![\"eastern_sierra_110506_IMG_6143\"](\"http:\/\/ralphnordstromphotography.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/eastern_sierra_110506_IMG_6143.jpg\" "\\"eastern_sierra_110506_IMG_6143\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nI\u2019d like to take you through the process of making a photograph from the images I captured that morning.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In the Field<\/h3>\n
David and Jerry suggested we get our cameras as low to the ground as possible so we could get the best reflection of Mt Tom.\u00a0 That\u2019s where the mud came into the picture (so to speak \u2013 actually it was all over my jeans).<\/p>\n
The weather cooperated and the breeze that often comes right before sunrise didn\u2019t materialize so the perfect reflection was not disturbed.\u00a0 I set up my camera on a wonderful composition with an opening through the reeds that beautifully framed the reflection of the peak and took three shots over a 45 minute period.<\/p>\n
The first was at 5:35 and captured the soft light of dawn.\u00a0 (These are the untouched RAW images.)<\/p>\n
The second was 6:15.\u00a0 There were some thin clouds to the east that softened the first rays of the sun.<\/p>\n The last was captured at 6:20 after the sun got above the clouds and shed some serious morning light on the mountains.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t use a graduated neutral density filter in the field.\u00a0 The dynamic range was not that great, probably because of a thin band of clouds on the east horizon.\u00a0 I got my camera as close to the ground as my tripod would allow.\u00a0 My tripod has a center post so that\u2019s the lowest I can get.\u00a0 Many photographers choose tripods without center posts so they can get lower.\u00a0 I prefer a center post because it facilitates taking panoramas.\u00a0 And as you can see, if I had gotten any lower the composition wouldn\u2019t have been as good.\u00a0 Mt Tom would have been in the reeds.<\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing of interest going on in the sky so I framed the image with just enough sky to give Mt Tom a little breathing room on top.\u00a0 What\u2019s really happening in the image is the mountains, their reflection in the pond and the reeds in the foreground.\u00a0 The opening in the reeds worked out well in that it leads the eye into the image.\u00a0 And it was just really wonderful that the water was so still and the reflections so perfect.<\/p>\n The so called \u201crule of thirds\u201d played an important role in the composition.\u00a0 The far bank of the pond is at the upper 1\/3rd line.\u00a0 That\u2019s also the symmetry plane for the reflection.\u00a0 And Mt Tom is on the right 1\/3rd line.\u00a0 Sometimes with reflection images like this you have the symmetry plane in the center of the frame.\u00a0 And that works very well much of the time.\u00a0 But I was fortunate to have a really interesting foreground so it made sense to position the plan higher.<\/p>\n That night I gave them all a quick treatment in Lightroom in my hotel room and published them on Flickr.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what I got.<\/p>\n I thought my favorite was going to be the last one, or possibly the first. They are the most dramatic, each in its own way.\u00a0 But as time went by I really began to like the middle one. It is muted, quite and tranquil. And while the colors are soft and cool there is still enough contrast and warmth to be interesting. So that\u2019s the one I decided to go with.<\/p>\n All my work on my photographs begins in Lightroom.\u00a0 Lightroom is set up to undo some of the default settings when the images are imported so that the starting point for the image is as close as possible to what the sensor picked up.\u00a0 The defaults it undoes is the +5 Blacks (which it sets to 0) and the Medium Contrast Point Curve (which it sets to Linear).\u00a0 It also applies some capture sharpening on import.\u00a0 I use the Lightroom Sharpening \u2013 Narrow Edges (Scenic) preset,\u00a0 That\u2019s my starting point.\u00a0 Not very exciting.<\/p>\n I picked up a new workflow from Jerry Dodrill that I was eager to try out.\u00a0 The opening game if you will is to make three adjustments \u2013 set a white point with Exposure, a black point with Blacks and adjust mid-tone luminosity with Brightness, usually by darkening the image.\u00a0 The white point is some very tiny area of the photograph that is pure white.\u00a0 Likewise, the black point is some tiny area that is pure black.\u00a0 If you were to stop here the image would look horrible \u2013 washed out.<\/p>\n Adjusting the mid-tones with Brightness fixes that.\u00a0 Brightness was decreased from +50 to \u20135 \u2013 quite a lot.<\/p>\n Next I turned to Fill Light.\u00a0 Fill Light brightens the darker tonalities of your image without affecting the brighter mid-tones or highlights.\u00a0 I use it a lot.\u00a0 And as long as you\u2019re careful and don\u2019t overdo it the results can be very pleasing.\u00a0 I pushed Fill Light up to 28.\u00a0 Notice how the foreground opens up.<\/p>\n Some times when you add Fill Light you loose your black point.\u00a0 That\u2019s what happened here so I increased Blacks some more, from 3 to 11.\u00a0 This brings some snap back into the image.<\/p>\n Scroll back up and compare this to the original capture.\u00a0 You can see that already we\u2019ve made some nice progress.<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s time to add a little Vibrance and Clarity, about 50 of each.\u00a0 Vibrance does wonderful things with the color saturation and sometimes 50 is too much.\u00a0 But it worked in this case.\u00a0 Clarity makes the image sparkle by increasing contrast in the mid-tones.\u00a0 It enhances edge detail which has the effect of providing some very subtle sharpening.\u00a0 You can see this really pumps up the image.<\/p>\n So far all the adjustments in Lightroom have been global adjustments; that is, they affect the entire image.\u00a0 Now I want to turn to the mountains and enhance them so they stand out more.\u00a0 In general, Lightroom doesn\u2019t do as good a job as Photoshop when it comes to local adjustments.\u00a0 You just don\u2019t have as much control.\u00a0 But I do like the Graduated Filter in Lightroom.\u00a0 It works in same situations where a graduated ND filter works but is a lot more flexible.\u00a0 Like a grad ND filter you have control over what portion of the image is covered by the filter and what portion is not.\u00a0 But unlike a grad ND filter you can adjust the size of the area that transitions from filtered to unfiltered.\u00a0 And there\u2019s more than just ND filtration available.\u00a0 You can adjust contrast, saturation, clarity and more.<\/p>\n The Graduated Filter ended up with the top of the image receiving the full effect of the filter and the transition was on the reflection of the mountains. From the nice assortment of adjustments that are available I added 27 Contrast and 100 Clarity.<\/p>\n One thing I neglected to mention is to add a little corner vignetting.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s in the Effects section and is called Post-Crop Vignetting.\u00a0 I applied \u201310 amount which produces a very subtle affect.<\/p>\n You can see that we\u2019ve made quite a bit of progress just in Lightroom.\u00a0 In fact, there are things that Lightroom excels at and other things in which Photoshop is the best.\u00a0 So I like to use each tool to its own unique advantage.<\/p>\n But from here on out the rest of the work gets done in Photoshop.<\/p>\n The first thing I do in Photoshop on virtually every image is to apply a contrast mask.\u00a0 It\u2019s a technique that I\u2019ll share with you in a subsequent post.\u00a0 I like it because it gives the image a velvety look.\u00a0 It actually undoes a lot of the contrast that was added to the image in Lightroom but does a beautiful job of smoothing out any harshness in the mid-tones.\u00a0 To add the contrast back in I apply a Curves adjustment.\u00a0 The end result is an image that has quite a different feel to it (compare it to the one above and notice especially how the mountains have come live).<\/p>\n But there\u2019s even more that can be done with the mountains\u00a0 Some local adjustments can add more contrast to the mountains (using a Curves layer) and adjust the hue of the sky (using a Hue \/ Saturation layer \u2013 the sky was too cyan).\u00a0 Layer\u00a0 masks are used to limit the affect of the adjustments to just the areas I want to treat.<\/p>\n At this point I\u2019m ready to make a print.\u00a0 When I made an 8X10 proof everything looked fine.\u00a0 But when I went up to a 16X20 print the far bank was murky.\u00a0 So I added another Curves adjustment layer to add some contrast and give it some life.\u00a0 And with one more application of corner vignetting, this time with a Pixel Genius plugin, the image is done.<\/p>\n For comparison\u2019s sake, here\u2019s what we started with.<\/p>\n I like this image a lot.\u00a0 It seems I\u2019ve been going for more quite, tranquil moods lately.\u00a0 For me there\u2019s a very comforting blend of the coolness of the water and the warmth of the snowy mountains in the filtered light of the early morning sun.\u00a0 The colors, especially the warm ones are more pastel.\u00a0 They\u2019re definitely not the brilliant first light oranges and yellow we see so often with sunrise photographs and that works for me.\u00a0 I feel at peace and an inner warmth when I look at it.<\/p>\n I hope you\u2019ve enjoyed this journey and perhaps got a few ideas.\u00a0 Photography is more than taking pictures; it\u2019s making pictures and as such can be a wonderful means of expression.\u00a0 The language we use is all the tools and techniques at our disposal \u2013 our Creative Vocabulary.\u00a0 You\u2019ve seen an example of that here.\u00a0 Photography is art and art is interpretation and communication.\u00a0 It\u2019s one way we can share what\u2019s in our hearts.<\/p>\n If you have a friend who might enjoy this post, please feel free to share it with them.\u00a0 There\u2019s a Share link at the top.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nSelection<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nLightroom<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nPhotoshop<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nFinal Thoughts<\/h3>\n