Wild Beckoning

The light rays lighting up the valley make this image, Ryan. Just an awesome moment. I am wondering about lightening the image overall to make it look less dark and foreboding. I guess it depends on the mood and look your after.  Again, the light rays are awesome, but I mostly noticed the dark, foreboding clouds at first. However, this probably would look great as is in a large print. I'll be interested reading other comments. 

Ryan, I like this image a lot. Great scene and those light rays worked out wonderfully for you. Love the clouds too. The larger version works better yet and I very much like the darker mood. It a large print it will come across beautifully I'm sure. 
Excellent b&w work.

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Wow, you struck gold with this one, Ryan. The atmospherics with the clouds are striking and those rays cutting through on the right are gorgeous. This is being super picky because I know you want to make a print of this, but I could see the lighter area of sky on the left just a touch darker. This will be a beautiful addition to your show.

Ed

Ryan, the sky is wonderful and, as Scott points out, the ray of sunlight is an outstanding addition.  As I look at the larger version, I'm finding the rim lit row of tree tops along the bottom edge subtly distracting.  I think dodging those rims would reduce their visual pull.

The story here is the dramatic clouds and the beam of light on the north side of Moran.  You've captured them very well.   Just enough detail in the mountains and FG.

This is a fine, very dramatic image, Ryan. I like it more than your recent color images but not as much as the last B&W image. I find the bottom part of the image more interesting than the sky and the clouds. The light streaming from the right being the most uplifting part of it. I have issues with the way the clouds are presented. I feel that they've been darkened to a level where they're starting to lose the feeling of clouds. I would lighten the darkest of them and add a greater range of lightness to give them more 'volume'. The clouds near the mountain peaks seem to feel more like clouds than the ones closer to the upper frame.

Now THAT is a ray of light, awesome! My only suggestion would be to slightly burn the brighter air to the left, to make that ray of light stand out even more. Stunning shot.

Hi  Ryan  I agree  with Nick..     i like it as  is.    the large version  has  beautiful spectacular  light. and should  make  an excellent print

Albert Darmo
Canada

Ryan,
Spectacular capture! Those light beams are fantastic and agree with Scott that they take this image to another level. The larger version has wonderful details. Your processing looks great on my monitor. Should make a outstanding print.

You have an incredible scene here with a beautiful sky, sun rays, the ridge of the Tetons and the valley spread out below in front of you. No wonder you you had a great time. This is a spectacular location especially when you have more than blue skies. The black-and-white really suits this image quite nicely.

Real sweet image!  Great light and the beams are great. I like the dark and moody feel.  I might burn down the white area on the left below the mountains?

Ryan,

This is a fantastic b&w landscape.  This will be a great piece to include in your show.  We've only seen two so far, I hope you show us the rest!

It's often not fair to compare images in a series, especially when they're not really related (like my last snowy trees series.)  This one stands on it's own clearly, and in grand Ansel style.

So I think like the last image, my suggestions are only tweaks to make this even better than it already is.  IMHO, the contrast and dark/light (exposure) looks pretty good to me, no suggestions there. Looking at a print is different of course.  The two small things are 1: there seems to be some haloing over the trees on the far left edge; it actually probably natural given the darker trees and lighter slope behind. But you might try and mitigate that.  The only other thing and this is extra bonus... you could selectively dodge, or via other means, paint a bit more light in to the light beam, which is the star of the show, or at a minimum an important part of it; enhancing it some could bring the ray out more.

Other than that, this is a solid and wonderful b&w landscape.  Awesome!

Lon

Gorgeous light, Ryan.  I agree with one or two others that a little lightening of the very foreground might enhance the image just a bit, but then it might not-have to try to find out for sure.  My only other nit-and it's extremely minor is to crop the left edge to the bottom of the notch that's close to it.  It just seems like a slightly unnatural break point.  A beautiful B&W any way you slice it.


 

This is a great scene with a ton of potential. To me, most of the key areas are blocked up though - foreground trees, mountains, and center mass of clouds. The light ray is nice, but it's a pretty small percentage of the scene. 

I think this could be taken a couple of directions. 1) a massive crop to emphasize the light ray. Crop half the sky and the left side enough to lose the lake entirely. 2) show details. Reduce contrast and increase clarity. Dodge and burn as needed to create more texture and tones that lead the eye into the image. 

In the end, it matters if you are expressing what you want to see in the final print. Good luck on the show!

My only suggestion, Ryan, would be the same as Harley's; i.e., decrease the brightness of the bit of lake on the left so that it does not compete visually with the light beam on the right and the sliver of trees that the beam is illuminating. Other than that this is a real winner for me.

Great drama Ryan. My only thought would be to play with cropping some of the top and left to focus more on the light beam.

I have taken the ideas into consideration, and I am applying them to the print. In the large print, the details in the trees are more apparent, and the clouds up top are a bit lighter than they appear on here. It is looking good, and thanks again for all the input.