Reader Comments on Spectacular Fall Color in Eastern Sierra

Wojciech P writes from Vienna:

Dear Mr. Chambers

Your autumn impressions are pure magic for me!!! visual poetry and grace. I hope you will give us more of it!

Finally -a little technical question: how did you adjusted the sharpness on your D3x plus Zeiss handheld so perfectly?

DIGLLOYD: Yes, I plan on publishing a batch of my images from the trip in my Zeiss Guide (from the 35/1.4 Distagon and 25/2.8 Distagon), and also images in DAP for the Hartblei 80mm f/2.8 and Schneider 90mm f/4.5 and Canon 8-15mm f/4L.

Sharpening I do in ACR at present, during RAW conversion. This is also detailed in Making Sharp Images.

Not everything I shoot is handheld, but it is my preference; I do much better shooting handheld in terms of keeper, though my “June Lake area drainage” fall-color shot was an exception. I discuss technique for sharp handholding at low shutter speeds in Making Sharp Images. I can get critically sharp images down to about 1/30 second, and as low as 1/8 second, provided I take 3 or 4 frames as the shutter speed drops towards 1/8 second, but I have a very high keeper rate at 1/30 second with a good professional camera, like the D3x. The secret is what I call “mass coupling”, which I detail in MSI.

I will have quite a few more fall-color images, but also some other variety, such as shown below. As usual for subscribers, these are presented at up to 2048 pixels wide along with actual pixels crops.

My favorite canyon, with an unusual amount of water in a normally dry watercourse
Nikon D3x + Zeiss 21mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, handheld

My favorite canyon, with a peek at Half Dome
Canon 5D Mark II + Canon 8-15mm f/4L fisheye zoom, 20 seconds @ f/4