Williams' Sunrise

The rising sun kisses the Williams Mountains as seen from the vicinity of Lost Man Lake on Independence Pass. This was taken on a backpacking trip a week ago. It rained heavily in the evening and I was hoping for some interesting clouds in the morning but, as you can see, the sky was clear as a bell. There is potential for nice reflections in the ponds down in the valley but that's WAY too far from breakfast.

I'm really struggling with this image. I can't seem to get the slope on the right and the valley floor to look right. I've been staring at this so long I can't see straight anymore so here it is. I have a tighter shot that I'll try to scan tomorrow. Maybe I can do better with that one.

Cheers,

Mark,

Despite the clear skies, you came away with a wonderful vista. I had been thinking of visiting this spot for a sunrise or sunset myself and it looks like the reward is worth the trip.

Hey Mark, it's a beautiful image. Rather than the concerns you mentioned, I'd pay a little attention to the over-saturation of it, especially in the alpenglow oranges and the sky. The orange and yellow seem to be blocked up by too much saturation, and if you look at the sky just above the mountains on the right, you'll see a distinct magenta band.

Like Mel, this is an area I've wanted to spend more time in, and it's not overrun with people. I've been to Independence Lake a few times, but weather, snowbanks or time always kept me from topping out on the pass above for that great view down to Lost Man Lake.

Mark, this is a beautiful scene. Looks like this is a good candidate for a blend, or for Tony K.'s luminosity masks. The latter takes a little time to get through, but Tony does a great job of explaining the steps and it's a powerful editing technique.

If you shot this in RAW, you could process two images - one darker, one lighter, and work to blend in the darker valley. Did you use a GND on this?

Here is a tighter shot of the same scene taken a few minutes later. This one looks wrong in different ways than the first. Scanning and Photoshop drive me insane.

Interesting foreground and nice light on the peaks. I agree with Todd and Rick. My impression is that you scanned/processed for the foreground and blew out the alpenglow a little and lost some detail in the peaks. If that light were a little darker with more contrast highlighting the detail, I think you'd feel it was more balanced.

What are the yellow patches beyond the ponds in the valley?

Looks like a great place!

Look again at the sky just above the ridgeline. See the magenta stripe? That, and the still blocked up color details on the mountaintops, tells me the saturation is simply too high, and/or that you're losing detail in 8-bit that might be retained or worked on with a 16-bit scan. (I'm drawing a blank on the term for this!)

Thanks for the comments. I'm starting to think these two slides just didn't have enough to start with. Both of those shots were taken with a 3 stop ND grad. I think 4 or even 5 stops would have made for a more even exposure. Maybe someone with actual PS skills could make them work but they are simply beyond me.

For what it's worth, I just scanned a different slide and it came it nearly perfect. It just needed a couple of very minor adjustments.

BTW, Todd, that bit of magenta is supposed to be there. It's not a processing artifact. In the second image there is a hint of magenta in all the low areas of the horizon. The part on the right does look over-saturated though.

Cheers,