Passage of Time #2 - Sand Harbor, Lake Tahoe, Nevada

I realize I have neglected this blog for almost 9 months. For that I apologize, more to myself, for not motivating to write and share. I will eventually switch over to Word Press for my blog. It seems to have more flexibility with layouts and will hopefully one day be up and running.

I felt it appropriate to post another image from the same outing as my last post. The thing with long exposures is you never quite know what the clouds will do over the course of 1-2 minutes, the range of exposures I was using that day. Experimentation is crucial with these longer exposures. This image was almost twice as long as the previous and therefore is a little less definition in the sky.

When using the strong ND filters, such as B+W's ND110 along with Singh-Ray's Gold-N-Blue polarizer, color casts can be a problem. I use a custom white balance (WB), typically in ACR, before importing into Photoshop. I will use the eye dropper selection tool and try several different points in the preview image. I pay close attention to how my selections alter the WB *and* the tint. If no one selection looks how I think it should, I will adjust the WB and tint to a more personal setting using the information I just gathered as a baseline.

Once in Photoshop, I selectively improve the contrast and colors from the flat RAW file. Nondestructive burning and dodging (see Tony Kuyper's tutorials) and selective sharpening finish off my processing.

Until next time!