Twilight in the Rockies

[FrankMi]

This is the first time I tried to photograph a sunset by shooting with the sun at my back and using a tall object (the mountains) to catch the sunset light.

I caught this out the front of the car as it was stopped at a stop sign in Wyoming.

Sony Cybershot DSC42
ISO 120
f 2.5
1/50 sec
3 MP

Here are the SOOC and post processed images.



...and after cropping, etc.

[Bobobird]

That crop made a recycle-binner into a really good pic. Well done.

[epmi314]

It is good to have a nice point n' shoot in the holster! Beautiful place. Beautiful image.

[Donald]

Frank - I agree that the composition and how you've worked it, makes for a very nice image. When viewed in the lightbox at the larger size we do see that the PP work has brought up a lot of noise. Do you think that, when viewed at the larger size, it is maybe close to the limit on what you could go with?

And, what is that thing up near the top left, just to the left of the top of the tree? It does catch the eye a bit.

[FrankMi]

Thank you, Bobo and Scott!

Frank - I agree that the composition and how you've worked it, makes for a very nice image. When viewed in the lightbox at the larger size we do see that the PP work has brought up a lot of noise. Do you think that, when viewed at the larger size, it is maybe close to the limit on what you could go with?

And, what is that thing up near the top left, just to the left of the top of the tree? It does catch the eye a bit.

Hi Donald, yes I frequently see a lot of noise in these low MP images, particularly if I crop them or if they were taken in low light as this one was. In this case, the PP was limited to the crop, some minor brightness and levels adjustment and a little vertical compression using the move tool - nothing that I would think should introduce additional noise. I've seen tomemapping bring out a lot of noise but that wasn't used for this image. I could go back and rework the image to see where the noise comes in but it may be from the output sharpening which, for these smaller images, I've found has to be very delicate. Being as this was a small JPG to start with I didn't do any other sharpening.

Any idea why the noise should be so high?

I can't find anything in the top left, or anywhere else that looks really out of place for this scene. I do see what looks like a noise speck (maybe two) just over the peak of the left hand low mountain on the 2nd image in the lightbox. Maybe I need to change my glasses....

[Donald]

I can't find anything in the top left,

The worrying thing about that is - am I forgetting my left from my right? Why did I say top left, when I should have said top right. Boy, that is worrying.

So top right, just to the left of the top of the tree

[FrankMi]

The worrying thing about that is - am I forgetting my left from my right? Why did I say top left, when I should have said top right. Boy, that is worrying.

So top right, just to the left of the top of the tree

LOL! And I thought I was the only one that did things like that. The only thing I see is how the sun has painted the bottom the the cloud a bright pink, but that was in the original as well. It did pick up a bit with the brightness and contrast but I hadn't changes the vibrance or saturation so it is a little surprising that it is as bright as it is. Unless I am still missing something?

[Donald]

Unless I am still missing something?

Nope, I think that is what it is.