Yosemite and other recent work

[Mustachio]

Well, I havent posted in a bit, so I thought I would share what I have been up to. I finally got my monitor calibrated so I went back and re-edited some of my older photos. In addition, since I last posted I also took a trip to Yosemite National Park in California so I have some of those to show as well.

 

 

Anyways, now the photos!

 

I already posted this first image on these boards before. However, after calibrating my monitor I realized that the colors were not quite right and that the ground was WAY WAY too dark. So here is the re-edit. There are still some minor edits that need to be made such as noise reduction and some color balancing, but its close to being finished, so here it is.

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This second image was taken at night from Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park. If anyone is unaware this is a view of the Milky Way. I also managed to capture a shooting star in the middle there.

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This next image is El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. This was captured from Cathedral Beach on the Merced River as the first light of the day fell on the top of the mountain.

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I may have posted this fourth image before, but this was taken last March in Iceland. After driving through the fog for quite some time, the fog opened and we were greeted to the setting sun creating some amazing colors in the sky.

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I think there may be a 4 image limit (I could be wrong) but thats a good stopping point for the moment.

[camus154]

Bad ass. Especially love the Yosemite ones since I've been there!

 

And Iceland's on my list too. Great work.

[Michele32]

wow! absolutely gorgeous! great shots! yosemite is 3 hours away from me and I can't get enough of it!

[camus154]

Question: how do you get that....finished quality? Does that make sense? I get framing and composition and all that, but do you alter the contrast or colors or anything? It's like these same pictures of the same objects, composed the same way in the same lighting, still wouldn't look the same on the average person's camera.

[doiiiieeezie]

Added on facebook, these are amazing pictures!

[Mustachio]

Thanks guys!

 

Michele, I am extremely jealous, I could spend weeks in Yosemite, and I think I could go back over and over again, but unfortunately its on the other side of the country.

 

camus, well... there are a number of ways to achieve that finished look. When capturing the image, pointing and shooting is not always the best idea. I use filters fairly often and almost always a tripod. For the first image I used a graduated neutral density filter and the third I used a polarizer as well as a graduated neutral density filter. Also, all photos need to be processed, or as I prefer to the think of it, developed. I also shoot with a DSLR and always shoot in RAW mode, which requires RAW processing before it can be used.

 

For example, on the first image, the filter was used to even the exposure, then two separate exposures were created from the same image, then blended together in photoshop along with other contrast, brightness, exposure and color balance tweaks. The fourth image is actually an HDR image, which in this case consists of 6 or 7 images blended together into a single exposure using software called Photomatix.

 

And then my final step is always sharpening for viewing on the web.

 

And doiiiieeezie thanks for the add on facebook, I really appreciate it! Always trying to spread the word!

[Mustachio]

Woops, didnt realize that advertising my personal links was a no no. Sorry about that. If anyone is interested in more info about my photography that may cross the lines of advertising, please PM me! Otherwise, enjoy the photos, and ill be back to post more soon!