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Canon DSLR Challenge | all galleries >> Challenge 69: Greyscale (host: Jim Harrison) >> Exhibition > Yosemite Spring
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16-MAY-2005 Michael Puff

Yosemite Spring

Canon EOS 20D ,Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM
1/800s f/16.0 at 25.0mm iso800 hide exif
Full EXIF Info
Date/Time16-May-2005 10:58:27
MakeCanon
ModelCanon EOS 20D
Flash UsedNo
Focal Length25 mm
Exposure Time1/800 sec
Aperturef/16
ISO Equivalent800
Exposure Bias-0.67
White Balance (-1)
Metering Modematrix (5)
JPEG Quality (6)
Exposure Programaperture priority (3)
Focus Distance

other sizes: small medium original auto
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Guest 05-Jun-2006 14:13
Victor, thanks for that analysis...a very interesting read with good pointers about how to establish verticals in landscapes.

Cindy, I believe what you see as fringing is actually a natural phenomenon. The light that morning was very odd with sunlight streaming through breaks in the clouds. That sunlight on the lower elevation mist created a glow along the edges of some areas. Still, your point is well taken that it doesn't necessarily translate well in this image. I've done some burning to reduce the fringing glow and uploaded a new version. -Michael
Canon DSLR Challenge04-Jun-2006 21:03
ElCapitan is extremely vertical. I looked up at it just last April (the trip where I FORGOT my camera!) on the way home from Death Valley . . . There was a group of climbers camped out on a portable ledge that was literally dangling away from the wall. The verticals in this look fine to me. I tend to want to crop off a big chunk of the sky so as not to minimize the astronomical scale of these features . . . but I also understand why you left it in there . . . Also, I'm showing some fringing on my monitor . . . new monitor that does seem a little bright to me despite callibration . . . so that could be an innacurate observation and or do to nasty compression.

Cindy
Canon DSLR Challenge04-Jun-2006 18:01
There are at least three elements in this picture that compete with each other for a perception of verticality. One is El Capitan. Isn't that the place Spock and Captain Kirk freefell right next to the face (implying it's vertical)? On the other hand, that was Hollywood.

Then there is the waterfall, which is influenced by gravity. A high enough waterfall loses most if not all of its horizontal motion due to air resistance. Even if it doesn't, the curve formed by the waterfall has an asymptote that's vertical. So, take a look at the waterfall and see if it has a vertical asymptote.

Thirdly, trees tend to grow vertically. There are trees in the picture.

Out of these three items, I'd trust the vertical symptote of the waterfall the most. Physical laws of the universe are pretty universal.

That being said, the picture was taken through a lens. The lens may have some "distortion". I don't use the lens used to capture this picture, so I don't know what kind of distortion it exhibits. I also don't know if we're looking up or down. That would affect the angle of the waterfall by changing the perspective (is the water falling toward us or away from us?).

Finally, there is artistic license. Anyway, with all this taken into account, I find the orientation of the picture as currently presented to look about right. -- Victor
Canon DSLR Challenge04-Jun-2006 15:00
You've got that backwards, Traveller - it's actually that most people with secure ego borders generally are pretty productive in their lives...hence their success. - they aren't dragged down by all the bullcrap and pettiness that other people use as an excuse for thier failure. You're not going to go very far if you're dragging a ton of baggage. ~ Lonnit
Canon DSLR Challenge04-Jun-2006 07:44
Dearest Michael: You are always such a good sport about my ribbing you. You certainly must be Ego secure...and probably with good reason. Most people with secure ego borders generally are pretty productive and successful in their lives...hence their secure egos. Thanks for taking this in the spirit given. Best Wishes, Traveller
Guest 04-Jun-2006 04:53
Traveller, you're a real pain in the @ss...but I say that with the utmost respect and the notion that I wouldn't have it any other way :-)

I like your version very much, it's quite pleasing...and yet, and yet, I know El Capitan is more vertical than your version and I can't bring myself to make that change. Unfortunately I wasn't using a bubble level at the time, but there ya go. This evening I grabbed a number of Yosemite tunnel view images from the web (including two shots by Mr. Adams). I overlayed them on top of each other and found several to be at almost exactly the same angle (including Mr. Adams). Ergo, I'm thinking the ones which are the same probably used a level and are fairly accurate.

I then overlayed those images over my own and found that I still needed to rotate my image one degree counter clockwise. I've done that and uploaded version number three. You are making me work for this one...altogether a good thing :-)

Cheers, -Michael
Canon DSLR Challenge04-Jun-2006 02:42
Much better, Michael, but....hee. hee, hee...in my evil eye I saw a more radical apporach. Cut out El Capitan and with the Skew tool under transform, make that puppy vertical.

I know that this is cheating big time...and maybe you won't like it, I'm not sure that I do either...but in about 3 minutes I came up with this:



Just Thinkin`

Traveller
Guest 03-Jun-2006 16:35
Traveller, you are absolutely correct...El Capitan was leaning right. I processed this image for the first time yesterday morning, dunno why I hadn't processed it before now.

For some unexplicable reason, I didn't pay any attention to rotation. I now use a hot-shoe bubble level, but wasn't using one last May when I took this. I consulted a number of tunnel view photos, made a rotation correction and *think* I've got El Cap at the correct angle. New version uploaded. Thanks for your attention to detail and pointing it out to me. -Michael
Canon DSLR Challenge03-Jun-2006 09:01
Dearest Michael: I am the last person in the world that you want to hear from on this.

Sigh...this is an Ansel Adams moment...this picture is...almost perfect. It deserves to be hanging in a thousand different living rooms and offices.

But....

Now Mr. Adams would do what I suppose I am suggesting...there is no shame in making the perfect image of Yosemite.

The problem is that El Cap looks to my eye to be tilting or leaning in to the right.

This may in fact be the way El Cap is, but the vertical lines on the right are so up and down that this El Cap on the left throws me a bit.

Now I ain't no PS maven, but I've D/L'ed this and I have straightened El Cap...so if I can, you certainly can.

This is just an idea. I know that this is, rightly so, one of your favorite images and I have hesitated to say anything...whenever I have seen it.

But I see this in a commercial sense...and whatever works in that context is...well, appropriate.

Just one person's opinion.

Real Best Wishes, Traveller