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© copyright Harry Lichtman

Eastern Sierra Frosting


harrylichtman

Sunrise provided dramatic shadows over the Eastern Sierra near Bishop. I was visiting the area near Mammoth for some cross country skiing, but found that the area south of Mammouth was more photogenic. Despite all of the fresh snow that Mammouth had received, it was traveling sideways at 30 MPH and didn't stay on the trees as I had hoped. Pre-sunrise was spent shooting near the Owens River in Bishop & then scouting shots for the following morning. Later each morning, I was skiing the cross country trails near Mammouth. Not a bad mix! While I really like the tones of the original color version, I thought the B&W conversion was also pretty dramatic. Single capture, slightly cropped.

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© copyright Harry Lichtman

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Landscape

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Sunrise provided dramatic shadows over the Eastern Sierra near Bishop. I was visiting the area near Mammoth for some cross country skiing, but found that the area south of Mammouth was more photogenic. Despite all of the fresh snow that Mammouth had received, it was traveling sideways at 30 MPH and didn't stay on the trees as I had hoped. Pre-sunrise was spent shooting near the Owens River in Bishop & then scouting shots for the following morning. Later each morning, I was skiing the cross country trails near Mammouth. Not a bad mix! While I really like the tones of the original color version, I thought the B&W conversion was also pretty dramatic. Single capture, slightly cropped.

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Sunrise provided dramatic shadows over the Eastern Sierra near

Bishop. I was visiting the area near Mammoth for some cross country

skiing, but found that the area south of Mammouth was more

photogenic. Despite all of the fresh snow that Mammouth had received,

it was traveling sideways at 30 MPH and didn't stay on the trees as I

had hoped. Pre-sunrise was spent shooting near the Owens River in

Bishop & then scouting shots for the following morning. Later each

morning, I was skiing the cross country trails near Mammouth. Not a

bad mix! While I really like the tones of the original color version, I

thought the B&W conversion was also pretty dramatic. Single capture,

slightly cropped Any suggestions welcome.

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'Large' is definitely the way to look at and appreciate this photograph!  At first glance, I was convinced that the color version was the stronger of the two; but having spent a few minutes soaking this rendition in, I am coming to changing my view.  Superb tonal range (I think you got 'em all!), and the entire image just exudes luminosity.  I really think you've a winner here, Harry.  Excellent processing!  Cheers!  Chris

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Thanks Chris and Pierre - Glad you like this version.  I was a little skeptical about trying the conversion, given the nice colors present in the original - a pleasant surprise!  Thnaks for the feedback!

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Man, that's absolutely gorgeous, and I haven't seen the color version yet.  The water and shoreline vegetation on the left are so smooth and offer a variety of tones, the lone tree is so stark and contrasts nicely with the snow-covered hills, and even the sky has a nice variety of tones.  I really like the aspect ratio as well.

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Just stunning Harry, the shaded areas add so much in the way of contrast to the stark white mountains. Just beautiful, Harry!
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Great capture, Harry. Very well conceived image. I love black and white and the tonal range in this image is wonderful. I would be interested in the degree of post processing. Did you apply post processing filters to darken the sky, for instance. What about shadow or highlight enhancement?  This is the epitome of the landscape photographer's art.

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John - My B&W conversions are very simple using the B&W tool under Adjustments in PS CS4.  First I convert the image to B&W using Image-Adjustments-B&W.  Using the sliders, I move them to extremes initially to see what colors in the image are effected by moving the sliders.  I often find that some clors do not always respond as you might expect, as skies are made of cyan and blue and moving one slider or the other may make the conversion quite different.  Also, green or foliage is often related to the yellow channel, and moving the yellow slider will often make a green lihter or darker.  In this shot, the mnt snow seemed to be most effected by the yellow and red channel, while the cyan channel contolled much of the FG foliage and sky.  SInce I wanted the sky darker than the FG foliage, I decided to create another layer to be able to control the sky and FG individually.  Convert a color image into a B&W as many times as you like, then simply "erase" or reveal the parts you want in each area of the image.  In this way, you can brighten or darken areas at will, deciding what will be highlights and what will not.

Hope I explained that clearly, sounds more difficult than it is, and I'm sure there are many other ways of doing it but this seems to be the simplest method I have found.

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Thanks for the information. I'll give it a try. I use CS5, but not much difference in the tools there. Coming from the old school, I use the filters in PS. I guess that is because of all those years using film and BW filters. I'll give the slider approach a shot.

 

Thanks

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John - You would be amazed at the control you get with the sliders.   The filters give a broader effect, I think you will find the sliders much more controllable.  The effects are also immediate.  Good luck.

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