Mystic Valley

Hi Jared,

Excellent! Great composition, love the feel, low clouds, waterfall. Very nice! I have to visit Yosemite...looks like a beautiful place.

Guy

Unreal conditions. Wow. B/w too please.

aF

Crazy beautiful, clouds in just the right places. Not sure if you can pull any detail out of the brightest parts of the clouds. With the intense lighting, I guess I wouldn't expect much so this feels very realistic to me. Must have been wonderful to experience this lighting in such a dramatic and iconic place.

Jared, an unmistakable view here. Although, the overall lighting, clouds, drifting fog, all has a bit of a different spin to it. So, an excellent look at a familiar site, but with a nice change of pace in the variety of all contrasts involved. Very nice capture.

A great location is some great conditions and light. I think you did pretty well with the blend. Seems like one more exposure for the brightest highlights would have been even better. I admit that I don't do blends, so..... take that for wehat it's worth.

Chris

Another beauty Jared. You had some kind of great day. Wonderful composition and great light.

inredible beauty! what a catch Jared!

Interesting to see this scene in color. I've really enjoyed your B&W posts. I really like the composition and the mood in this one. I looked at this last night and didn't comment because I wanted to see it with fresh eyes before commenting. Upon revisiting it I still have the impression that the color and contrast seems off. I hesitate to mention it because I really can't put my finger on what the solution is - it just doesn't feel right. I'm not sure what method you used to blend; I know in HDR images I have seen a color shift at times. This isn't that severe, but it just feels off. But I wasn't there so it's hard to say. I'll be interested to read other's comments and see if anyone brings it up.

Thanks, everyone, for the responses. Brian, if you could say more about what appears to off, that would help me. This wasn't an HDR merge per se, but I used a layer mask to bring in the sky from a second lower exposure. The sky in the image is probably a little darker than what I perceived the scene to be - we're basically looking right into the sun here, just behind a thin cloud. Does it seem off that the clouds in the sky look quite a bit warmer than the low clouds in the valley? It would be helpful to know if others see issues with color/contrast, but thanks, Brian, for sharing your reaction. The feedback I've received over the past year on NPN has really helped me improve.

My biggest trouble spot with this image was the part of the blend in the clouds behind the Half Dome area. The transition where the terrain meets the cloud/sky was just really hard to get to look natural, and I'm wondering if that's noticeable to others. Thanks, as always, for the comments.

absolutely fantastic! Great cmoposition and excellent lighting.

Jared, I keep revisiting this image trying to pin down more specifically what feels off to me about the color and contrast.

One specific thing is that the top of the rock face on the left hand side is lighter and lower contrast than the bottom. Maybe it's just the direction of the light but it looks like maybe you were painting with dodge/burn layers and I'm just seeing an obvious gradient line. Maybe if you work on that a little more you can smooth the transition out and bring back some of the contrast in the top part of the rock wall.

I think you might also be on to something about the color temperature in the sky compared to the rest of the scene, but it might also just be due to the direction of lighting.

In the end, take my comments with a grain of salt as I am at a disadvantage since I wasn't there in person. It's ultimately about what you want to express with your creative vision. Furthermore, I am not an expert when it comes to processing - especially blending images. There are many here who have much more experience than I do - I have tried manual blends using luminosity masks and have been frustrated trying to get natural results so I know it can be very difficult. I realize that my comments were kind of ambiguous because I was having a hard time putting my finger on exactly what didn't feel right. Clearly I was the only one who mentioned it so maybe it's just me. As a side note, I am viewing this on a calibrated NEC monitor.

I really enjoy seeing your images so I hope my comments at least came across as constructive even though I have had a hard time articulating exactly what feels off to me.

I would not complain about the conditions Jared. Magnificent in every way