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Thread: Half-Dome at twilight

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    Default Half-Dome at twilight

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    Took this from atop Sentinel Dome. There was a large blanket of clouds that left a gap just before the peak of the tallest mountains that allowed the sun to light up every cloud right at dusk. The clouds over Half-dome went purple. There were different colored clouds in every direction. It was the most spectacular sunset I've ever seen. It was, however, a pretty barren landscape on top of Sentinel Dome--really couldn't find anything to use as a foreground. Truly the Range of Light. All C&C welcome as I am far from a landscape master.

    Techs:
    D7000
    Actually shot this with the kit lens 18-105 @ 42mm--definitely required some sharpening.
    f16
    1.6 sec
    ISO 125

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    Hey Lyle. Good to see you posting here. It looks like a magnificent sunset indeed!
    I quite like the comp you came up with given the situation you described above. In these epic light shows it's more about making the light and sky the focus than a suitable foreground, and the peaks do add lots of 'terrestrial' interest as it were.

    It looks like it could still use some fine sharpening as presented. I would advise you to have a look at the free sharpening-for-web actions I posted in the sticky thread at the top of the main Landscape forum section. Those actions really do a good job of sharpening for this sort of presentation, and you can adjust intensity by adjusting the resultant mask opacity.

    Colour-wise I feel that there's too much blue and purple coming through. Yes these intense sunset can have purple hues, but I think we need to work around the fact that our camera sensors often oversaturate these colours based on WB setting and exposure time. I would selectively desaturate the strong blues and purples in the hills/mountains. Leave a hint of magenta for the reflected light from the clouds?

    Looking forward to more!
    Morkel Erasmus

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    Thanks for the feedback Morkel-- I really like all you work and definitely respect your opinion. Just downloaded the actions and experimented with desaturating the purple and blue channels, and I have to say that I like it more afterward. I tend to oversaturate everything. Hopefully that will change the more I can refine my taste.

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    Wow, just used those sharpening techniques. Looks like a huge difference! Thanks Morkel

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    BPN Member Morkel Erasmus's Avatar
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    No worries, Lyle.
    I took the liberty of working on your image. Obviously best results would be obtained by re-processing from RAW, I only worked with the small JPG posted up top.
    What do you think?
    Morkel Erasmus

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    Quote Originally Posted by Morkel Erasmus View Post
    No worries, Lyle.
    I took the liberty of working on your image. Obviously best results would be obtained by re-processing from RAW, I only worked with the small JPG posted up top.
    What do you think?
    Looks much better to me! That's about where I wound up with it after using your suggestions. Your suggestions really took the image to another level. Really appreciate your input and your taking time to rework the image!

  7. #7
    Robert Amoruso
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    Morkel is spot on with his comments.

    On the FG interest you mention, people get to hung up on this need in landscape images. Middle ground and BG can carry the image when it looks like this.

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    Hi Lyle, that is some spectacular sky! Must have been quite a sight. Morkels rework seems the way to go. I think you did very well with the composition, with the protruding orange rock close to the ROT hotspot.

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    Really nice. Agree with the other comments re: processing. I'd crop a bit from the top.

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    BPN Viewer Mark Jones's Avatar
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    This a very fine image! The color in the sky is very pleasing and the bits of sunlight on the trees in the foreground add a little depth too. I'm not sure about placement of the horizon but it works well for this image. Super job on this one!

    Mark

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