Are you referring to this one?

You had many nice ones from that trip if I recall. Hard not to in a place like that, but hard to capture as you see it. You did a great job.

Thanks butitsadryheat! Yep, you got the one. You ought to see it in a 20x30 print!

butitsadryheat wrote:

peninsula wrote: I struggled for over 25 years to get a photograph that did the trick, and I finally got one while visiting Lake 11,092 in Kings Canyon two years ago. Whether anyone agrees with my opinion on this particular photograph is not important because for myself, it succeeds in conveying the essence of the excitement I experienced when standing before this remarkably beautiful time and place.

Are you referring to this one?



You had many nice ones from that trip if I recall. Hard not to in a place like that, but hard to capture as you see it. You did a great job.

Thanks butisadryheat! Yes, that is the photo. I have printed it half a dozen times and worked several renditions as I learned to use Photoshop. Mastering Photoshop is no easy task. Adjustment Layers are a wonderful editing tool, but knowing what adjustments to use, the correct order, the correct implementation... it is all very complex. I'll paste the latest rendition and my favorite from the same file:



Is one more "correct" then the other? For kicks, can you find the rock I cloned out of the second rendition?

ontheslope wrote:Some photographers can capture an image better than what it looked like in real life without using software, the manual setting sure comes in handy.

I have done two workshops under highly successful landscape photographers, and I have studied several others; they all use Photoshop, whether scanning transparencies from view cameras or shooting digital. Photoshop has replaced 99% of wet darkrooms. The same is happening with digital sensors replacing film.

Ansel Adams, were he alive today, would have bought every edition of Photoshop and mastered it like nobody's business. He more or less said so when he foresaw the development of digital photography. Ansel Adams was a visionary. It was his ability to extend those finely tuned skills, 120-hour weeks, and no vacations, beyond the camera and into the darkroom that ushered in the new age of photography.

If you want to talk about the cream-of-the-crop digital cameras, the cameras used by increasing numbers of successful landscape photographers, the ones that cost $25,000 and up (their Hasselblad or Lieca lenses not included in that price), they are designed with intentions for a Photoshop workflow, not unlike film was designed for the chemical darkroom. The image sensors, the really good ones, do nothing in the camera but capture raw data. It is the sensor that makes those cameras more expensive, and the bigger sensors are far more expensive. Forty-five megapixel sensors are common in the highest level of professional photography. These amazing pieces of technology are computers in themselves with their own internal software. The best sensors capture the highest range of light, exceeding film by 6 stops. But with all of the tens of thousands of dollars that go into these sensors, they mandate the use of the very best lenses and a high-tech digital darkroom. The digital darkroom starts with RAW conversion software. These RAW-converted files are then exported to Photoshop for fine tuning... color cast removal, dust artifact removal, tonal adjustments, color adjustments, and whatever else deemed necessary before sharpening the image for output (there are as many digital workflow schemes as there are photographers). This is how it is done. The best in the business are most all doing it this way, even if they use film. No one makes a secret of this methodology. It is not "wrongful" just because these manipulations are accomplished outside the camera.

butitsadryheat wrote:

peninsula wrote:
Is one more "correct" then the other? For kicks, can you find the rock I cloned out of the second rendition?

I found the rocks(s)

Okay, it is plural, you got it... only pieces though, and little distractions, but they irritated me nonetheless. You like?