Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=290379

Quite nice 'Chelle. I see you are really putting your zone studies to practice. Negatives like this are also a real challenge for that new scanner; you must be really liking it! Perfect.

Interesting... Did you use your graqy card to meter this?

Nice shot Michelle, I will be returning to this image to cool me down during the heat of our summer! :-)>

No...it was snowing quite a bit while I was out so I did not use the cardboard grey card. I just went two stops more on the shutter speed than the camera's spot metering recommended. This image had a slight cyan cast which I fixed with curves in PS...the levels seemed pretty good...so I didn't really touch that too much. Used a filter called Nik Pro (duplex filter) to change it to B&W..... Interesting?.....Does that mean you like or don't like?

i think it might have been better taken with a B&W film, as you could probably aviod over-exposing the snow. nice photo, though.

Oh, just tell Dobby to go iron his hands. ;-) To me, the exposure here looks correct because it gets across the silent-softness of the subject. It is a study in shades of gray going gently to pure white, rather than (the more typical) high contrast winter scene. The branches and berries are not stark black. It is not sunny, the light is not directional. The snow has some texture, but even where it goes completely white it seems to add to the softness as the DOF fades away. Then again, maybe Michelle had an entirely different intention when she visualized this photo in her mind, but just screwed up the execution? We'll never know. Can just appreciate any happy accidents. The question 'Chelle needs to ask herself is: "Did this image turn out as it was visualized in your mind when you pressed the shutter?" The answer is not one she need make public; but is key to her understanding of how well she is mastering her tools. Snow on dark branches is an even more difficult subject than a black cat in a coal bin; with the cat it is fairly easy to visualize the expected result, and just adjust the zones accordingly. With black AND white, both have to fit within the capabilities of the media. With a subject like this, I need to make several bracketed exposures just to make sure something important does not fall off the ends. I'm not that good at predicting the result. Since the light here is even, and some highlight blocking is artistically acceptable, my guess is that Adams would have given this about two stops over the average (like Michelle), and would have used normal film development. [In really strange lighting situations, without a gray card, you can substitute the back of your hand (WF...) and give about an extra stop. Take the mittens off.] I am a little questioning about using curves to adjust color cast; I usually just use the color balance sliders. I'm not sure what may be going on here with re-arranging the histograms, posterizing some ranges, etc. [We sometimes see these discontinuous histograms, with spikes across the whole range, but gaps with nothing...] Oops! I'm late for work... I've rampled... I'll go punish myself. I hope this is in line with what folks expect for "in depth" treatment. If it is just rambling I'll slink off.

Love the DOF on this one, Mich. I'm actually torn between the curve-edited pic and the final one. (*

Michelle - Well, I like it and think it works much better without color. For some reason, I find this a very soothing and peaceful image. I suppose because it reminds me of winters past, standing outside late at night shoveling snow in Baltimore. The crispness in the air and the absolute silence and stillness that's only broken by the soft tinkling of ice crystals as they fall from the tree branches. I loved that and miss it a lot sometimes (not the whole shoveling part). Makes me smile thinking about it. Thanks for reminding me of that. :) -=>Donald

Dobby says that this is even more interesting now with all this speculation...

Here is the way Dobby sees it. The original is a good exposure. However, there is a green cast to it due to the fact that this was an early snow and there was still a lot of green showing through in the environment. The color adjustment you made enhanced the reds which in turn overpowered the greens, but did not truly compensate for it.

The nik filter gave the overall image a nice feel, but IDHO (In Dobby's Humble Opinion) blew the whites out in the center of the image as there is no longer any detail or definition between the snow on the main branch and the ones behind it. That detail is there in the original and the curves adjusted versions.

Is losing that detail OK? That is up to the Master to decide. Dobby is just a poor lonely house elf...

Heh!......Ok but that green looks cyan to me.....and hmmm...I don't see red in the adjusted version.....give me time....one of these days I will finally get this color shyte right....

If I'm the Master well I say I like the final version...blown out whites and all....which could still be adjusted (maybe I will maybe I won't)...

@Misha: You did my dear...and I'm not taking offense at anyone's comments....although I do think Dobbie might be needing a spanking sometime soon.. My main reason for being here is to learn like everyone else and if someone has something to teach I want to hear it. So how do you determine this green -vs- cyan thing? I've always used the eyedropper on what was supposed to be white and took a look at the color on the palette....how did you do this thingie? And does it always work for each of the colors?

...spanking just encourages him... I think you measured the colors using the dropper correctly. It measures cyan, though (particularly guys) sometimes have a real difficult time seeing the difference. There must be a way to measure with the dropper, and then correct by that amount, but I've never figured it out... tutorial?? The strange looking thingy is just the difference between the color corrected version and the nik filtered version, (then adjust levels). I suspect it doesn't mean anything at all, just thought it was sort of cool looking. Wanted to try to figure out what that filter was doing; it is strange. I do like your end result. Do you like it when the Forum goes into in-depth tangents like this? Hugs in any case.

Oh yeah....I just love it....especially when it's my image they happen to be tangenting (is that a word?) over. Thanks for the hug! LOL!

Dobby says he saw the green and just made a statement based on his perception of color. However, after reading the follow ups he downloaded the original scan and brought it into Photoshop. Then Dobby used the sampler tool (one of three choices for the eyedropper tool) to see if his eyes were decieving him. They weren't.

As Dobby moved the tool around the image green consistantly remained the highest value in the RGB numbers. This leads Dobby to stand by his original judgement that there is an overall green cast to the image. As we all know, Magenta is the opposite of Green, so adding more Magenta (not Red) will balance the color.

Dobby says the one thing to keep in mind is that all screen displays are based on light. The color of light is measured in RGB. If we were examining a print, then color decisions should be made on CMYK.

BTW... Dobby has been tested for color perception using a standardized test. His perception of color is excellent. His weakest point is where yellow and green overlap.

Please keep in mind that Dobby is not criticising anything here. A house elf mearly states what he sees, and forms no opinion.

And this somebody with excellent color perception keeps referring to himself in the third person. Heh heh... LMAO ;-D ROTFLMAO @ tangenting!!! Seriously I like discussions like these. Helpful indeed. :-) (*

LOL! They actually have tests like that!? Ok that's cool...maybe I'm the one who has problems with colors, at any rate like I said; it's going to take me a while to learn this color cast thingie correctly.... And your help is greatly appreciated...remember that!

"And please explain how shooting this in B&W would have made a difference in exposure with the snow? I don't understand how that would effect anything" - black and white film can reproduce a far greater range of light than colour film can, and so when shooting a picture of very bright objects next to very dark objects, b&w is my personal film of choice. however, thats not to say that there is anything WRONG with the picture as posted, its just not as i would have done it, and i certainly dont think that everyone should do things my way. i didnt mean to cause any offence, i do genuinely like the photo.

Aha! and now I understand what you meant! Thank you Six Eyed Smiley!