Redwoods Light

UPDATE: OK Flickr, you're kind of freaking me out with four Explore images in a week but I guess I'll roll with it. Thanks everyone for all the great feedback. It will give me a boost going into my next round of chemo on Monday.

 

UPDATE 2: Someone asked me how I got this one. Here's the rundown repeated below in the comments. I just happened to be driving through the Redwoods when the early coastal fog was clearing and the sun was breaking through the trees and fog. It was one of those things where I debated whether I should stop because the kids were in the car and we had places to be, but thankfully I decided to pull over and take some shots. For this one I got real close to this Redwood, crouched down, and pointed up, trying to find an angle that didn't distort the straight lines of the trees too much. I didn't have the tripod so I kept the shutter speed over 100 and adjusted the F-stop to capture as much detail in the trees as possible without blowing out the highlights. I always keep the image review screen on highlight-clipping review mode and use manual settings. I think knowing your way around manual settings is key to an image like this where the camera's sensors are not going to know how to accurately expose it. I loaded it up to Lightroom, boosted the shadows, dropped the highlights, increased contrast and clarity to emphasize the lines of the light rays, and that's all there was to it.

 

Here's another overlooked shot from last summer.

Done