single photos Peaking over the Pemi

Popular spot that I have seen before in photos, but did not know where it was

until yesterday. More popular during foliage season, but nice now also. There

is some detail in the trees on right, but not apparently after compression.

Comments are welcomed.

Obviously a great spot to photograph from, I agree. I might have chosen a better time of day for this one since you had no active elements in the sky or surrounding forest to provide more elemental details.

 

Glad you know where it is now. We'll be expecting more in the future. :)

Hi John, I would have taken a similar shot, but now that I've seen thousands of long exposure streams, I'm always hesitant for a moment wondering how it'd look if I tried it - still haven't tried yet.

Thank you for commenting TC and Michael.

TC, I agree that I should have been there at a different time of day and I will go back when the trees start their autumn display in the next few weeks. I think that I'll have better foreground light at dawn, so that is when I'll try.

 

Michael I have tried blurring the water with film, but not digital. Probably something I will try again soon. Here it was almost noon and the light was very intense, so I had to have a very fast shutter to keep from blowing this out. This was actually my first try at exposing according to the histogram on the D70. Since I was hiking with non-photographers and due to the bright, sunny rather miserable shooting conditions, I treated this as scouting trip. Next trip will be earlier and packing tri-pod, ND & polarizers and my nikon lenses (rather than tamron as used here).

John, if you're not aware, the D70's histogram is to be carefully interpreted. It apparently displays only the Green channel, so you'd be relying on a single channel display to make global corrections potentially over or underexposing.

 

Read full details at Ken Rockwell's site:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d70perf.htm#lcd

I will have to check that out on photoshop as suggested. If the highlights and histogram are less than accurate, do you know of a way to either turn the highlights warning off or customize so that it is reading all the channels? (Note to self: check with Michael before trying anything new) Thanks for the tip before the trees turn red! :)

Yes, John, you can turn off the flashing highlights by repeatedly pushing the left navigation button, but I'm not aware of a way to display full (all colors) histogram - I think it' displays the Green channel by design.

 

I don't use this feature preferring visual confirmation when using the D70. SONY's done it right on their 828 - it's a live (full color) histogram display, Pre-Shutter, which makes sense since you'd want to know what's going on before committing to a shot. I tend to prefer slightly underexposing to be on the safe side since blown highlights can't be repaired in post-processing.

 

For high contrast scenes like this, I usually shoot with White Balance set to Shade Mode, and under the Shooting Menu -> Optimize Image, I select Custom Mode with Tone Compensation set to Low Contrast (-2 setting). It's also quite amazing what a lens hood will do, I also shoot from a shady spot whenever possible.

Thanks for the tip on the highlights. A pro that uses a digital other than a nikon recommended using the histogram to get really accurate exposures. Saturday was my first time trying it and it seemed to work, but everthing I shot was green except for a few granite rocks. It does sound like sony did it correctly and I don't understand why Nikon chose their method. Since I got the D-70 I have been underexposing for the highlights as well. I would rather find an accurate way of knowing that the exposure is correct though. Experience will get me there. Thanks. John.

Hi John. Totally unrelated to this one and I have *not* tried it myself, as yet. But, at some stage, you might like to look into the digital blending of two separate exposures. Again, I cannot speak from experience on this particular technique...

On the matter of detail in the trees at right - I'm viewing this scrint on my notoriously bright laptop display and can still see detail in the shadows. Obviously, that also means that the rock at left appears a little too bright, at the same time. I have absolutely no problem with the location shot qualities of your image - I do very much the same, on most of my trips through the tasmanian landscape.

Thank you for pointing the direction to Luminous-Landscape. I will try out some digital blending and see how it works. I will be revisiting this location soon, as our leaves are changing just as your flowers are blooming. Just as your photographic juices start to flow, mine will be going into hibernation. Maybe I will get more time to work on my digital darkroom skills. Enjoy your spring!

John - you always keep up with my new stuff, and I apologize for not returning the favor. I have just spent some time looking at some of your work, and really like your landscapes. New Hampshire must provide LOTS of eye candy for a photographer. I'll make sure to check in more often ... do you have any of the fall foliage on film? Warm regards!