Taking pictures of mountains in Alaska: I am on a cross country trip from North Carolina to Soldotna, Alaska. Have taken quite a few pictures of mountains, typical tourist. Does anyone...

Platterivercarol

I am on a cross country trip from North Carolina to Soldotna, Alaska. Have taken quite a few pictures of mountains, typical tourist.
Does anyone have any tips on how to avoid blown out mountains, & dark foreground.
I am getting pictures of faded looking mountains, & dark trees. It is very frustrating. I appreciate any help you can give me.
Thanks
Maggie

Turbo Loc: Raleigh, NC

hello from Raleigh, NC

Can you post a few pics for us to see ? it is always difficult to manage photos with a high dynamic range.

usually bracketing can help, a polarizer filter also can be of help, along with shooting in Raw mode.

pooterpa76 Loc: Lebanon, Pa.

graduated neutral density filter is the ticket. check up on it.

Platterivercarol wrote:

I am on a cross country trip from North Carolina to Soldotna, Alaska. Have taken quite a few pictures of mountains, typical tourist.
Does anyone have any tips on how to avoid blown out mountains, & dark foreground.
I am getting pictures of faded looking mountains, & dark trees. It is very frustrating. I appreciate any help you can give me.
Thanks
Maggie

photojax Loc: West Michigan

Neutral Density filter will certainly help as it will darken the sky and put it closer to the exposure of the foreground. Also, try to take your photos in the early morning sun or the evening sun. You can also bracket your exposures and combine 3 or more shots with an HDR program.

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

Use a graduated neutral density filter. Several shades are worth having, and there are hard edge and soft edge versions.

The ultimate (and ultimately less expensive) is the Cokin Series P filter system. One big advantage is that you can move the neutral density filter to place the shading on the horizon instead of having to change your composition to match the center of a circular screw-on filter. Screw-on gradulated filters can be more limiting to your compositional flexibility. You can also combine several different filters in one holder.

Look it up. Cokin series P filter holders are commonly used by many serious landscape photographers.

PipesCJ7 Loc: Cordova, Alaska/Shoreline, WA/ Merritt, BC

Platterivercarol wrote:

I am on a cross country trip from North Carolina to Soldotna, Alaska. Have taken quite a few pictures of mountains, typical tourist.
Does anyone have any tips on how to avoid blown out mountains, & dark foreground.
I am getting pictures of faded looking mountains, & dark trees. It is very frustrating. I appreciate any help you can give me.
Thanks
Maggie

Here are a few from the coastal range near Petersburg, Alaska taken on a recent fishing trip. Hope this helps.
Pic. #1 Nikon D3 with Nikkor 14-24 2.8G @ 14mm, Shutter 1/250, Ap. f/3.3, ISO 200, White Balance Cloudy.
Pic. #2 Nikon D3 with Nikkor 14-14 2.8G @ 24mm, Shutter 1/250, Ap. f/2.8, ISO 800 White Balance Cloudy.
Pic. #3 Nikon D3 with Nikkor 70-200 2.8G @ 200mm, Shutter 1/350, Ap. f/9.5, ISO 200, White Balance Cloudy.
Non Filtered shot in RAW, no processing. View in full screen if possible. I'm not a fan of filtered shots as they loose much of the natural resolution. You can compensate with in camera settings as described. CJ7

blacks2 Loc: SF. Bay area

Your best bid is a graduated neutral density filter and a polarizer, which I used on the attached image of Mt. Denali. I just got back from Alaska yesterday, still a lot of snow on the mountains you will have beautiful scenes.

Mt. Denali.

PipesCJ7 Loc: Cordova, Alaska/Shoreline, WA/ Merritt, BC

Platterivercarol wrote:

I am on a cross country trip from North Carolina to Soldotna, Alaska. Have taken quite a few pictures of mountains, typical tourist.
Does anyone have any tips on how to avoid blown out mountains, & dark foreground.
I am getting pictures of faded looking mountains, & dark trees. It is very frustrating. I appreciate any help you can give me.
Thanks
Maggie

Using filters and too much post processing tend to leave the pictures looking "Over Cooked". You can get great results using the natural light and taking advantage of unique situations rather than relying on your computer to do all the work. This is of course if you want natural looking photographs. I have had great success this way. (Just my opinion). CJ7

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

blacks2 wrote:

Your best bid is a graduated neutral density filter and a polarizer, .....

Based on looking at your images I think Blacks2 is right;
you need both a graduated neutral density filter and a polarizer, especially after seeing the water reflections in the first image.

Platterivercarol

Have Ben driving for 2days & just got to a motel with wifi so haven't been able to say thank you to all of you for your help. I am certainly going to do the filters. Thanks for posting the pics for me to see. I have done some bracketing ( thank goodness). So when I get to Soldotna AK I will be able to do some PP, but I know the filters will help.
Am seeing some breathtaking scenery, 20 blk bear, a wolf, gray fox, numerous moose. Not many "good" pics as my sister in law is terrified to stop anywhere. We left N. Carolina on Tues, hope to be in Anchorage by
Wednesday, then Soldotna. THEN I am going somewhere (safe) & take all the pictures I want. Luckily my brother & sister in law's cabin is fairly isolated so will see moose close to the cabin, have even had them look in my window.
Again thank you so much for your advice, which I plan to take!
Maggie

MtnMan Loc: ID

Well, hate to say but these are great illustrations of the problem. Now for the solution...

I don't have one yet but do plan on the graduated neutral density before our road trip to AK...yes the Cokin system appears to be the ticket.

PipesCJ7 wrote:

quote=Platterivercarol I am on a cross country tr... (show quote)

MtnMan Loc: ID

Just a side note: moose are much more dangerous than bear or wolves. They kill far more people in AK every year. Cows can stomp you just as well as bulls.

Of course the animal that kills the most people every year are deer. Due to car collissions.

Platterivercarol wrote:

Have Ben driving for 2days & just got to a mot... (show quote)

DaveJS Loc: Philadelphia, PA area

I have the Cokin P with about 6 filters, soft grad blue, soft grad red, soft grad ND, 3 ND(2,4,6), and a CP. I just ordered a 10 stop to mess with. I love em, the CP is almost always on for better skies. I think they are at a great price for what you can do with them.

MtnMan Loc: ID

DaveJS wrote:

I have the Cokin P with about 6 filters, soft grad blue, soft grad red, soft grad ND, 3 ND(2,4,6), and a CP. I just ordered a 10 stop to mess with. I love em, the CP is almost always on for better skies. I think they are at a great price for what you can do with them.

One problem I noted recently with my CP is that the reduction in EV coupled with the need for high f-stop on landscape photos can force you to high ISO, thus noise, or the need for a tripod.

As you'll note from the pictures already posted and I saw with my recent pics from a cruise of the southern coast of AK at least there bright sun isn't usually in offering.

DaveJS Loc: Philadelphia, PA area

I take mostly landscape shots, and basically for good ones, you need a tripod. There really is no getting around that. A remote release is also something needed for steady shots.