Horsetail Fall from "Rowell's View" near Northside Drive, February 19th, 2009, 5:29 p.m.

That special time of year is approaching, when children write letters to Santa Claus, people put colorful lights on the their houses and inflatable reindeer on their lawns, and… oh wait, wrong one. That other special time of year is approaching, when photographers of every stripe migrate to a sheltered valley in the Sierra Nevada, and Nikon and Canon users stand side by side in peace and harmony, hoping for a break in the clouds and a moment of magic. Yes, Horsetail Fall season is coming.

The forecast for the season is, well, iffy. After two months with no precipitation whatsoever, Horsetail Fall was completely dry. But last weekend two storms dumped over five inches of rain in Yosemite Valley, and that precipitation fell as snow up higher. Horsetail Fall is fed by snow melting from a small drainage on top of El Capitan, and there is now some snow there, finally. But that’s not enough—we need two or three more snow dumps between now and mid-February. Then we need a stretch of clear, warm weather at the right time to melt some of that snow, feed the waterfall, and allow the sun to cast it’s golden, late-day light on the water. Not too much to ask, is it?

So when is that right time? An excellent question, but a difficult one to answer. In January 2009 I put an article on my web site describing how I used one of the Yosemite web cams to determine the optimum time for photographing Horsetail Fall. This was the best method I could find since it’s difficult to get on-the-ground first-hand information in February (too many clouds!). I thought the best time was an eleven-day window from approximately February 12th to 22nd.

My observations last year, however, have led me to question that conclusion. I photographed Horsetail on February 11th, and again on the 15th, and I think even the 15th was too early.

The perfect Horsetail Fall photograph needs three things. First, there has to be enough water. Second, the sun has to be low in the sky when it’s still hitting the fall to give it that orange glow. Third, the cliff behind and to the left of Horsetail has to be in the shade when the water is on fire; the contrast between the backlit waterfall and dark background is what makes this event so dramatic.

While those web cam images were helpful in figuring out when the sun would be at its lowest angle when striking Horsetail, from that viewpoint you can’t tell whether the cliff behind the fall is in the shade. The only way to see that is to be on the ground at one of the Horsetail viewing locations on a clear evening at the right time of year. And my observations from on the ground last year showed that the cliff was not in the shade even as late as February 15th. So the best window has to start after February 15th. And I know that March 1st is too late—by then the nose of El Capitan blocks the sun before it sinks low enough to create that orange glow.

I’ve posted four images here, with dates, to show what I mean. The photograph at the top of the post was made on February 19th, 2009, and shows excellent conditions: enough water, that orange light, and the shaded cliff to the left of the fall.

The photographs below include ones I made last year on February 11th and 15th. The image from the 11th was made at the Southside Drive location. Even taking into account the low water level, too much of the background cliff is in the sun. (And note that this was the very last light—the sun had already left the bottom of the fall.) The photograph from February 15th was made from the other side of the valley (I call this spot “Rowell’s View), and again the waterfall doesn’t stand out very dramatically because that background cliff is lit. This image was made at 5:26, and sunset was 5:39 (the light was cut off by clouds before the sun hit the horizon), but I don’t think that shadow line could move that far in 13 minutes.

Finally you’ll see an image from February 22nd, 2010. Here the background cliff is nicely shaded, but the color is not as rich as in some other photographs. It’s hard to judge the color here though because this was a brief moment when the sun broke through clouds. If the skies had been clear the sun would probably have reached a lower angle, with more colorful light, before leaving the waterfall.

It’s hard to draw any definite conclusions from this scanty evidence, but I now think that the best window begins sometime after February 15th, and probably ends before the 25th. So I’ll say February 16th through 23rd until I gather more information.

You can actually help with this process. There are plenty of Horsetail Fall photos on the web, but few give the date they were made or include the EXIF data. So if you’ve captured a Horsetail Fall image with good light during the dates in question—let’s say from February 12th to 28th—post a link to it in the comments, or email a small JPEG to me, and include in the comments or email the date and time the image was captured. But please only do this if you’re sure the information is accurate; I know it’s all too easy to have the wrong time or date set in your camera.

Thanks in advance for your help! And good luck to all of you with Horsetail Fall aspirations this year.

—Michael Frye

From Southside Drive, February 11th, 2011, 5:35 p.m.

Near Northside Drive ("Rowell's View"), February 15th, 2011, 5:26 p.m.

Near Northside Drive ("Rowell's View"), February 22nd, 2010, 5:23 p.m.

Related Posts: It’s That Time of Year Again

Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author and photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, Yosemite Meditations, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, plus the eBook Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom. He has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.

Clearing storm, dusk, Tunnel View, 5:30 p.m. Saturday

Those of you who live in California know that our two-month winter drought finally ended, with storms arriving on Friday and Sunday. Yosemite Valley received over five inches of rain total, and at higher elevations most of that precipitation fell as snow.

For photographers this meant that for the first time in months we had the opportunity to photograph clearing storms. Not only that, but both storms were considerate enough to time their clearing perfectly and break up just before sunset.

Misty sunset over Bridalveil Fall, 4:57 p.m. Saturday

Friday night it dumped at our house in Mariposa, with strong winds driving the heavy rain sideways. A friend in Yosemite Valley told me he heard thunder that night.

Showers fell off and on most of the day Saturday, but the sun started breaking though in the afternoon, and the satellite and radar images looked promising.

I drove up to Yosemite Valley late in the day and arrived at Tunnel View just as the first patches of blue sky appeared. But just as the sun broke through a bank of fog blocked the view. Eventually the fog lifted enough to reveal a beautiful, misty scene of Bridalveil Fall with a pink cloud above Cathedral Rocks. The fog closed in again, but after sunset it cleared once more, with wonderful alpenglow illuminating the landscape. The photograph at the top of this post was made after sunset on Saturday, with a two-minute exposure to blur the motion of the clouds.

Sunday night’s storm was less intense, but seemed to clear more slowly. It continued to rain throughout the day on Monday, with no signs of sunlight or blue sky. But the forecast, along with the satellite and radar images, suggested possible clearing late in the day. I estimated there was a 20 percent chance of seeing some interesting light in Yosemite Valley that afternoon, but decided to drive up again, just in case.

It rained during the entire hour-long drive, but just as I pulled into Tunnel View I saw a small patch of blue sky overhead. On Saturday there were only two other photographers at this popular vista, but yesterday I found a workshop group there. I squeezed in between tripods, and we all waited.

Soon mist began lifting from the valley floor, and faint spots of sun hit El Capitan. The sunbeams got stronger, and then we were watching a full-blown, classic clearing storm, complete with orange and pink sunset colors.

Of course I’ve made thousands of images from Tunnel View, and on both of these evenings I could have headed to a different location. But I guess I have a bit of an obsession with Tunnel View. It is unquestionably one of the most spectacular and iconic vistas in the world, and when the weather gets interesting I can’t resist going there. It’s amazing to see how different this view can be from one day to the next, or even from minute to minute. Last night one of the workshop students walked back to her car while the light was still beautiful. The instructor (Phil Hawkins) said, “Going back already?” She answered, “I’m just waiting for it to change.” I was dumfounded. It was changing every second! I’ve been to Tunnel View hundreds of times, and this was one of the best sunsets I’d ever seen. Granted, they had been waiting there since 1:30, and I’m sure she was cold and wet, but how often do you get to witness and photograph such an event?

I’m extremely grateful that I live only an hour’s drive from this view, and have been able to photograph it under such varied weather and lighting conditions. I hope I never get tired of it.

—Michael Frye

Black-and-white version, Monday, 4:37 p.m.

Clearing storm, sunset, Tunnel View, Monday, 4:57 p.m.

Half Dome and El Capitan at sunset from Tunnel View, Monday, 5:01 p.m.

Half Dome and El Capitan through the mist at sunset, Monday, 5:11 p.m.

Related Posts: A Strange Winter Brings Unusual Opportunities; Yosemite’s Late Spring Continues…

Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author and photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, Yosemite Meditations, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, plus the eBook Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom. He has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.

Moonrise from Glacier Point Saturday evening

In my post last Thursday I mentioned that there might be a good opportunity to photograph the moonrise from Glacier Point on Saturday evening. So Claudia and I went to Glacier Point that night, where we met lots of photographers. It was nice to see familiar faces, and meet some online acquaintances in person. Thanks to all of you who came up to me and said hello!

Of course in between socializing we all photographed the moon rising behind Half Dome. My favorite image from this evening is the panorama above (stitched together from five separate frames). If you were there, I’d love to see the images you made, so please post a link in the comments. And if you photographed the moon somewhere else, I’d like to see those images too!

On Sunday I knew the moon would be rising later, just as the sun was setting, so we looked for a spot with a low horizon to the east, and decided to head to the Mariposa County foothills. I’d been to this location before—in fact you may recognize one of these oak trees from my lunar eclipse image made in December. This time I looked east and photographed the moon rising over the hills and mountains.

Tuesday morning we rose early and headed down to Merced National Wildlife Refuge. We discovered thousands of sandhill cranes in a pond on the west side of the tour route, and photographed some of them juxtaposed with the setting moon as they flew out to feed.

I guess I can’t get enough of the moon! It always adds something to a photograph—perhaps a sense of mystery, or timelessness.

Photographs that capture the “moon above the landscape” are best taken near sunrise or sunset, a day or two before or after a full moon. When the moon is full it rises at sunset, so by the time it clears any mountains or hills to the east the landscape will be completely dark, making it impossible to expose both the moon and the landscape properly—unless, that is, you’re looking at a low, unobstructed horizon. At sunrise the moon will be setting just as the sun rises, and the moon may sink below the horizon before there’s enough light on the landscape.

But since the moon rises (and sets) approximately 50 minutes later each day, the day before it’s full the moon rises about 50 minutes before sunset, and two days before full it rises approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes before sunset. This gives the moon enough time to clear hills or even the rim of Yosemite valley before the the light fades, providing even illumination on both the moon and the landscape. And on the mornings following the full moon it will linger in the sky past sunrise, again allowing you to balance the light between the moon and your earthly surroundings.

New applications have made it easy to calculate the position of the moon, and predict exactly when it will clear the horizon from any given spot. I’ve mentioned the best of these programs here before, The Photographer’s Ephemeris. This piece of software has become an indispensable tool for me.

—Michael Frye

Moonrise, Sierra foothills, Sunday evening

Sandhill cranes and setting moon, Merced NWR, Tuesday morning

Related Posts: A Strange Winter Brings Unusual Opportunities; Eclipse

Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author and photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, Yosemite Meditations, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, plus the eBook Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom. He has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.

I’m looking forward to experimenting with the new tools, figuring out the new defaults, and sharing with you what I learn. In the mean time you can watch Julianne Kost give an overview of the new features, or describe the specific changes to the Develop Module. To download the beta, click here.

Remember that this his a beta, so it’s bound to have bugs, and the final shipping version will be different, so adjustments you make now might not translate to the finished version. If you want to import a few images into the beta version to try it out, great, but I don’t recommend that you start using Lightroom 4 beta as your primary tool until the final version ships.

You can’t upgrade your current catalog to Lightroom 4, which is good—you don’t want to mess with your existing catalog. Adobe also recommends that you don’t save metadata to XMP, and I wholeheartedly agree. Don’t Save—don’t press Command-S on a Mac, or Control-S on Windows, and make sure the option to automatically write changes into XMP is turned off. It’s turned off by default in Lightroom 4, but to check go to your Catalog Settings (under the Lightroom menu on Macs, or under the Edit menu on Windows), click on the Metadata tab at the top, and make sure that “Automatically write changes into XMP ” is unchecked. And while you’re at it uncheck “Include Develop settings in metadata inside JPEG, TIFF, and PSD files” also.

Now in Lightroom 3 I do recommend—highly—that you check these boxes. To understand why, and what all XMP stuff means, we have to talk about some fundamental aspects of how Lightroom works, so if you want to delve into these details read on.

Lightroom is a non-destructive editor, which means that when you make changes to a photograph’s appearance, Lightroom does not modify the original Raw or JPEG file, but rather writes a set of instructions about how you want to the image to look. Those instructions don’t get applied until and unless you export the image out of Lightroom (like when you take it into Photoshop, or export a JPEG to put on a web site).

Those instructions are automatically written into the Lightroom database, and can also be written into the image file itself with JPEG, TIFF, PSD, and DNG files, or with other Raw files (NEF, CR2, etc.) into a sidecar file with a .xmp extension. So with Lightroom 4 you want avoid writing writing those instructions into the image file, or a sidecar file, because those instructions won’t be compatible with Lightroom 3, and may not be compatible with the final version of Lightroom 4. But with Lightroom 3 you want to write those instructions (the metadata) into the file or sidecar file so that if Lightroom catalog ever gets corrupted those instructions, your edits to all your images, won’t be lost, because the information will be stored with the image itself. Also, that information can be read by other programs, namely Adobe Camera Raw and other copies of Lightroom.

So with that said, have fun playing with Lightroom 4, and I’ll be back with more after I’ve given it a thorough test drive.

The response was truly extraordinary. 225 people looked through my initial selection of 41 images and posted their picks here on the blog, on Facebook, Google+, and by email. My deepest thanks to all of you who took the time to look through these photographs and voice your opinions. I really appreciate your help in making these difficult choices! And thanks to my most excellent assistant Claudia for tallying all those votes and running the print contest.

Did I say contest? Yes! We were so blown away by the response from all of you that we wanted to express our appreciation by giving away a print. We assigned a number to everyone who voted and used a random number generator to pick the recipient. And the winner is… (drumroll please) Earl Robicheaux! Earl will receive a signed, numbered, matted 16×20 print of his choice from among the 41 original selections. Congratulations Earl!

If you’re thinking, “Gee, I wish I’d known,” well we didn’t know either—it was a spontaneous reaction, out of gratitude, for the wonderful response. But maybe we’ll do something like this again—and let you know in advance!

So here’s the list of the ten images which received the most picks, and the number of votes they each received:

1. Image #14, Sunbeams from Tunnel View, 109 votes
2. Image #20, Redwoods, ferns, and rhododendrons, 99 votes
3. Image #38, Eastatoe Falls, Nantahala NF, NC, 98 votes
4. Image #11, Double fall, Yosemite, 88 votes
5. Image #19, Sunset at Tenaya Lake, 87 votes
6. Image #1, Moonrise from Valley View, 81 votes
7. Image #41, Oak tree and lunar eclipse sequence, Sierra foothills, 79 votes
8. Image #18, Half Dome, oaks, and high water, 75 votes
9. Image #15, Dogwoods in mist, Yosemite, 66 votes
10. Image #32, Eastside aspen reflections, 56 votes

And just out of the top ten were #24, Juniper and star trails near Olmsted Point, Yosemite, with 54 votes; #33, Aspens, willows, and an America coot, also with 54 votes, and #12, Bridalveil Fall and rainbow, with 53 votes.

I’m sorry if your favorites didn’t make the final cut— some of my favorites didn’t make it either! But overall I think this is a great selection with a good mix of grand landscapes and more intimate and abstract compositions. Nice work everyone! I’ll be submitting this post shortly to Jim Goldstein’s blog project.

Again, thank you so much for your participation. This has been really fun for me, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it too. Here are the top ten images:

14. Sunbeams from Tunnel View

20. Redwoods, ferns, and rhododendrons

37. Eastatoe Falls, Nantahala NF, NC

11. Double fall, Yosemite

19. Sunset at Tenaya LakeMoonrise from Valley View

1. Moonrise from Valley View

41. Oak tree and lunar eclipse sequence, Sierra foothills

18. Half Dome, oaks, and high water

Dogwoods in mist, Yosemite

31. Eastside aspen reflections

—Michael Frye

Related Posts: 2011: My Best Images; Top Ten Images of 2010

Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author and photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, Yosemite Meditations, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, plus the eBook Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom. He has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.

Ice with reflections of cliffs at sunset, Yosemite, January 1st, 2012

It’s been a strange winter so far in Yosemite. Actually the word “strange” doesn’t do it justice—try weird, wacky, or even freakish. No measurable precipitation has fallen in Yosemite Valley since November 20th. There’s little snow in the high country, and the Tioga and Glacier Point roads are still open. The previous record for the latest closing date for Tioga Pass was January 1st, so with every snowless day that passes we’re setting a new record. And there’s no precipitation in the forecast for the next week.

But, as always, unusual conditions bring unusual opportunities. You can find interesting ice abstracts along Bridalveil Creek and the Merced River, like the one shown above that I made a few days ago while teaching a private workshop. And we have unprecedented access to the high country in January, and a chance to make some unusual moonrise images over the next few days.

Half Dome and moon reflected in the Merced River, December 2007

In summer the full moon doesn’t rise near any Yosemite landmarks from the common vantage points. If you’re standing at Tunnel View in July, for example, the full or nearly-full moon will rise to the right, behind Cathedral Rocks or even further to the south. But in winter the full moon rises further north, and often aligns beautifully with Half Dome from many spots in Yosemite Valley, or between El Capitan and Cathedral Rocks from Valley View or Tunnel View.

And if you watch the full moon rise from Glacier Point in the summer you’ll see it appear over the Clark Range, far to the right of Half Dome. But with the Glacier Point Road open, it may be possible to see the moon rise just to the right of Half Dome from Glacier Point or Sentinel Dome.

Moonrise photographs usually work best one to three days before the actual full moon date. On the night of the full moon (like this Sunday), the moon rises at sunset, so by the time it ascends above cliffs and mountains of Yosemite the landscape is dark, and the contrast between the moon and everything else too extreme. But the moon rises, on average, 50 minutes later each day, so the day before the full moon it rises about 50 minutes before sunset, two days before about an hour and 40 minutes before sunset, and so on. This gives the moon a chance to ascend above the cliffs while there’s still light on the landscape—and beautiful golden light at that.

The best tool for determining the position of the moon is The Photographer’s Ephemeris, a free desktop application, or $8.99 for iPhone and iPad, or $4.99 for Android. Consulting TPE it looks like Saturday could be a good evening to catch the moonrise from Tunnel View, Glacier Point, or Mono Lake, and Sunday could also work for Mono Lake, where the horizon to the east is low enough that the moon should be visible right around sunset.

I may be at Glacier Point Saturday evening if the weather looks promising, so if you see me please say hello!

And a reminder: today is the last day to weigh in with your picks for my top images of 2011.

—Michael Frye

Related Posts: New Critique Tomorrow… and Tioga Pass is Open!; Moonrise and… Moonrise Again

Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author and photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite,Yosemite Meditations, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, plus the eBook Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom. He has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.

The judging for the my final ten will be more like Dancing With the Stars than America Idol. That means that unlike Idol, where only the viewer’s votes count, the judge—me—gets a say too, so if one of my favorites gets panned by everyone else I may still include it. But as one of my photographer friends, Clinton Smith, once said, we don’t get to pick our best images—the world does. So your votes will carry a lot of weight; in fact last year I thought the choices were so good I just went with the votes.

Thanks for your input—I appreciate your help with these difficult decisions!

—Michael Frye

Related Posts: 2010: My Best Images; Top Ten Images of 2010

Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author and photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite,Yosemite Meditations, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, plus the eBook Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom. He has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.

1. Moonrise from Valley View

2. Ice and reflections in the Merced River

3. Clouds and mist, Tunnel View

4. Avocets, Merced National Wildlife Refuge

5. Ross' geese landing at sunset, Merced NWR

6. Ross' geese landing, dawn, Merced NWR

7. Half Dome at sunset from Tunnel View

8. Two trees and El Capitan

9. Swirling frazil ice in the Merced River

10. Oaks with lingering autumn leaves

11. Double fall, Yosemite

12. Bridalveil Fall and rainbow

13. Aspens and cottonwoods near Torrey, Utah

14. Sunbeams from Tunnel View

15. Dogwoods in mist, Yosemite

16. Fog, sunlight, and Bridalveil Fall

17. Swirling mist at sunrise from Tunnel View

18. Half Dome, oaks, and high water

19. Sunset at Tenaya Lake

20. Redwoods, ferns, and rhododendrons

21. Reflections, Tioga Lake

22. Sun Breaking through mist, Tuolumne Meadows

23. Sunset clouds and a small iceberg, Middle Gaylor Lake, Yosemite

24. Juniper and star trails near Olmsted Point, Yosemite

25. Light-painted tufa formations, Mono Lake

26. Clouds and light-painted tufa, Mono lake

27. Sunset, Gates of the Valley

28. Fast-moving clouds, Yosemite Valley

29. Bonsai tree, Tunnel View

30. Upper Yosemite Fall, mist, and ponderosa pine, Yosemite

31. Autumn reflections, Rush Creek, June Lake Loop

32. Eastside aspen reflections

33. Aspens, willows, and an America coot

34. Sky and leaves reflected in Rush Creek

35. Autumn dogwood near Valley View

36. Grasses and reflections of willow leaves, Yosemite

37. Misty hills, autumn, Nantahala NF, NC

38. Eastatoe Falls, Nantahala NF, NC

39. Sunbeams, Twin Falls, South Carolina

40. Ice, reflections, and river pebbles, Merced River

41. Oak tree and lunar eclipse sequence, Sierra foothills

Ice and reflections along the Merced River, Yosemite, January 19, 2011

The year has flown by! Here are my most popular posts from 2011; I hope this list helps you find some tips or articles you may have missed, and get a head start on making your best images in 2012.

Are some of your favorites missing from this list? I’d love to hear which posts you liked best, as well as what topics you’d like me to cover in 2012.

Thanks for making 2011 such a great year! Your comments and participation add immensely to the quality of this blog. I hope you have a wonderful New Year!

Jan 4: 2010: My Best Images

Jan 6: White Balance for Landscape Photographs – Part 3: A Special Problem

Feb 3: Digital Photography Basics: Reading Histograms

Mar 11: Lightroom or Photoshop?

Apr 7: Digital Photography Basics: Adjusting Exposure

Jun 22: Yosemite Valley Under Water

Jul 8: Why Am I Taking Forty Frames of the Same Thing?

Aug 25: Lightroom HDR

Sep 15: The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite iPhone App is Available Today!

Dec 5: Lunar Eclipse This Saturday

—Michael Frye

P.S. Tune in New Year’s Day to help pick my best images from 2011!

Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author and photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite,Yosemite Meditations, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, plus the eBook Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom. He has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.

Yosemite Valley After a Snowstorm

Last night Claudia and I went to the Bracebridge dinner at Yosemite’s Ahwahnee Hotel. This is a wonderful event—musical theater combined with a seven-course dinner and Christmas celebration. And believe it or not Ansel Adams was heavily involved with the creation of this event in its current form. He re-wrote the script and music in 1929, and performed various roles, including the jester, or “Lord of Misrule,” for much of his life. Ansel was a very talented musician—and known for his great sense of humor!

Mike and Linda - the "Visiting Squire and Lady"

The story, loosely based on Washington Irving’s sketchbook “A Christmas at Bracebridge Hall,” is that you are Christmas dinner guests of Squire and Lady Bracebridge in their medieval English manor. Our good friends Mike Osborne and Linda Eade were invited to be the “Visiting Squire and Lady,” which means they got dressed in costume and sat on stage with the actors who played Squire Bracebridge and his family. Some of you have met Mike during one of the many workshops he’s assisted for me, and I thought you might get a kick out of seeing him and Linda in costume, so here’s an iPhone snapshot of them before the dinner. And even if you don’t know Mike or Linda, I hope this puts a smile on your face!

Claudia and I got to be the Visiting Squire and Lady a few years ago, and it was a blast. But I seem to have conveniently misplaced the photos somehow…

Well as you can see, we’re really enjoying the holidays. Wherever you are, I hope you’re warm and safe, enjoying the beauty of the season and the company of family and friends. To all who celebrate it, I wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Photo Critique Series: “Mist” by David Eaton, Part 1 (direct link to YouTube)

Photo Critique Series: “Mist” by David Eaton, Part 2: Processing (direct link to YouTube)

Yes, the critiques are back—finally! This critique features a beautiful forest image called “Mist,” by David Eaton. The photograph was made in an area called The Chase near Birmingham, England.

This is my second video critique, and I’ve broken it into two parts. The first video discusses the processing (briefly), light, composition, exposure, and sharpness. In the second video I demonstrate how I re-processed the image in Lightroom.

After my first video critique I received many helpful suggestions, and I appreciate all the thoughtful comments. I’ve tried to incorporate as many of these suggestions as I could. One idea was to summarize the main points in writing, and I’ve done that below. However, the videos are still pretty long: the first is 15 minutes, and the second 10 minutes. I guess it’s just not in my nature to gloss over things. If the critique brings up an issue—like the one about determining the cause of a blurred image that I discuss here—then I want to explore that topic, because that might be helpful to many people.

Video is a great medium in many ways—you can actually see a demonstration rather than trying to interpret a written description. However video isn’t well suited to skimming and gleaning bits of information. I hope this summary will help the skimmers:

Part 1

00:00 Processing

The first thing that struck me about this image was that it looked too dark, and the color balance seemed too warm. David was kind enough to provide the Raw file, and here I compare the original with my re-processed version that’s brighter and has a more neutral white balance.

What puzzled me about this photograph was that the Raw file was a bit underexposed, and yet David made it even darker in processing. It’s possible that he just liked that dark, moody look, but I also wonder whether this might have been a monitor calibration issue. Most photographers don’t calibrate their monitors, and if your screen is set too bright you might think that the image needed to be darkened.

In the video I mention the tool that I use for monitor calibration: the Eye-One Display 2 by X-Rite. Although this model has been discontinued, it works great, and you can still find it on Amazon here, and at a great price: $149.95. (Note that the software that ships with this doesn’t work with Mac OS 10.7 Lion, but you can download a new version of the software from X-Rite).

The Display 2 has been replaced by the Display Pro, which has some nice new features, like automatically adjusting your monitor profile to compensate for ambient light.

Full disclosure, these are affiliate links, so if you purchase through these links I’ll earn a small commission, which helps support this blog. But I’ll never recommend anything unless I think it’s a good product and will be helpful to my readers. There are other monitor calibration tools out there, and they may be good, but I haven’t used them, so I can’t recommend them. I’ve used the Eye-One for many years and know it works well.

05:35 Light & Composition

The re-processing brings out the clean, strong composition. There’s lots of repetition in the vertical lines of the trunks, and there are no unnecessary distractions. One interesting feature is that the prominent trunk on the right edge is cut in half—usually a no-no. But I think it works here because it’s balanced by half-a-trunk on the left edge.

The soft light and fog are beautiful, a perfect complement to the scene, and the image has a wonderful, quiet, foggy mood.

09:33 Exposure and Sharpness

This image was made with a Sony A100 with a 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens at 50mm. The exposure was 1/10 of a second at f/11 with 200 ISO.

The photograph is a bit underexposed, but certainly salvageable. A zoomed-in look reveals that the image is a bit soft overall. I discuss how to diagnose whether blurring is caused by camera movement, subject movement, or focus, and conclude that in this case the culprit was probably camera movement, created by either hand-holding at too slow a shutter speed, using a tripod without a cable release, or perhaps using a tripod with image stabilization on.

13:33 Summary

Although there are some small technical flaws, and I think the processing could be improved, overall I think this is a really beautiful image. It has great light and color, a clean, strong composition, and a wonderful mood.

Part 2

00:00 Lightroom Workflow

This isn’t the appropriate time and place for a detailed explanation of my Lightroom workflow—that would make the video even longer! But my eBook Light & Land explains the workflow in depth. Here I briefly explain why I prefer to start with everything “zeroed” in Lightroom, and then talk about moving the white point with the Point Curve.

03:49 Curves vs. the Exposure Slider

People sometimes ask me why I prefer to lighten a photograph by moving the white point in the Point Curve rather than pushing the Exposure slider to the right. The short answer is that the Exposure tool boosts the midtones more, which tends to flatten highlights and wash out light colors. I make a comparison here.

06:18 Setting the Black Point and Making an S-Curve

07:54 Setting the White Balance

As shot the white balance was 5550K, which looks a little too warm to me. I show what it looks like both warmer and cooler, and discuss the merits of leaving it a bit cool to set up a color contrast, before settling on a relatively neutral color temperature of around 5100K.

09:12 Clarity, Vibrance, and Saturation

I add a bit of Clarity, but the big increase in contrast created with the Point Curve already boosted the saturation, so I leave the overall Vibrance and Saturation alone.

Your Comments

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts about this photograph. What do you think of the composition, the light, and the fog? What about the processing, and the changes I made? Please post a comment and let me know!

Thanks David for sharing your photograph! You can see more of his work on Flickr.

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As part of being chosen for this critique David will receive a free 16×20 matted print courtesy of the folks at Aspen Creek Photo. If you’d like your images considered for future critiques, just upload them to the Flickr group I created for this purpose. If you’re not a Flickr member yet, joining is free and easy. You’ll have to read and accept the rules for the group before adding images, and please, no more than five photos per person per week. Thanks for participating!

—Michael Frye

Related Posts: The Power of Curves; Using Curves in Lightroom and Camera Raw; Photo Critique Series: An Intimate, Wide-Angle Composition from Scotland

See all the critiques here.

Michael Frye is a professional photographer specializing in landscapes and nature. He is the author and photographer of The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite, Yosemite Meditations, and Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Great Masters, plus the eBook Light & Land: Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom. He has written numerous magazine articles on the art and technique of photography, and his images have been published in over thirty countries around the world. Michael has lived either in or near Yosemite National Park since 1983, currently residing just outside the park in Mariposa, California.