The temperature has been below freezing most mornings with the highs for the day rarely getting much more. Hoover is mostly frozen in a thin layer of ice too thin for fishing. Below the dam the water is a little warmer after it’s trip through the pipe and begins to freeze again south of the collection slough at the base.
This frame from late in the afternoon last year gathers sunset light along the width of the dam as the base is blanketed in shadow. The weather this year is more cloudy so I haven’t seen the sun much for about a month so I resurrected a photo from last year to at least show me a little warmth. Eds Note: Photo from today added at bottom of post
There are five Smart Object layers from a single RAW file to select and edit specific areas of the photo. The first layer is the unedited original exposure. It will remain hidden and the control image.
One layer supplied the proper exposure for the sunlight on the dam. The next layer moved the midtones a little higher to brighten the snow. The following layer pulled the sky darker using exposure and a colored gradient in Camera Raw. The next layer added contrast, tone and color to the foreground waters. The last layer, not a Smart object, used a mask to darken the reflections in the water.
That’s five Smart object layers not including the original file and a single layer mask. Two of the Smart Object layers (the last two) have masks applied with selective area unmasking to reveal the exposure, saturation and contract differences necessary to bring out detail in the shadows.
Nikon D300, 14-24mm f2.8 @14mm f7, 1/125, ISO 200, RAW.
Added to this post from a shoot today. There isn’t much difference to the scene other than the viewpoint and time of day.
