Kathy Eyster's Blog

Sunrise on Sinopah Mountain Two Medicine Lake Glacier National Park, Montana  A breeze ruffled the surface of Two Medicine Lake as sunrise light moved down Sinopah Mountain. There was a large brightness difference between the sky and mountain and the water still in shadow. I captured a raw file so I would have more flexibility when editing the picture. I wanted to smooth out the lake's surface, so I added a neutral density filter to block light (like putting sunglasses on the lens) which forced me to make a longer exposure. With a low 100 ISO and the smallest aperture of f/22, my shutter speed was 25 seconds.  But there was still more texture in the water than I wanted. So using my raw editing software, I reduced the texture and clarity just in the lake. I also made the sky a bit darker and shifted the color more toward blue. Then I lightened the shadows of the trees on the distant shore.  Knowing the possibilities of your camera settings in manual exposure mode and the c...