Wolf Ridge, downstairs, San Francisco view — by Joe Reifer

I’ve just posted a gallery of night images from Wolf Ridge in Marin.

If you’re interested in taking a trip up to Wolf Ridge, check out Andy Frazer’s photography guide for this great location.

A Few Notes on Organizing Your Photos with Lightroom, and Exporting for the Web

Finding the images from Wolf Ridge in my Lightroom archive was easy — all of the shoots from Wolf Ridge have file and folder names with the same structure: wolfridge_YYYYMMDD_01.CR2. In the Grid View in Lightroom I selected Text — File Name — Starts With — wolf. Next I clicked on Attribute and selected a rating of 2 stars or better. I made a rough edit for the gallery by hitting the B key to add images for the gallery to a Quick Collection. After making the final selections, I proceeded to post-processing.

I was able to do post-processing for almost all of the images without bringing them into Photoshop. The image above was the only exception because I needed to do more complex tonal corrections for the sky and fog that required masking. When outputting for the web from Lightroom, I use a combination of capture sharpening in the Develop module (the Sharpening settings under Detail), and Output Sharpening under File — Export (typically set to Screen — Low).

A good starting place for capture sharpening with the 5D and 5D II is about 28% at .6 Radius, with Detail at 80 and Masking at 40. By zooming in to 100% view you can check the Detail and Masking settings by holding down the Option (Alt) key and dragging the sliders. The Masking control is really useful for night photography — just drag the slider until you only see star trails in the sky. This masks the areas of the sky with no detail — protecting you from enhancing any noise that may be present in the sky.

I hope you enjoy the new gallery, and that these Lightroom tips are useful!