeps wanting to draw my eye to this location, as there is nothing to balance out this element.

Michael Yessik
02-26-2011, 04:53 PM
Thanks for the advice. Here is another try.

Chris Korman
02-26-2011, 08:01 PM
Michael, the shadow opening up is a great improvement. The blue saturation in the sky appears to have increased, I don't know if you intended that or not.

Dave Mills
02-27-2011, 10:42 AM
Hi Michael, On the repost more detail is shown however a few areas in the sky have lost there detail. Compositionally the image is strongly weighted on the left and the rt
I would have preferred the sun not butting up on the left hand edge and more to the rt even if it meant giving up the tree branches on the rt....

Michael Yessik
02-27-2011, 03:40 PM
Thanks for the critique. I don't disagree but the issue is the original composition since I didn't crop anything from the left. I was trying to keep the sun almost out of the frame to the left only because it was so bright and tended to wash everything out. Maybe ND filters would have been the answer?

Michael Yessik
02-27-2011, 03:53 PM
For the sake of seeing if it improved, I added a little to the left side using Fill.

Chris Korman
02-27-2011, 04:32 PM
Michael,

I was giving the composition idea some more thought and came up with this possible alternative illustration, showing perhaps were you could have placed the sun. This is really only a cartoon illustration, so don't take it literally, only as a guide. It also does away with the tree on the far right.

http://webs.lanset.com/hypoploi/jpeg/DSC_0853_5-concept.jpg

Michael Yessik
02-27-2011, 04:56 PM
OK, I see where you are going, more of a panorama, less sky, no big distraction on the right (tree). Here's my take. It now looks entirely different.

Andrew McLachlan
02-27-2011, 06:53 PM
Hi Michael, this would be a prefect candidate for a reverse grad filter. I just bought one for my recent trip to Cuba and loved it. Don't know why I put off buying one for so long. I much prefer the image with the tree omitted. Looks like a very beautiful location.:S3:

Chris Korman
02-27-2011, 07:04 PM
Well the only things really I think might be missing are the absence of most of the blue sky which really helps counter the reds and oranges, basically making a "rainbow" aka warm and cool tones complementing each other. And the other being the sun still being a little too far to the left (though this isn't really amendable in your photo). Perhaps try your image again but include more of the blue sky. Really, I think what it comes down to is an image you're are proud of, so I am just giving my thoughts, which may be pushing the image in another direction.

Nick Palmieri
02-27-2011, 07:34 PM
My only comment here would be to close down the aperture. Using f/22 in this case would likely have given you a great sunburst. This is a good situation for an HDR, so you could have exposed for the shadows as well. I am really liking Pane 9. TFS.

Roman Kurywczak
02-28-2011, 09:06 AM
Hey Michael,
I've been away so only getting to these now......I see you have had some great suggestions on the image and the pano was an inprovement. As Dave mentioned, pointing the camera more to the left if possible......omitting the tree entirely and getting the sun in a ROT position (in this case the LL quadrant) would have strengthened the comp. Nicks idea to go to f22 for the sunburst is also a good one. If you have clean horizons......the reverse grad.....which I own.....is a great choice. Otherwise the HDR or blend is the wisest option. .....so just some things to keep in mind for next time out.

Robert Amoruso
02-28-2011, 10:59 AM
Roman summed up my thoughts well on this one Michael.

That is an interesting looking illustration in pane 8 - I like it.

Morkel Erasmus
03-01-2011, 04:01 PM
some good points made above! such wonderful light you had...I like Pane #7 as the big tree frames the scene for my liking :)