Large Format Landscapes

Another Grand Canyon Toroweep Sunrise. The sky is just not cooperating (it's actually pissing me off). I have two versions of this image, decidedly both are giving me fits, but I thought I would post this one. I am gonna redo using a different scan method with the Howtek. One thing for sure is I need a center filter for the 75mm and 90mm. The vignetting is horrendous and is ruining the skies at sunrise and sunset.

Grand Canyon North Toroweep Sunrise. 75mm Nikkor f/4.5@f/32, Portra 160. Manual dodging with dark slide



https://www.steveruttenbergphotograp...22806402-6.jpg

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Originally Posted by Beano_z

Wow, thanks guys, I'm truly overwhelmed with the positive comments! :o

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And quite rightly so. I've seen it come by on a few different platforms and enjoyed it every time.

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Originally Posted by Steven Ruttenberg

Another Grand Canyon Toroweep Sunrise. The sky is just not cooperating (it's actually pissing me off). I have two versions of this image, decidedly both are giving me fits, but I thought I would post this one. I am gonna redo using a different scan method with the Howtek. One thing for sure is I need a center filter for the 75mm and 90mm. The vignetting is horrendous and is ruining the skies at sunrise and sunset.

Grand Canyon North Toroweep Sunrise. 75mm Nikkor f/4.5@f/32, Portra 160. Manual dodging with dark slide

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Still a great effort. I'm sure it can be salvaged. But it is annoying to have to spend time on it when you can easily avoid it in the field.

Steven, the "vignetting" to me looks like natural sky vignette away from the sun, because it's off-center. Unless you were using a significant amount of sideways shift? Considering the detail in the shadows on the lower left/right, I see no reason to use a CF myself - it would just cause more overloaded highlights in the top area.

Steven. I agree the vignetting is too much especially in the upper left and upper right corners.

I just noticed you said you used "manual dodging". What did you do?

Probably what I've talked about doing for years, using a darkslide to "dodge" the exposure just like you would in the darkroom, by waving it in front of the lens for a portion of the exposure time instead of using a GND. Of course this can sometimes be unpredictable, and certainly decreases the exposure in areas that would already be underexposed from fall-off, if you're worried about such things.

The vignetting is natural, I used no shift on this shot that I remember. It isn't really the vignetting that bothers me as it is to be expected with the a giant ball of hot gas coming up over the horizon. I made a mental not of the sky at the time of the shot, which I noted was purplish. Its the color of the sky that is annoying me. I believe it is correct, but it bugs me.

Yes, I took a dark slide, figured out where I needed to place it to dodge the rising sun. I turned it so the corner was pointing straight down to avoid too "dark" of vignetting in the corners that a typical grad nd would give for a shot like this. I think it worked okay as i didn't entirely blow out the sun.

As for a cf, the only reason I mention it is there is always a much brighter spot dead center of the frame with sweeping landscapes, and bright skies and ground is in shadows. I can usually fix that though. I also only get the major vignetting at sunrise and sunset.

I wonder what your exposure setting was and if there was a reason not to use a GND in that situation?

Based on shadows it was something like a minute or so t f/32. Portra160. I assume you are asking why I chose to dodge with a dark slide as opposed to using a grad nc. I chose not to use a grad nd given the strong sunlight coming up on the horizon, uneven terrain and the strong vignetting that the 75mm Nikkor has even at f/32.