Passed by her on way to Crystal Mill. This is Beaver Lake which is just east of Marble, Colorado on Colorado 3. I created this image with three portrait aspect ...
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Passed by her on way to Crystal Mill. This is Beaver Lake which is just east of Marble, Colorado on Colorado 3. I created this image with three portrait aspect ratio images stitched together into a panorama image using CS6 and then edited in LR5.
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Contest Finalist in Celebrating Reflections Photo Contest
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RDVPhotography
July 11, 2015
Thank you very much Nina, this turned out much better than I had hoped for. You can tell it started raining after I started my shots, no drops on the left side just the right : D
kathykuhn100
August 29, 2015
Beautifully come! We're in Czo now & it's still so green tho the skies are muddied by the smoke from the NW fires we left behind!
KWSetzer
September 18, 2015
Beautiful! I love Colorado and its been over 25 years since I've been there..Time for a road trip!
RDVPhotography
September 18, 2015
Thanks Ken, and if you go from here to Crystal Mill like I did it will be another 5 miles and a 'true' off road trip. Took about an hour
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
This is Beaver Lake, just east of Marble, Colorado. We were on our way to Crystal Mill and saw this view and just had to stop. This is easily accessed as it is before joining the 4 Wheel Drive road to Crystal Mill.Time
It was right after noon, we had stopped for lunch in Marble.Lighting
For the time of day the light was wonderful thanks to the moody clouds. I used a tripod due to the lighting as I wanted a good depth of field and used f/16. Also this is a stitched panorama of three shots so keeping the f stop the same for all three shots was necessary. The shutter speed ranged from 1/25 to 1/15 second. I shot 3 sets of 3 and chose one set to develop as the light was more consistent in that one set. The light between shots in the other two sets were not consistent due to cloud movement. So the faster you can shoot your set the better, to keep the light consistent between shots.Equipment
I used a Canon 5D MkII and 24-105mm f/4 lens at 24mm for all three shots. I had the camera mounted on a Gitzo Tripod with Really Right Stuff Ball had and panorama kit set to the nodal point for the lens and camera. I also used a remote shutter. Additionally I used a Lee GND 0.6 filterInspiration
When we came around a bend in the road the scene was just serene and we just had to stop. I loved the moody sky and the mirrored lake surface just added that additional element to the overall scene. As I was shooting it started sprinkling and you can see some drops in the water if you look closely on the right side. The first shot had no rain drops so you do not see any drops rings on the surface of the water on the right side of the image.Editing
I used LR CC to develop this image from start to finish, except for final sharpening in On1 Effects. I am finding the panorama tool in LR to be very good. I used 3 images taken in portrait aspect ratio and merged all three RAW images in LR then developed the Panorama. My work flow in LR was Enable Lens Profile, Noise Reduction, and White Balance Adjustment. Then I made adjustments to Highlights, Shadow, White & Black Clipping. I then added a bit Clarity and Vibrance to pull the muted colors out a bit. Next I went to the HSL tools where I made adjustments to Green & Yellow Luminance. My last step in LR was deletion of some spots in the sky from dust on the sensor. I then went to Plug-in-Extras and went to On1 Effects 10 for final sharpening.In my camera bag
On this day I had my bag with my 5DMKII with the 24-105mm f4.0 attached and also carried my 16-35mm f/2.8 and 70-200 f/2.8. I also carry a full set of Lee Soft Graduated ND Filters (1,2, 3 &4 stops) along with a CPL and two solid ND filters, one 3 stop and 1 4 stop. I also carry lens cleaning wipes as well as an extra battery and memory cards.Feedback
We were lucky with the conditions and you cannot really plan for this. In fact we had not planned this shot at all as our focus was on getting to Crystal Mill (You can see that image in my posts under Awards). What we had planned for this trip to Colorado was to capture some fine fall photos and planned our route for each day. I also used Google Earth to see what others found where we were going. Planning and Patience are the two things that help me more than anything. Good luck.