Pretty in Pink - Bonsai Rock, Carson City County, Nevada
--The Shot--
Kendra and I headed to Lake Tahoe for another Thanksgiving weekend of exploring and photography. I found it very ironic to arrive at Bonsai Rock exactly one year to the day since my first visit there. Funny how things like that work out. So, on our first night, we headed down the snowy slopes to Bonsai Rock. The sunset itself was looking like it was just going to fizzle out, but a strong pink afterburner lit up the sky. The light was low already, and I wanted to use my Gold-B-Blue polarizer to extract every last bit of color, so I dialed up the ISO and opened up my aperture to keep my exposure at two minutes.
All the while, Jave and Barrett were shooting Sand Harbor. It was only until I looked at my phone that I saw all the texts from Jave. "Skunked" read one. "Get anything good?" read the other. Finally "PINK!" I was laughing out loud! Jave, you crack me up. :) We all went out for dinner later and were joined by fellow flickr shooter, Rich Capture. The rest of the weekend was hit and miss, with mostly misses. A heavy snow storm skunked the next morning's sunrise and really didn't let up all day. Still, we got out when we could and have some other images to share over the coming week or so.
--The Gear--
Nikon D300
Nikkor 12-24mm @ 24mm
Nikon MC-36 remote
2 minutes, f8, ISO 200
Singh-Ray Daryl Benson 3-stop reverse graduated neutral density filter
Singh-Ray Gold-N-Blue polarizer
Markins M20 ballhead with Really Right Stuff lever clamp and L-plate
Gitzo GT3531 carbon fiber tripod
--Software & Editing--
In ACR, RAW file processed twice using Smart Objects to balance the light better and bring out more detail in the lower portion of the image using an increase in Fill Light. Custom white balance as usual.
In Photoshop CS5, layers included:
-blend of the two versions of the single RAW files
-Basic Mid-Tones luminosity mask using Curves for contrast
-Vibrance mask for increased color (very little)
-Saturation mask for rescuing over saturated areas (quite a bit, there was a LOT of color in the original)
-Burn/Dodge through different luminosity selections to selectively lighten the rocks and darken the clouds. This is a great method for subtle adjustments that bring greater balance to the final image.
-Selective noise reduction using Noise Ninja
-Selective sharpening using Nik Sharpener Pro
And a custom action at the end to save for web including downscale, sharpen, downscale again, convert to sRGB, reduce to 8-bit, and embed basic file info (my copyright, name, web, email, etc).
Pretty in Pink - Bonsai Rock, Carson City County, Nevada
--The Shot--
Kendra and I headed to Lake Tahoe for another Thanksgiving weekend of exploring and photography. I found it very ironic to arrive at Bonsai Rock exactly one year to the day since my first visit there. Funny how things like that work out. So, on our first night, we headed down the snowy slopes to Bonsai Rock. The sunset itself was looking like it was just going to fizzle out, but a strong pink afterburner lit up the sky. The light was low already, and I wanted to use my Gold-B-Blue polarizer to extract every last bit of color, so I dialed up the ISO and opened up my aperture to keep my exposure at two minutes.
All the while, Jave and Barrett were shooting Sand Harbor. It was only until I looked at my phone that I saw all the texts from Jave. "Skunked" read one. "Get anything good?" read the other. Finally "PINK!" I was laughing out loud! Jave, you crack me up. :) We all went out for dinner later and were joined by fellow flickr shooter, Rich Capture. The rest of the weekend was hit and miss, with mostly misses. A heavy snow storm skunked the next morning's sunrise and really didn't let up all day. Still, we got out when we could and have some other images to share over the coming week or so.
--The Gear--
Nikon D300
Nikkor 12-24mm @ 24mm
Nikon MC-36 remote
2 minutes, f8, ISO 200
Singh-Ray Daryl Benson 3-stop reverse graduated neutral density filter
Singh-Ray Gold-N-Blue polarizer
Markins M20 ballhead with Really Right Stuff lever clamp and L-plate
Gitzo GT3531 carbon fiber tripod
--Software & Editing--
In ACR, RAW file processed twice using Smart Objects to balance the light better and bring out more detail in the lower portion of the image using an increase in Fill Light. Custom white balance as usual.
In Photoshop CS5, layers included:
-blend of the two versions of the single RAW files
-Basic Mid-Tones luminosity mask using Curves for contrast
-Vibrance mask for increased color (very little)
-Saturation mask for rescuing over saturated areas (quite a bit, there was a LOT of color in the original)
-Burn/Dodge through different luminosity selections to selectively lighten the rocks and darken the clouds. This is a great method for subtle adjustments that bring greater balance to the final image.
-Selective noise reduction using Noise Ninja
-Selective sharpening using Nik Sharpener Pro
And a custom action at the end to save for web including downscale, sharpen, downscale again, convert to sRGB, reduce to 8-bit, and embed basic file info (my copyright, name, web, email, etc).