Blueridge Mountains from The Biltmore

[Merv (Mervin Rosenquist)]

From second floor balcony of the Biltmore House

This shot of the moon was taken from the front of the house facing east just a few minutes after the landscape shot was taken from the back of the house, no clouds anywhere to the east at that time.
Two image focus stack, one of the tree limbs, one of the moon.

The top image was taken while on a self guided tour from the second floor west facing balcony of the famous Biltmore House in South Ashville in NC, and is the main attraction of the Biltmore Estate, the estate was built by George Vanderbilt before his marriage to Edith Dresser in 1898 , the house opened to family and friends in 1895 after 6 years of construction by ca 1,000 craftsmen.

Unfortunately, my timing was not as good as I had hoped, I was hoping for more dramatic light but the golden hour was too far off, I couldn’t wait till then as I was with family and I didn’t want to inconvenience them just for a better photo op.

One thing for me that makes this image interesting was the carriage rides, you can easily see the one near the LRC but there’s another one coming up the second hill in the center of the image (if you look close). I left the image full width so it could be viewed large enough.
Edit: I guess the file size was too large, NPN downsized the image to about 1/3 the original pixel size. I was still way under the 10MB limit. Well, It may be a little harder to see the “Where’s Waldo” carriage at this size

Another interesting thing for me was the use of a 90mm Macro Lens for landscape work.
The only parts not in focus seem to be the mountains but I guess I can blame the haze for that.
The communications towers on the peaks are still pretty focused IMHO.
I used that macro lens for close-up shots in the house, portraits of my family on the same balcony, then for this landscape shot.

Specific Feedback Requested

The mountains in the distance were from 5 miles to 18 miles away with some scattered clouds and haze but the trees and hills in the FG were only a few hundred feet away with “Severe Clear” skies.
The RAW file was pretty flat looking so I did the best I could to separate the hills and trees with masks in selected areas.
Is the overall appearance OK?
Did I overdo the saturation and separation layers?
Are the mid-range tones OK?
How do you feel about using a macro lens for landscape work?

Technical Details

A7R IV, 90mm Macro Lens, 1/125s, f8, ISO 125, Lr, Ps, Focus was aimed at trees on the second hill.
Near limit focus was at about 50 feet. Only cropped from the top about 2400 pixels vertically to remove unwanted sky for balance and to turn it into panoramic.
This is about the best landscape scene I can hope for until we do some traveling in the spring.

Thanks for looking

[Richard_Duckworth]

I like both the landscape and the tree/moon photos. With respect to your concerns, the separation of the layers is well done and not oversaturated to my eye. The leafless trees in the middle ground tell a story. I lived in NC for a couple of years and love the rolling countryside. Interesting idea of shooting landscape with macro lens…sort of a variation of the best camera is the one you have with you.

[Mark_Seaver]

Merv, the pano crop fits the landscape that you show here, very well. The series of layers is good also. While this looks good as presented, the cut off trees in the lower left have me wondering how including a bit more at the bottom would look…recognizing that there may be more trees or other problems just out of the frame…

[Merv (Mervin Rosenquist)]

@Mark_Seaver

While this looks good as presented, the cut off trees in the lower left have me wondering how including a bit more at the bottom would look…recognizing that there may be more trees or other problems just out of the frame…

Hi Mark,

I took a shot of this scene with more FG but I deleted it, and as you can see from the shot presented below, those trees changed the FG entirely. There were even more evergreens and dark undergrowth in the one I deleted, all of it seemed to take away from the scene rather than add to it IMHO.
I preferred that the FG be the manicured hill with only minor bare tree tops at the bottom.
Do you think that including some of those trees in the FG would have helped?

Also, I wanted to frame it where the carriage and horses were on the right and toward the LRC just for composition.
The shot below was mostly so I could zoom in on the carriage and horses so I could see them better before trying to compose a hopeful keeper, my eyes aren’t as good as they used to be

While I think the macro lens is good for landscape work, it’s too limited in terms of focal length.
I’m considering the purchase of a 70-300 Sony lens or a 100-400 Sigma for some flexibility.
Got any suggestions for a good landscape lens?
The shot below is full frame (no crop) and the original shot posted above was only cropped from the top.

I appreciate your thoughts on what might make it better and I appreciate the kind words!

I only wish that I could have spent more time waiting for better light, practically everything is lit up in this scene but it’s good enough for editing practice on landscapes.
A return trip to western NC in the spring is on my list, I want to tour and reshoot the Transylvania County Waterfall circuit again as well.

Thanks, Mark!

P.S., The only thing I did to the image below was bump the saturation up a little and added a bit of contrast.

[Merv (Mervin Rosenquist)]

@Richard_Duckworth

Interesting idea of shooting landscape with macro lens…sort of a variation of the best camera is the one you have with you.

Hi Richard,

I got a chuckle out of that comment because it’s so true!
I did have a 24-105 lens with me but I left it in the van just to keep things simple, I didn’t really even think about getting a landscape shot from the house until I got to the balcony and noticed the carriage rides going on.

I agree, western NC has some gorgeous scenes, especially in the spring and early fall.

I really appreciate the feedback!

Thanks, Richard!

[DeanRoyer]

I think you did well with saturation, separation, and mid-tones. I like the pano, including the criss-crossing lines in the foreground that are mirrored by the tree line and mountain ridges. I see @Mark_Seaver’s point about the cut-off trees, although not sure if anything can be done about that.