Sunrise at Cook's Meadow

Posted by Don Smith (California, United States) on 9 November 2008 in Landscape & Rural.

Every fall this lone elm displays fine fall color for a brief stretch of days. Just when the rising sun crests the granite walls near Half Dome, the tree explodes with color - truly an amazing sight! I was with a group of students as part ot the Gary Hart Yosemite Fall Color Workshop of which I was a co-instructor. Because of the extreme contrast ratio present in the scene, I knew I my sensor would not be able to record the tones as my eye saw them. I decided to bracket 7 stops (at one-stop intervals) with my shutter. My normal HDR software, Photomatix Pro 3.1, could not render this scene natural to my eye, thus I decided to blend two images in Photoshop using layers and masks. Using Adobe Camera Raw, I processed one image exposed correctly for the tree and foreground, then processed a second image for the sky. Where the blend meets (near Half Dome and above the pines) I simply reduced the opacity of the brush to 50% to make the transition look natural. Finally, I fine-tuned the image by using Nik Viveza (the more I use this software, the more I love it)! Last year I was fortunate to photograph this scene after an overnight rain and had rising mist off the Valley floor. The image made the cover of my book On the Edge which you can see and order by visiting my website at http://www.donsmithphotography.com.

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