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used a ND filter to get a 45 second exposure here. I was trying to

blur the clouds in the foreground some. Also got better light on the

trees in this shot. Hope you can see just the slightest detail in

the trees under shadow, that was my goal.

Very effective and strong image. Great job.

I think it's a wonderful capture, but I think the mid-tones/highlights are too dark. You have preserved the detail in the shadows as intended, but I think overall, if you lighten the rest just a little, this image could really pop. Even the front of the cloud bank, trees in foreground and mountain in background were lightened just one zone.... Anyway, nice capture. Cheers

Great tonality.Strange.Frightening.I like it.

Thanks for the comments.

 

Chris, thanks very much for the suggestions on improving this. I agree with your comments.

 

I'm not great with my flatbed scanner (often clipping when I shouldn't, etc) or with photoshop. I scanned this and adjusted it for only about 10 minutes today, wanting to post it for feedback. Feedback that can help me in the darkroom printing.

 

When I get this into the wet darkroom in a couple days I'll give it some real effort. I'll play around with those midtones and cloud highlights quite a bit. For some reason a few hours in the darkroom is fun, and a few minutes on the computer is frustrating.

 

The negative looks good, not too dense in the highlights (which were blown in the scan, and then toned down poorly in photoshop) and plenty of detail in all of the trees (which appear nearly black here). I exposed those trees in the shadows for zone IV to be certain I had good tonal range there. I'm really looking forward to printing this thing!

Chris, I just realised I was talking out my you know what regarding the zone IV exposure for shadows on this shot. That was true of the normal exposures from this series. And it was my target here. But I don't have good data on reciprocity, just ballpark figures. Haven't tested it. I think my metered exposure was for eight seconds to put those shadows in zone IV, and I went with 45, because that's roughly what I thought FP4 in D76 1:1 would call for (reduced development by maybe 20% as well). And also, a big gust of wind came up at 45 sec and moved the camera :)

 

As luck would have it, the shadows did fully expose to what I'd guess would print normally at zone IV. But it was luck, slightly informed judgement, and not the work of a zone master by any means.

Well, the main thing is you figured out what you did so you can learn from it. I think the 45 sec exposure really adds to this photo; The clouds are really fantastic. Good luck next time :-)

 

P.S. Regarding the zone system, there was only one master, so don't be too hard on yourself. Cheers