Illouette Creek Trail Boulders

This is a simple image with some challenges. The first question I ask

myself is "what do I want to convey?" For this image it was the

feeling of bright sunlit, depth and being able to see the underwater

rocks clearly. As you know nothing creates depth better than having

something very close in your foreground. The water was so clear and

without reflections at this angle that there was no need for a

polarizing filter. To create that feeling of bright sunlit I placed

some the brightest values of the boulders on zone VIII(not pure white

but having some detail) and the low values fell in Zones 2 and 3; a

normal development.In Photoshop I used a levels adjustment layer to

show only visible data and then several curve layers to adjust the

brightness and contrast of select areas.The dilemma that I face quite

often is just how bright or how dark do I want this image? I find that

I can adjust the image to perfection on my monitor in Photoshop but in

preparing the image for Photo.net it changes. The process of

reduction, sharpening, and a change to jpeg changes everything and

another adjustment layer is needed to correct what this process has

changed.I toned this image with selenium and Ektalure Cream.

Cool.

 

I went to Yosemite National Park on vacation, and your picture really reflects its simplicity and beauty.

 

Andy Duffield

Excellent light and composition Leo.Perfect sepia tone./Nice brom tone/.Regards.Janusz.

It is a great B&W Leo. Regards.

Wonderful as always, and your explanations are an invaluable guide for those of us interested in b&w conversions. Thanks and Bravo! Regards, Joe

This is a one-week photography seminar rolled up into one photograph. The explanation of your previsualization and exposure process has been remarkably insightful. Then you lead us into the issues that we face as we begin post-processing, and then finally readying the final image for display on the web. This is an incredibly beautiful photograph; superbly composed and exposed, and rich in subtleties of tones and contrasts. I think the combination of the Ektalure cream and selenium toning suits this scene to a T. All in all, Leo, a very aesthetically pleasing photograph (that I wish like hell that I'd taken!). Cheers! Chris

 

BTW, this just went into my 'Favorites'.

Leo, this is right up there with many of your best. The brightest boulder is well placed and the toning is remarkable. What could be improved, hard to say. Perhaps the brighter flow of water TR is mildly distracting, hardly really. If you are making any minor adjustments to prepare for the web, you may be utilizing a color space other than sRGB. I sometimes notice a shift in the highlights from additional sharpening, but mostly everything looks consistent. At the same time, if your adjustments are correcting for the web, I guess it doesn't need to be fixed. This is truly superb!!

Thank you both for re visiting this image and your comments.