Some n00b shots from Yosemite of Half Dome

Just got back from a couple days in Yosemite with the family and I wanted to post a couple of my pics to get some feedback. I posted in the critique forum but a friend suggested I'd get more feedback by posting in this specific forum.

The shots were taken with my Canon 10D and 24-105 f/4L. These shots were shot in manual at f/22 with the camera reading a proper exposure for the sky. Photos were taken RAW and the only PP includes settings coming out of raw and USM.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and view the shots. All comments are welcome.

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My second home! You did a good job with the harsh lighting.

The shadows on the Glacier Point shot (#2) bothers me. Also, there's a bit too much sky above the clouds, so why not crop it square? An example here.

EDIT:My favorite is the second one...love the fence. Is this at the Panoramic Trail?

I like #2 and #3. The tree in #3 interests me. They all seem a bit over exposed. Maybe it is the sun that is high in the sky. Maybe go in to PS and increase the saturation a bit, and maby mess around with brightness/contrast to eliminate the washed out look. Good composition on #2

#2 for me.

zippy25 wrote in post #3494990
They all seem a bit over exposed. Maybe it is the sun that is high in the sky. Maybe go in to PS and increase the saturation a bit, and maby mess around with brightness/contrast to eliminate the washed out look.

Yeah, being a family trip, I was limited to shooting what I could, when I could... and mostly it was when the sun was set to maximum power and directly above. I tried stalling as best I could but the wife and kids weren't about to sit up at Glacier point till 8PM... haha.

I could play with the exposure since they were taken in RAW, but they look OK to my untrained eye... but I will play around with them a bit more.

euge.lee wrote in post #3495098
I could play with the exposure since they were taken in RAW, but they look OK to my untrained eye... but I will play around with them a bit more.

I think the exposure is fine...IMO.

Hikin Mike wrote in post #3494981
My second home! You did a good job with the harsh lighting.

The shadows on the Glacier Point shot (#2) bothers me. Also, there's a bit too much sky above the clouds, so why not crop it square? An example here.

EDIT:My favorite is the second one...love the fence. Is this at the Panoramic Trail?

Thanks and yeah, see above, the harsh lighting was indeed harsh

And yes, that is Panoramic Trail... it truly is your second home.

Here is #2 redone in square crop mode, along with some changes to get rid of the "washed out" look someone else mentioned.

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Looks much better as a square format! Well done!

I love that last one!

Nice work on all Eugene, will look forward to more of your work!

One idea to try (not sure it would make a difference here) is a polarizer to emphasize the sky even more and can sometimes help with harsh light.

KAC

I really love picture 3.
Could you be so kind to tell how you processed this pic?
Sharpening? saturation? Or did you do not much to it?

Nice shots in afternoon lighting. I love the square cropped shot!

kenyc wrote in post #3496339
I love that last one!

Nice work on all Eugene, will look forward to more of your work!

One idea to try (not sure it would make a difference here) is a polarizer to emphasize the sky even more and can sometimes help with harsh light.

Yeah, I want a polarizer and will probably buy one in 77mm format for my two nicer lenses. Never used one before but I'm sure it would have helped in this lighting situation.

Twin-X wrote in post #3496489
I really love picture 3.
Could you be so kind to tell how you processed this pic?
Sharpening? saturation? Or did you do not much to it?

I pulled the pic out of RAW, bringing down Exposure from 1.35 to .25. I bumped up contrast a few points, brought down brightness a few as well. From there the only thing left was unsharp mask using settings I learned on this site. A three step process.

1. USM 200, .5, 0
2. USM 15, 200, 0
<resize the photo, shrink for web-friendly viewing>
3. USM 100, .4, 0

well composed and great quality
I like them a lot...

These are really nice. I especially like 2 and 3. Very appealing to me.

stoph wrote in post #3498157
These are really nice. I especially like 2 and 3. Very appealing to me.

Thanks. I actually thought #1 was the best... interesting that everyone prefers the others. I really appreciate everyone's input.

Would like to know what people don't like about #1... I can take it.