Trip to the Eastern Sierras

[Frisco]

I did a trip to the Eastern Sierras this weekend with some friends - we went across Tioga Pass and then down 395 through Bishop and Lone Pine, returning through the Joshua Tree area. We spent the night at Lone Pine and watched sunrise from the Alabama Hills area right at the base of Mt Whitney.

Here are a couple shots of Mt Whitney at sunrise yesterday morning.

And another pic from the arch after the sun came up a bit more:

And one with the fisheye lens:

 

[Konadog]

Frisco, very nice pictures.

I'll have to find my pictures from the top of Mt. Whitney looking down.

 

[cward]

Very, very nice. I would love to go backpacking there.

 

[zenya]

Great shots, Eli! Looks like it snowed there already(?)... it sure gave that special punch to the color scheme, I love it.

 

[BlueCorn]

Nice shots Eli - I really like the fisheye.

 

[drauka99]

Great looking Pics

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

 

[dfcjr]

Man, I gotta get out that way for some hiking!!! Michigan is pretty this time of the year but it's freaking cold in the hills boy!!

 

[Frisco]

Thanks everyone, I was actually very disappointed with the quality of the pictures and have a ton of learning to do. The pictures really came out soft and I think I got a little too carried away with the combination of low ISO settings, small apertures, and the low light of sunrise. I took over 200 pics and barely even wanted to post the couple that I did because they are all so soft. The only good news is that we're going back

 

[jwedehase]

Frisco, I was just in that area, myself! I was in Boron, half way between 395 and Edwards AFB. I don't have the luxury of the L lenses yet, but here's a desert sunset with the 28-135mm. Have any ideas how to lose the grain in the tree silhouette? ISO 100.

You don't happen to be lucky enough to drive that 997 across the state do you? Probably not, with the Euro plates.

 

[Frisco]

wow great pic - I guess it's always easier to be critical of our own pics because I love yours. Perhaps it's an issue with my monitor settings, but I don't see any major issues with noise. Do you use any type of noise reduction software? And have you done a calibration of your monitor ever?

 

[CaptainNemo]

I had to zoom the image considerably before I saw grain.

Did you post process the image? If so, did you bring up the dark levels more that a stop or two? If so, that can cause lots of grain, usually chroma grain, which I dont see .


Noise removal may work some, but I would probably try making the silouhette even darker. You would loose the little grain that you have.

Nice photo nonetheless, and the OP photos are nice as well.

Thanks for sharing


johnny

 

[jwedehase]

Frisco, I use PS CS2, but nothing specifically for noise reduction. I could probably use some filters, but I've found that most of the "anti-noise" filters mess up the rest of the photo, and I don't want to take the time to mask out just the silhouette.

For monitor calibration, I've tried to get as close as I can, but I have a flat panel, and there's only so much I can do. And to think, I just "upgraded" to this monitor from a CRT. And it's a Sony, so it's too bright and too cool, which is probably why I see the grain, and you don't.

For post processing, I brought the shadows down a little, actually, to fill in the joshua tree. I also did the typical cleaning of random debris or distractions.

Anyway, I didn't intend to hijack, just wanted to add the last photo from Frisco's trip, since he didn't.

 

[Michael Dell]

thanks for sharing