Experimentin'

[GB1]

Another shot of the Mammoth Lakes area. I thought that their might be too much negative space at the top, but as an experiment tried adding some text to see how it looks. Comments are welcome.

GB

[Atheomerase]

For me, the text distracts, the big sky area seems to balance it out though. I like the composition of the shot. Good colors as well.

[GB1]

Atheomerase - Yeah, it is distracting. But the void at the top is also, even though it's a nice color. Maybe I should have moved the extra space to the bottom, bring along a model to fill in that negative space?

GB

[Ronnoco]

The text is really not relevant. There are signs of some noise in the sky and the image is still about a half stop under-exposed. There is not enough detail in the centre of the image: in the trees and the water immediately in front of them.

Ronnoco

[molaselake]

Personally, I think this could have benefited more had it been taken horizontally rather than vertically. The branchy thing in the bottom left irritates me because it interrupts the flow of everything and there seems to be a little too much blue area on the top.

[GB1]

Thks for the comments. I suppose it's more of a mood shot than an extremely-detailed one. I used a polarizer on this - hence the very deep blue sky - but polarizers can sometimes cause some extreme contrasts. I think it's a tad underexposed, but the snow sure seems pretty close. But snow often fools camera meters, making everything else too dark

Liz, I did take a few vertical photos. They didn't turn out that good. What I really need to do is to take one of them and crop out the top and bottom and see if an ultra-wide landscape works: another project on my TO-DO list.

Gb

[McMadCow]

Looks like that shot could have benefitted from an inverted ND split-filter. Since the snow is pretty much spot-on while the trees are underexposed, that would probably work pretty well for you. A trick when shooting snow is to meter off of it and then shoot 2 stops BRIGHTER than what the meter tells you. Of course you were shooting on full manual for this, right...? Seriously, there's no reason to use any other mode for a shot like this.
As far as the negative space at the top, no complaints here. I kind of like how it looks. But then again, you're talking to a guy who rarely if ever shoots landscapes...

ALSO: as a final suggestion... if you're shooting digital, this kind of shot could be made incredibly dramatic by using CS2's new HDR mode. Bracket like 5 stops both ways, and PS will take the correct exposures from the higher available dynamic range to form a new image. It's an amazingly cool technique- one which could almost convince me to buy a digital camera.

[yogestee]

GB1,,,I kinda like the big open sky...As for the text it does detract from the image..

Jurgen
Australia

[Ronnoco]

A trick when shooting snow is to meter off of it and then shoot 2 stops BRIGHTER than what the meter tells you. .

Not in this case! Shooting 2 stops brighter would wash out the snow in the top part of your photo. Anyone should be able to see that, easily.

Ronnoco

[Ronnoco]

GB1,,,I kinda like the big open sky...As for the text it does detract from the image..

Jurgen
Australia

As a single photo, yes it does. As the beginning of a slideshow or media production, no it doesn't.

Ronnoco

[McMadCow]

Not in this case! Shooting 2 stops brighter would wash out the snow in the top part of your photo. Anyone should be able to see that, easily.

Ronnoco

I said that in this case the snow was exposed correctly (2nd sentence of my post).
Since he stated that metering with snow is tough, I simply mentioned that the correct exposure for a keytone reading of snow is to go +2 stops. Sorry for the confusion.

[Ronnoco]

I said that in this case the snow was exposed correctly.
I simply mentioned that the correct exposure for a keytone reading of snow is to go +2 stops. Sorry for the confusion.

Yes, mine in this case! However even in general terms shooting with snow in the scene is not that easy or straightforward. It depends on the scene whether you even shoot + at all. Shooting skiers or snowboarders you take a spot reading off your subject. In GB1's scene it may have been possible to take a spot reading off the snow and the lake and then averaged them. There are all kinds of metering alternatives and overexposing does not always work, even as a general guideline.

Ronnoco

[GB1]

Looks like that shot could have benefitted from an inverted ND split-filter. Since the snow is pretty much spot-on while the trees are underexposed, that would probably work pretty well for you.

... and what's sad here is, I have a graduated ND filter that's tailor made for scenes like this. I just haven't learned to take it out of my bag yet :cryin:

ALSO: as a final suggestion... if you're shooting digital, this kind of shot could be made incredibly dramatic by using CS2's new HDR mode. Bracket like 5 stops both ways, and PS will take the correct exposures from the higher available dynamic range to form a new image. It's an amazingly cool technique- one which could almost convince me to buy a digital camera.

I do have PS CS. I haven't really taken the time to learn it's more esoteric features like this yet. Thanx for telling me about it - sounds like a good idea. I still use film btw but have a fancy film scanner....

GB

[GB1]

Not in this case! Shooting 2 stops brighter would wash out the snow in the top part of your photo.

Yep - something has to give. The averaging technique and/or the graduated ND filter may be the only way to get shots like this to work....

GB