Snow dusting Colter Bay Grand Teton

[NancyMoranG]

Same day as a couple of other photos I have posted. I thought I was at F18 or so giving me more sharpness all the way through photo? It looks soft to me?
This was first light and then just before the glow on mountain.

Thoughts?

2

 

[jcdeboever]

Diffraction. You need to test your lens if it concerns you. I have a nikkor 25-50 f4 Ai, I never shoot it past f/8. Crazy good lens up to that.

Could be other things like shooting with a zoom and you leave stabilization engaged when shooting at faster speeds.

 

[SquarePeg]

Wow what a gorgeous scene! Only on my phone so can’t speak to sharpness but the first one may be a bit hot on the whites? Play up that pink sky a bit imo.

 

[NancyMoranG]

Diffraction. You need to test your lens if it concerns you. I have a nikkor 25-50 f4 Ai, I never shoot it past f/8. Crazy good lens up to that.

Could be other things like shooting with a zoom and you leave stabilization engaged when shooting at faster speeds.

I believe I was using the Tokina 11-16, 2.8 lens. I am sure my image stabilization is off on tripod.
Ugh, can't I go take pictures and let someone else do the testing stuff.. :{
Thank you, I DO appreciate your help.
N

 

[NancyMoranG]

Wow what a gorgeous scene! Only on my phone so can’t speak to sharpness but the first one may be a bit hot on the whites? Play up that pink sky a bit imo.

Am hoping you get to take your photo tour in 2021 to Grand Tetons!
Let's meet up and hopefully I will impress you with my new found
Pp/ techno knowledge !

 

[jcdeboever]

Diffraction. You need to test your lens if it concerns you. I have a nikkor 25-50 f4 Ai, I never shoot it past f/8. Crazy good lens up to that.

Could be other things like shooting with a zoom and you leave stabilization engaged when shooting at faster speeds.

I believe I was using the Tokina 11-16, 2.8 lens. I am sure my image stabilization is off on tripod.
Ugh, can't I go take pictures and let someone else do the testing stuff.. :{
Thank you, I DO appreciate your help.
N

You could look for a review, it may mention the optical range where diffraction creeps in.

 

[NancyMoranG]

What are you doing up so late? Thanks.

 

[SquarePeg]

I agree with JC and rarely shoot past f/8 - f/11 for landscapes unless I’m doing a long exposure without a ND filter or trying to star the lights at night. I had that lens when I had my nikon kit. It’s a fun lens. Watch out for lens flare!

I know you don’t want to hear this but if you want foreground and background in focus you might have to do a ......(whispers...) focus stack.

 

[Space Face]

Diffraction. You need to test your lens if it concerns you. I have a nikkor 25-50 f4 Ai, I never shoot it past f/8. Crazy good lens up to that.

Could be other things like shooting with a zoom and you leave stabilization engaged when shooting at faster speeds.

This was my first thoughts too. Diffraction. I'd rarely use such a small aperture. Sometimes for long exposure water shots but then overall sharpness is less important.

 

[weepete]

Lools like you got a great location and those pink clouds over the mountains are ideal!

I think that you've got a bit of diffraction, here which is contributing to your lack of sharpness. On a cropped sensor, it's seldom nessecary to go beyond f16. On my full frame I keep that to f11. If you have your hyperfocal distance set, everything from about 3ft to infinity should be in acceptable focus at 16mm focal length.

Your shot is nice, but I think there's a fair bit of overexposure in the lights, and a lack of contrast in the mid tones which is contibuting to your idea that it's not as sharp as it should be. I think it may also have been oversharpened a touch, particularly on the mountains.

This type of shot can be tough, as the foreground has a lot of shadow, and that gives a blue tone to the foreground whites which can be difficult to balance. I think that this is a shot that would see a benefit from split toning, and some HSL colour adjustments.

Ultimatley you are not far off here, and I think a few local adjustments could really push this into the oustanding category, but as is it's still very good.

 

[PJM]

Thoughts? Yes:
1. You continue to make me jealous with your photos from the GTNP.
2. I think those are great shots, nicely composed. I like #1 the best. As @SquarePeg said, maybe quiet the whites a bit and bring up the colors in the clouds.

Very nice.

 

[NancyMoranG]

@weepete thank you for the help.
You are right, I did sharpen the mountains thinking it would help. As you noted, I did it too much, hence why I don't do much pp to my photos

@PJM thank you for the comment. Grand Tetons N. Park is glorious! That morning glow doesn't last long, but well worth getting up everyday to see!

 

[K9Kirk]

Nice set. Just my taste, not necessarily a critique but I would've liked to've seen it with the mid-tones up a bit, it seems a little low on the contrast but great shots overall. Good job.

 

[NancyMoranG]

Thank you @K9Kirk.
I am going to make learning pp my winter project.
We are going back to Tetons next summer too and want these photos to portray it's beauty.

 

[weepete]

Check out Nigel Danson on youtube Nancy, he's got some pretty good lightroom tutorials for landscape photography. I rate them pretty highly at least.