Winter Oasis

Another image from the Owens Valley area. I experimented with this image stacking 3 exposures with different focal points to maximize DOF. My 1st attemp with this. I shot this at 67mm, so I knew DOF would be a challenge, but I wanted to keep the mnts more prominent in the image. Other versions were wider angle, but the mnts seemed lost. I also took a single shot at f20 and 22 to compare the sharpness using the different techniques. While probably not obvious at web size, the 100% view really tells the tale. Much greater sharpness with the stacking. I would even consider a tighter crop, and still print large. Polarizing filter to control foliage glare from the contrasty conditions. 2 stop ND grad hard edge for the single images and the far exposure of the stacked group for the sky. f11 for the stacked group, manually blending of the images using: Edit, Align All Layers, then simple erasing portions of each layer. I'm sure there are other ways, but this seemed to work perfectly. Some fence posts are visible in the large version on the left horizon, which I have considered removing - not sure about this so if any preference, I would be interested. Since it doesn't really impact the feeling of the image for me, I have decided to leave it for now.