jtangen

Amazing color Marc !!!

Alf,

Thank you very much for your comment.

Yes, as each focus point is taken the image will shift slightly, this is called Focus Breathing. There are several software packages that deal with this but I use the Auto-Align & Auto-Blend features of PSCS-5. Do some research on this. It allows you to have complete DOF for critical sharpness. An important point is to try and not have changes in light between exposures as this will cause confusion for the Auto-Blend portion of the post-process.

Mike, Thank you for your comment and suggestions. Even with an ultra wide angle lens DOF is very much an issue here as I am inches away from the FG ferns. While it’s typical that lenses are sharpest at their centers around f5.6 that may not be the case for the corners. This particular lens (Canon 17-40L) is sharpest overall between f8 and f11. In fact I focus stacked this image with three focus points from near to far to insure sharpness throughout the image.

For an image like this, If you manually focus at f4 on a Full Frame camera (with 10x zoom on Live View LCD) at the closest FG element, you will see the BG elements will be significantly OOF, at least for the desired intent of producing a 24x36” or larger print.

While here in this forest for half-day I got triple treat of sun, rain

and even got hailed on 3 times. Canopy was so thick I barely got wet

and hail dropped softly as it made its way thru the trees. Thank you

for viewing and commenting. View larger.

Thanks Mark,

The immediate FG is just the bank on the left and tule grass on right and if I would have included more of that the balance would be off and it was not all that pretty.

I almost passed this shot up as the "back way" has much rougher roads and they just got done re-paving the highway which is nice and smooth now and I was feeling a little lazy. Glad I wasn't too lazy.

As I approached the point on my daily commute to either stay on

highway or take the "back way" I watched the sky and felt it might be

a great sunrise. I chose to go the "back way". I got here early enough

to set up without hurry. The sky started out blue and then lit up like

fire. I had about 5min of this incredible light. Out of all the shots

I took, this had the most interesting sky. Thank you for viewing and

commenting.

Mark, This is and EXCEPTIONAL image. Well done. You effort in getting up early paid off BIG TIME. Congratulations on this one. I love the low clouds.

The sun in the sky is setting directly behind the cloud whereas the sun that is part of the foreground image is setting off to the extreme left. This is not the original sky right?

This certainly is a striking image, but with the masking "artifacts" I see around the trees it makes me think this is not the original sky which I'm thinking is the case with many of your dramatic sky shots. If I am wrong, I apologize. There is nothing wrong with sky replacements but to lead or let people think it is part of the original scene is wrong. Again, if I am wrong I apologize but these look like pieced together images.

Thank you for viewing and commenting.

Five focus stacked exposures for max DOF. Lower Antelope Canyon Page

Arizona

Thank you for viewing and commenting

Slot canyon in southern Utah.

Thank you for viewing and commenting

Calistoga area of Napa Valley California

Thank you for viewing and commenting.

From a slot canyon outside Escalante UT. It took me quite a while to

get my tripod to stay steady enough with the awkward position I had to

put it in to get this angle of view. Not to mention me above the floor

braced on each side of the wall to be able to see the viewfinder and LCD.

Parts of this canyon were so narrow I had to take off my water bottle

belt and turn sideways to get thru.

Thank you for viewing and commenting.

This is the most complex image I have processed, at least as far as

process steps are concerned. A total of 15 exposures. 5 focus points

with each having 3 exposures for light.

Gary, Excellent.

Great composition and good exposure. I'm hoping to go there in Sept.

A creek on east side of Mt. St. Helena north of Napa Valley. Thank you

for viewing and commenting. Questions welcome.

From the footbridge over a "secret" creek.

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Thank you very much everyone.

For my day job I have a 3hr round trip commute. The one positive thing

to that is I get to drive the length of Napa Valley every morning and

evening. This is a favorite spot of mine in the Pope Valley area of

Napa County.

Dormant volcano Mt. Konocti behind Thurston Lake reminiscing on her

active days. Let's hope her dreams don't come true. The water in this

lake is always chocolate brown so sunset with a sky reflection is the

only time it's photo worthy.

Thanks Dave,

Elevation where I'm standing is about 1720. As far as the rotation goes, I double checked it. So many angles here makes it look off but its not.