Upper Cathedral Lake, Cathedral Peak, Yosemite, California, USA

Thank you for any comments and ratings.

-Matt

Very good shot of a pretty place. I have been there many times and sometimes the clouds are amazing - like those in this shot. Great portfolio also. Im in the Placerville ares, where are you located?

Beautiful detail, tones and colors. The bright cloud is a tad strong, but this is a wonderful shot. I made a trip to Yosemite this spring and got a sense of how difficult it is to be in the right place at the right time. A great place to experiment though!

Great sharpness and intensity of color, though reflection of cloud strikes me as maybe too intense compared to sky

fantastic colour in this beautiful mountainscape!!!

beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!

Impressive landscape.Perfect place,excellent composition.7/6

Wow, I couldn't believe first time. Excellent quality and composition. Beautiful colors reflection. 7/7

Absolutely stunning!! Congrat's on a shot well done!!!

Hi, i'm not a professional photograper, but this photo is beautiful !!! Only a question : What scanner have you use to scan the photo ? And what film have you use? Thanks !!!!

Stunning photo! I have been there many times, and one look at this photo sums up all that is Yosemite. Great capture of color and detail. Nice work!

Just amazing!!

An excellent image. When I first saw it, I thought it reminded me of colors in some of Galen Rowell's shots. Nice use of the polarizer.

Thank you all for such kind words.

Stephano, I believe the film is Kodak VS 100. I was switching between it and Fuji Velvia. I was using the Kodak VS because I knew I would shot this at sunset and I think the VS saturates the red and other warm colors more than Velvia. I scanned this on a Nikon Coolscan 4000. It was a very difficult scan to make. I actually scanned it twice; once for the shadow areas and then the highlights, mainly the bright yellow cloud which wanted to blow out. I then merged the two in PS for post processing. The bright cloud reflection was even more intense then what you see here, but I burned it back a little. When viewed by the eye the slide looks very close to this, but it took a bit of work to make the file look right. I am still not truely happy with this file yet, and will probably do it over when I go to make prints.

Thanks for your questions.

 

Matt Smith

Congrats for making it. It must've taken quite a bit of hiking and patience for a photo like this. Geo

What a great shot, Matt. Well done! My buddy Alec Ee and I were in Yosemite on July 2-3 (the day after you made this shot) and on both days the sunset sucked! :(

Matt, I had to give this one both barrels: 7/7. My poor intellect can not fathom how it could be improved. Interesting details on the scan and the attendant problems. Thanks for posting. Regards.

The cardinal ornament of image the formal-rhyming cloud and peak by beautiful colors. IMHO the balance of forms slightly right-wingly, the left side slightly unaccented.

Thank you so very much for sharing this shot. You have captured so much color. The focus is just a little soft and I notice a little lens dirt. Thanks for the large copy you provided online. Keep up the good work!

Beautiful place the one that you have photographed. Good composition and saturation of color. Regards

This is just wonderful. Such nice color!

Breathtaking! Great work!

I've stood in that spot a dozen times in the last 20 years. You've captured it very beautifully. I'm just wondering about one thing: Did the ND grad darken the top of Cathedral Peak very much? If so, is there a solution to that problem? Again, great work.

That is a lurid photograph. I find 100VS to be a vile emulsion; Velvia is already far too saturated in my view, so the desire for more saturation can only lead to, well, this.

Compositionally, the bottom of the frame is a little too cluttered and the top is a little vacant, though the light is very appealing across the snow.

The bright cloud reflection at lower right is also incongruous by comparison with the ND-filtered original. Things would be improved by burning the reflection. In fact, burning the foreground generally may help to suppress its clutter.

very pretty thou bit over the top with the VS film. i agree foerground clutter could be gone to be better.