# Alpenglow



## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Alpenglow is indirect sunlight bouncing off the atmosphere and reflecting back to earth. The sun is actually below the horizon yet mountains or buildings opposite it are lit up in an orange or golden hue. There can be alpenglow before sunrise or after sunset.

In the photo below it's getting close to alpenglow, the setting sun is just poking over the top of Mt Powell and shining on the west face of Gilbert Peak. I don't have much time to find a place to spend the night:


The sun is just going below the horizon, below Mt Powell:


So if you're at the place where the shade meets to light and look towards the setting sun you'll only see the sun's corona at this point. This is the start of alpenglow. It can be absolutely beautiful and my scanned reproductions of old and faded poor quality film pictures don't do it justice:


Store your alpenglow pictures here, we got room.

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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

One of my favorite trips from last year with my wife.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

The very end of alpenglow; above Elbow Lake in the Wind River Mountains;


Looks like the rocks are on fire.

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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Morning alpenglow; Yard Peak above Deadhorse Lake:




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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Amazing. That first picture looks almost photoshopped with the saturation so high. Very unique and beautiful picture.

You got a helluva eye for photography.


-DallanC


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

West side of Kings Peak from the top of the Yellowstone basin before sunset:


sunset:


later:


alpenglow:


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

DallanC said:


> Amazing. That first picture looks almost photoshopped with the saturation so high. Very unique and beautiful picture.
> 
> You got a helluva eye for photography.
> 
> -DallanC


Thank you.

The Deadhorse pictures were shot with a 35mm film camera pocket camera. You should see the original 8 x 10s, wow. You lose so much color and definition when you scan a sunset photo and turn it into an electronic copy, especially 20 years ago.

If you mean the other "first picture" of Gilbert Peak I see what you mean. It was a weird light and my 35mm camera with 100 speed film captured it OK but the scanner and photo program couldn't duplicate the glorious, and weird, colors of pre-alpenglow. I have watched the sunset, watched alpenglow, on Gilbert many times. This particular one was really strange.

Here's one of Gilbert taken with a digital camera:


The colors are washed out, not as deep orange like it really was in true life.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

An FYI about digital cameras, when you "snap" the picture, there is a processing chip that reads the sensor information, interprets it in ways dictated by the the software created by the MFG, then stored in usually a JPG format.

The problem with this is the "interpretation" by the software. The pixel info can be interpreted many different ways, not always as the user would expect. An example is the processor trying to figure out if that red biased sensor info is a red object or a red sunset, and should it normalize the information to remove the red or enhance it? Thats why alot of these point and shoots have all the little user picture modes that give hints to the processor about what to do with the info.

What I love about the more robust cameras like my DSLR is it has the ability to save out a "RAW" file format, that is quite literally, the exact values of the sensor. Zero interpretation. This format is not view-able like a JPG format, but is used by powerful software at home on a computer that exposes all of the "processing" logic to the end user, so he can dictate how it should be interpreted. 

Its amazing just what you can adjust when dealing with the raw format. You can increase or decrease exposure after the fact, do lens correction, remove chromatic aberration, change hue (or maybe preserve specific hue is a better way to think of it), and my favorite is to change the "temperature" of the lighting. 

I use Adobe "Light Room" and highly recommend it for photographers. You can still do alot of adjustments of a JPG, but you have to realize the JPG was created from an interpretation of sensor data, so some data is already lost. Working with the 100% complete sensor info offers a thousand times more options when post processing.

IMO, for the best pictures people should shoot on film (where what you see is what you get, no interpretation by the camera software) or shoot with a camera that allows saving of RAW sensor info.


-DallanC


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

I have been impressed with modern digital cameras. I studied commercial photography during my first life and we got use digital backs on our large format cameras. They were a beast.

I inherited my grandfathers medium format camera but haven't had the money to test the lenses (ie film to burn through). I miss the old Agfa film as its color saturation profile was my favorite for nature photographs. Hopefully I can use the medium format camera soon as I still love square images and the compositions they create.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

DallanC said:


> An FYI about digital cameras, when you "snap" the picture, there is a processing chip that reads the sensor information, interprets it in ways dictated by the the software created by the MFG, then stored in usually a JPG format.
> 
> The problem with this is the "interpretation" by the software. The pixel info can be interpreted many different ways, not always as the user would expect. An example is the processor trying to figure out if that red biased sensor info is a red object or a red sunset, and should it normalize the information to remove the red or enhance it? Thats why alot of these point and shoots have all the little user picture modes that give hints to the processor about what to do with the info.
> 
> ...


I have 2 cameras and 1 photo editing program that have RAW. I just haven't spent much time with RAW yet.

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## CPAjeff (Dec 20, 2014)

Amazing pictures - thanks for sharing!


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## LostLouisianian (Oct 11, 2010)

wyogoob said:


> Morning alpenglow; Yard Peak above Deadhorse Lake:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Wow...gorgeous pics


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## backcountry (May 19, 2016)

A couple from our first trip rafting down the Yampa last June. The first shot actually captures an active rockfall near Island Park that we could hear for about an hour.


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

delete: something posted wierd when I re-edited it


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## DallanC (Jan 13, 2009)

Ok I got one I took, not the Uinta's... Capitol Reef Utah:



















-DallanC


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