Yosemite Autumn #6
by Lon Overacker
Took a little break from the series figuring there was too much orange going around. So I'll switch to yellow.
This was captured on my way home from my last visit to Yosemite. The river is of course quite low and what remains are all the bare, granite boulders and the last stages of fall along the Merced River. I wanted to isolate the leaves with a shallow DOF, but even still, in full disclosure, I added some additional blur to the background for effect. Unfortunately, the shallow dof, longer ss and intermittent breeze caused motion in the leaves and the original tranny isn't tack sharp throughout, but hopefully the light and isolated big leaf maple leaves make up for it.
As always, your comments and critiques are always welcome.
Chamonix 4x5, Nikkor 300mm, V100f, f/11 @ 1/2s
Tony's Stuff as always.
Larger version included although doesn't really improve anything I don't think
Lon
Comments
29 commentsChris
Albert Darmo Canada
Albert Darmo Canada
Paul M - Can't really argue with you as I wish the dof was shallower. Combination of any number of things. The LF lens used wide open is only f/9. I chose f/11 because supposedly in general optical qualities are better in the middle apertures and I didn't want to shoot completely wide open. Subject distance plays a role too as does the relative brightness of rocks. I think darkening the rocks some more is probably the ticket, although quite a bit of "painting" was done already. But, ultimately, I understand your impressions
Stan - I actually considered that and could easily crop this to isolate to just the rocky background. I actually have a horizontal exposure as well with less up top. But in the end and at least for this presentation, I was thinking along the lines of Ron's first comment in that I like the broader view and to show a bit of context of the environment where these leaves were hanging out.
Vance - Blurring via PS is pretty simple. I duplicated the background layer and applied a small amount of gaussian blur. Drop a layer mask on top of it, you can hide-all or reveal-all, and then I simply painted back in the leaves and branches. Haloing just like in exposure blends is a challenge, but fortunately the background was already soft, so any imperfections in the painting aren't noticeable.
Thanks again everyone.
The colour combination of yellow against pale grey is what make this, of course. My only nit is that the green of the foliage introduces an unnecessary third element to the image. I know how tough it is to get a clean background for this sort of thing but just the leaves against the pale rocks would have made for a stronger image, imo.
EDIT: I see now you've addressed this point above. As you were.
(Note to self: read all the comments before posting...
Cory
John
- Dan.
i like the composition here
very well done
Hamed
I love the depth of field you've chosen and it reminds me to keep that in mind more often, Thank you
Great image.