Yosemite Reflection

[lefty82]

Found a good reflection in a small stream. I had trouble getting the exposure right and ended up with blue snow in order to get enough details in the mountain (I don't have a split neutral density filter yet). I tried to get the snow lightened a bit in CS3 but I'm not sure if it is enough (or too much??)

[lefty82]

...For some reason under my name, it says "Point and Shoot" - How do I change this???

[FocalFrenzy]

Somehow, it's based on the number of posts you've made. I think it changes after 50. If I'm wrong, someone should be able to answer you. I really like this shot. The cotrast, and lighting is spot-on. I do wish there were more water, so that the entire reflection could have been caught. But nature doesn't always cooperate. Thanks for sharing.

[lefty82]

Thanks, FocalFrenzy. I wished there was more water as well...

[windrider86]

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I think you did pretty darn well. snow is a tough one especially mid day as the sun tends to overxpose the snow.

[jiminyClickit]

lefty82,

Another uncommon view with strong appeal. Had to look twice to get the embankment/reflection thing sorted out, then it was good again. Curious if Olympus high saturation setting got the snow all blue?

[neilwood]

Main suggestion i would make is shoot raw if possible - gives a lot more post processing room (white balance/brightness etc).

Other than that, try taking 2 images - one exposed for the sky and the other for the ground. Then merge them in CS3.

[lefty82]

Neilwood - That was my original intention, but since my cheapie tripod broke earlier that morning (I think it was too cold - that is what I get for spening $20 on a tripod) getting 2 identical shots with different exposures was difficult.

I did shoot in raw so how I got around SOME of the blue was I underexposed the picture, then used the regular one and merged them together with a layer mask. I didn't want to take it too far with the underexposing though to prevent it from looking weird or unnatural, but do you think I should have made the foreground snow a bit whiter? I'm still very new to photography and struggle with making things look "natural" in post-processing.