Mono wish

Gallery: LandscapePosted June 9, 2012279 views21 comments

Here is another image from mono lake. This was actually taken the day after all the other images I posted. I didn't plan on shooting here, but my plans also didn't include getting blown off of Olmsted point in Yosemite. After almost getting blown off of several cliffs and the Tioga pass road I decided to stop once again at mono lake with the idea of taking some night shots. I knew there were no clouds in the sky for the most part, and the moon would set just at twilight. My ideal composition was taken over by a few travelers from the Netherlands who I met and shot with the remainder of the evening. Another traveler from Wisconsin had joined in on the location and began shooting alongside us as well. They were all shooting time lapse and the spot I was trying to set up was in their path. After talking with them for a few hours the sun had set and they were on their way. The other gentleman asked if I was staying to do night photography, I told him I was and he asked if he could stick around and sorta pick my brain about this type of photography (I'm no pro here, but I figured I could tell him all I know at least). After waiting for the stars to come out, I began firing off some High ISO shots that I would be able to blend with a twilight shot. Since I was shooting towards the sunset, there weren't as many stars as visible. To my surprise, I captured a few shooting stars just above the tufas in a few frames. I decided not to stay too long as I was quite tired from spending the day in Yosemite, so I went back to the hotel and hoped the next day would be better. Anyways, now on to the image itself. This was one of the most difficult blends I have done so far and I think it came out better than I expected. The big issue for this image was in the star shot, the gentleman I was shooting with had a red headlamp that was on and painted the water and tufas on the right side. I wanted to keep this primarily blue tones and more natural. Now I probably could have done this a much easier way, but I did it in a way that would yield results I wanted. I made the twilight image the layer mask, then painted over the sky to put the stars back in and remove the red from the water, then masked that back over the twilight shot and repainted the tufas and sky at various opacities making the gradation a little more natural. I'd like to get some feedback on this as to what can make it better because these are the kinds of images I am really starting to become interested in creating. Thanks for reading this novel, and hope I am able to achieve more shots like this during my travels.

Canon 7d
Canon 17-40mm @17mm
ISO 3200 (sky) ISO 100 (tufas)
1/4 sec tufas 25 sec sky
f16 landscape, f4 sky
remote
tripod

Comments

21 comments

Comment posted by Nathan Apodaca on June 9, 2012 at 11:26 PM

Wow. Even though I didn't quite understand the making of this image (would love to get into astro-photography someday), this is quite incredible. I enjoyed reading the background, and picturing you frustratingly sweating this out at the computer.

You are fortunate to keep getting these shooting stars in the frame! Congrats again on that. If I were to suggest anything, it may be to slightly darken the tufas (is that what the strange rocks are called?) to achieve a slightly more natural look. I'm liking these star shots, and the black background was perfect for this...

Registered on November 16, 2011, 67 Posts, 1127 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Coskun on June 9, 2012 at 11:45 PM

Thanks Nathan, I probably confused people by describing how I processed this, but it works for me. It took me a few hours trying to make it look as seamless as possible... I actually saw a ton of shooting stars this evening and was wishing I had an intervalometer to do a time lapse of the scene. I can see what you mean about the tufas, I wanted to have them a bit brighter to show them off if you will. I can try darkening them up a bit (they were still fairly visible while shooting them).

Registered on October 31, 2011, 170 Posts, 1240 Comments

Comment posted by Aaron Feinberg on June 9, 2012 at 11:48 PM

Pretty unreal. Great freakin shot.

aF

Registered on October 26, 2009, 399 Posts, 2789 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Coskun on June 10, 2012 at 12:27 AM

Thanks Aaron I appreciate it!

Registered on October 31, 2011, 170 Posts, 1240 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on June 10, 2012 at 1:42 AM

Peter,

In all the years I've visited Mono, I can't say I've seen very many starry night images from here. This is nicely done. Even have a shooting star for a bonus. You did well in keeping the blue tones - so much so that it borders on too much blue saturation? But not overboard by any stretch. It feels cramped on the sides, but of course gives way to focusing on the night sky. I might be tempted to crop some off the bottom just to keep that emphasis on the night sky. The reflection works nicely, but it's not the main subject. Overall, this is well executed. I hope you're able to tame the noise if printing this at a decent size.

What did you think of being down in the tufa in the dark? Pretty spooky eh?

Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments

Comment posted by Zack Clothier on June 10, 2012 at 1:50 AM

Nice looking comp, I like the addition of the shooting star as well. I see some banding in the sky near the top, can't tell at this size if it's from the blend or just web compression though.

Registered on January 28, 2010, 343 Posts, 2257 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Coskun on June 10, 2012 at 1:52 AM

Thanks Lon, I usually see milky way shots from here but never anything with a shooting star. My idea was to do a gradient night sky over the landscape and then wait it out for a few hours until the milky way was above and do straight night shots with the tufas almost silhouetted, but looking at one of Marc A's images from here at almost the same spot it looked like, the milky way would reach the horizon closer to sunrise. I could probably tone the blues down, but I didn't add any saturation to this really. Comp wise I too feel it's a bit cramped on the sides, but my lens isn't that wide and where I was I couldn't really move back too much. I'll see about cropping the bottom, although I like the symmetry of the reflection. It wasn't as spooky as I thought. More interesting I'd say, but I wasn't alone, so that may have swayed my opinion a bit for now. I have to admit, watching the stars and seeing all the shooting stars this evening, life very well may be out there...Definitely would like to spend more time up here, it was my favorite place to shoot.

Registered on October 31, 2011, 170 Posts, 1240 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Coskun on June 10, 2012 at 1:53 AM

Thanks Zack, looks like web compression to me. I had to downsize it a bit to post here, but the print size I have doesn't show any banding.

Registered on October 31, 2011, 170 Posts, 1240 Comments

Comment posted by Nancy Lea Sandy on June 10, 2012 at 9:13 AM

Very nice. The shooting star is a real bonus but even without it this would be a standout. Love the deep blues and slightly rippled reflection.

Registered on January 24, 2011, 576 Posts, 6942 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Bristol on June 10, 2012 at 10:19 AM

Wow! This is very cool looking. I love what the shooting star adds to this scene. Pretty amazing stuff, Peter.

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Registered on February 1, 2004, 752 Posts, 14140 Comments

Comment posted by Grant Collier on June 10, 2012 at 11:59 AM

Really nice shot! The blend looks very natural overall. My only possible nit with doing the blend is that there are no stars & clouds reflected in the water, which I think you would have seen at least faintly with a single exposure. If you could have timed this to have a crescent moon behind you, I think it could have lit up the Tufa Towers and gotten a reflection with a single exposure. Or, if you captured reflections with the night shot you took, you can try blending them back into this shot. Or even just flip the sky, lower the opacity and blend it into the water.

Registered on July 29, 2005, 73 Posts, 430 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Coskun on June 10, 2012 at 1:02 PM

Thanks Guys, Grant I see what you mean about the reflection. The issue there was the strong red cast from my neighbors headlamp. I haven't thought about flipping it and then masking it, but I will definitely give that a try.

Registered on October 31, 2011, 170 Posts, 1240 Comments

Comment posted by Dean Sauskojus on June 10, 2012 at 1:18 PM

Turned out really nice Peter. I like that I can see just enough detail in the Tufa. I also like the V in the middle that takes you beyond the Tufa. Nice work!

Registered on September 29, 2009, 137 Posts, 2659 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Coskun on June 10, 2012 at 1:26 PM

Thanks Dean! Here is a repost with the stars and tufas reflected using Grants suggestion.

Registered on October 31, 2011, 170 Posts, 1240 Comments

Comment posted by Grant Collier on June 10, 2012 at 4:18 PM

I do prefer the new post, although I did like the ripples in the water in the first post. But the ripples would distort the stars a little which could make it more difficult to add them in and have it look realistic. On the repost, you might consider darkening the reflected sky. The tufa towers are darker in the reflection but the reflected sky seems as bright, which makes it look a bit unnatural to me. I'm also seeing some slight halos around a few parts of the towers.

Registered on July 29, 2005, 73 Posts, 430 Comments

Comment posted by Kah Kit Yoong on June 10, 2012 at 8:15 PM

I prefer the smoother, cleaner second version. Otherworldly and beautiful image.

Registered on September 27, 2006, 636 Posts, 10682 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Coskun on June 10, 2012 at 8:52 PM

Thanks grant, that was just a rough edit to see what it would look like with the stars in the reflection so I can definitely make some time to perfect it. The tough thing with the blend was the way it was overlapping the shadows because they were more distorted so trying to overlap at a different opacity was a bit tough on me at the moment. I wish I could get a mixture of both the stars and ripples but like you said it would distort the stars a bit.

Registered on October 31, 2011, 170 Posts, 1240 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on June 10, 2012 at 10:41 PM

Very other-worldly sense her, Peter. and the shooting start adds to this sense. Personally the brightness along the horizon feels too bright. Could see maybe burning it down a bit to get some richer colors in it's place.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments

Comment posted by Peter Coskun on June 11, 2012 at 12:12 AM

Thanks Tony, there wasn't much color on the horizon strangely enough which surprised me. I can certainly burn the area though and darken it a bit.