Photo Discussion
Category: How'd You Do That?

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El Capitan Morning


	El Capitan Morning I'm still working through photos from my recent weekend in Yosemite. Stephen Shoff

Stephen Shoff

Something really strange is going on here. There is absolutely no sharpening applied to this image

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February 13, 2013

Peter W. Marks

Not quite sure what you mean about the "no sharpening" Stephen, so I will wait for others to discuss this. In the meantime I will both admire the setting but regret that when I visited Yosemite (and couldn't even pronounce it) some 25 years ago I didn't have a camera with me.

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February 14, 2013

Stephen Shoff

Sharpening -- unsharp filter, overlay layer with high-pass filter applied, ACR Vibrance or Clarity adjustments, or other 3rd party vendor's that have filters that increase "structure"

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February 14, 2013

Peter W. Marks

Sorry Stephen, I didn't make myself clear. I am perfectly familiar with 'sharpening' having had Photoshop way back since CS2 and now PSE9 but what I was questioning was why you mentioned 'no sharpening'. What is the 'really strange' thing you are referring to that you appear to think we might attribute to sharpening?

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February 14, 2013

Dale Hardin

I understand your question and agree Peter. But I suspect that he is referring to the sharp line of the rock crest against the skyline. It gives the appearance of a composite. Is that the case Stephen?

I know you are a stickler for technically correct settings, exposures, etc and indeed, the histogram indicates this image is perfectly exposed.

However, I believe it would benefit from a little "cheating" by straying away from the technically perfect, to an artistic variation a bit more pleasing to the eye.

what I have in mind is a simple levels adjustment. About 30 - 1.00 - 250 to be exact and then mask the ground snow from the change. This will retain the original look but with a bit more drama. What do you think?

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February 14, 2013

Stephen Shoff


	Dale's suggestion Stephen Shoff

Peter/Dale -- I have noticed in this and in a number of my recent BP uploads that the images appear over-sharpened after uploading. They have much harder, bright small details than the images appear to have in either my photoshop windows or in the "slide show" views of the resized JPG images that I make for uploading. Because of this, I have become more sensitive about taking the common step of sharpening an image after the resizing and JPG conversion, and didn't do it at all in preparing this image. In this case, Dale is seeing this a unusual sharpness along the crest of El Capitan that he was attributing to artifacts from a composite. This image is not a composite. However, I also noticed today that on my lower quality monitor at work, this perceived over-sharpening doesn't appear. So what I was referring to may not be as visible to others as to me. I would expect it to be visible to BP judges.

Dale. I've applied your suggestion as described. I had actually accomplished the same dramatic effect in the sky and rock face with a multiply that I then toned down by reducing opacity. In your level-based approach, I think I lost the "atmospherics" from the thin ground fog. I'm not willing to lose the "atmospherics" that result from the levels adjustment. I can bring the drama in the sky and rock face in my original. I'll wait for the Phello's feedback on this suggestion before I make a decision.

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February 14, 2013

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