landscape Light Isolates - Purisima Creek Redwoods, San Mateo, CA

Hi Drew- On my monitor the top half of this image seems overexposed, which contributes to it looking a bit unsharp. Also, the hot spot on the rock at lower left is burned out, at least on my monitor. Is this a conversion from color? It may have been one of those cases where the range of light values was just too great for the medium.... if I had been doing it on B&W film I would have been doing a N-4 development... the mid and low tones in the bottom half of the image are beautiful.

I think you have a great eye for light and composition, as well shown in your portfolio.

Regards, Keith.

Kieth,

You're spot on. The dynamic range this scene overpowers it. The shortfall of digital. The top is blown and there is nothing I can do about it. I did bracket the image 3 stops. This image was made from the -2 exposure. In print, the rock has definition and really shows off the light isolate. At -3 the middle ground is lost.

I might try for an HDR rendering, but I'm kind of happy seeing the limits of this single exposure.