Sneffels Sunset On Kings Crown

Title

Sneffels Sunset On Kings Crown

Artist

Mike Berenson

Medium

Photograph

Description

Some of my favorite elements came together in this image captured high in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. Rugged mountain peaks, glowing clouds, and colorful wildflowers were my reward for an early evening climb up a challenging jeep trail.

I had gone up to get into position for some starry night sky images in Governor Basin, but this combination at sunset was simply stunning. This view looks north at Mount Sneffels (elevation 14,157 feet) with the valley descending to the right down to the little mountain town of Ouray (out of the frame).

I may not know a lot of wildflowers by name, but I know the maroon ones in the foreground are called Kings Crown. And while they don't have the most vibrant of colors, I find them to be great to add to an image - when I can find them.

How I Got The Shot
While I could have shot this image with multiple exposures, I kept this one simple and made the most of my dynamic range with a single exposure. To help, I made sure to expose-to-the-right with a slight overexposure on my settings. This allowed me to bring back the exposure on the sky without losing the details in the foreground - a key part of my strategy. With the bright colors of the glowing clouds and the deep dark colors in the foreground flowers, I found this strategy to be especially helpful.

On the post-processing side, I made use of my favorite Photoshop tool (a curves adjustment) to bring back the slight over-exposure due to my having intentionally exposed-to-the-right. Using a hard edge brush and edge detection, I was able to target my curves adjustment on the sky above the mountains without affecting the foreground elements.

One more important step I took was with Nik's Color Efex Pro using the Tonal Contrast filter to add a little punch. I then dropped the opacity on the new filtered layer to 50% to make the effect appear more subtle.

Photo Gear
� Camera Body -�Nikon D800 Digital SLR Camera
� Camera Lens - Bower 35mm f/1.4 Lens for Nikon
� Tripod Head -�Acratech GV2 Ball Head / Gimbal Head with Lever Clamp�&�Acratech Large Leveling Base
� Tripod Legs -�FEISOL Elite CT-3472 Rapid Tripod Legs
� Remote Trigger - Vello FreeWave Micro Wireless Remote Shutter Release for Select Nikon DSLRs

Exposure Settings - Single Exposure
� ISO: 200
� Aperture: f/16
� Shutter Speed: 8 seconds

Uploaded

September 24th, 2014

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