Twin Peaks

Nice comp and mood, and the stars are excellent pinpoints. The large version with it's middle gray background allows more of the detail you have in the darker areas to show through. It has the definite "feel" of twilight. Very well done.

Beautiful, serene and mystic. You captured a fine mood with this one

Alex, You really captured the twilight mood here! Wonderful color and I love the looks of the stars without having the trails. Makes me feel like I'm there watching this. Really nice!

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Peaceful.

Thanks for the input, everyone.

Morris, I believe the detail in the darker areas requires a dark background to really show - check it out here for 1024px on black: http://www.flickr.com/photos/schmalpal/7621221094/in/photostream/lightbox/

Excellent concept, capture and processing.
Very well accomplished.

I love these twilight shots. Perfect amount of stars and perfect amount of detail and color. The large version really presents that well.

A great shot. I like it a lot. I also appreciate the foreground detail in the link you provided.

I'm wondering - did you do any noise reduction on the sky here? It looks very, very clean (meaning - good! ). If that's what the D7000 delivers under these conditions out of the box, I'll have to grab my credit card.

Basil: the D7000 has the best crop sensor on the market, in terms of noise level and dynamic range. The foreground rocks were almost completely black in the raw exposure - the way you can bring up shadows cleanly and pull down highlights is like nothing I've seen before. As far as crop bodies go, I can't recommend it enough - though if I had the funds, I'd rather be on a modern full-frame body.

The sky gradient is so clean because it's from the ISO 100 exposure. The stars are simply overlaid on that clean exposure from a separate ISO 1600 exposure taken an hour later at the exact same spot. That having been said, the D7000 does compare favorably to the 5D Mark II at high ISOs, and I probably could have gotten away with using the actual ISO 1600 exposure, had the gradient/color still been present at that time.

Thanks, Alex!

I think the darkness of this image really works well.

Very nice comp. The stars certainly add a lot to the this larger version. The darks feels a bit underexposed, but I guess it was nearly night. Still, it might be nice to have better separation between the foreground rocks and the water.

Lovely colors and stars. I'd like to see just a touch more detail in the foreground rock. I think it's neat how many more stars are seen on the right than on the left due to the brightness of the sky. Well done!

That's the best way to make use of a clear sky at Sparks!

Very nice, very well done, larger version is much better

Awesome twight scene beautifully captured. My only issue and it's a minor one, is I might try to bring a little more detail out of the rock in the LLC, but not much. The mood you've expressed is fantastic. Well done.

Thanks for the input, everyone - I intentionally went dark on this one to emphasize the nearly-night feel of twilight, when your naked eye can only perceive the last subtle/soft light of the evening, which you see in the lower-right foreground rocks.

To all saying to bring out more detail in the FG, have you checked it out on black here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/schmalpal/7621221094/in/photostream/lightbox/? On NPN's bright background, I certainly think it looks too dark; but on my calibrated monitor and on a dark background, I see plenty of FG detail, even in the LLC, where there was zero direct light.. I'd certainly print it brighter, though. Perhaps it needs to be a bit brighter for web display as well, since not everyone will view it on black - I only made such judgments against CS6's darkest background.

Thanks again for the input!

Beautiful twilight colors here Alex. I love the blue/purples. The stars look very nice, although quite a few seem not quite pin points (slightly blurred/elongated). The afterglow on the left creates a wonderful color combination in the image. I don't think the image needs the fg rocks imho. The awesomeness is the night sky and the reflections on the water.

Sweet, definitely have to see it on black to appreciate the full range of light and detail. Nice work.

David, they're all perfect pinpoints in the full file - there are just some that are so close together that they appear as longer ones in the small web version.

Awesome capture Alex - great processing on this one.