Before and After: Grand Tetons

This was the view outside our tent when we went camping deep in the Grand Tetons.

Composition: I wanted to capture the late evening light and the foreground flowers. So, I set up the camera very low to the ground to fill the frame with the flowers in the foreground. This also required me to focus using the hyper focal distance principles to get everything sharply in focus.

Field Work: Because the terrain was uneven, I could not use a GND filter. A GND filter would have darkened the top of the mountains. Instead I carefully selected the exposure using the histogram on the back of the camera so that the entire dynamic range of the shot was captured in one single image.

Processing: I processed a single image 3 times and blended them manually to bring out the details in every part of the image. The layers used in the processing are shown in the image above. I used a Wacom Tablet to draw precise selections I needed for creating masks on the adjustment and blending layers. Here is what the photo looked like before editing.