Stormy Mono Lake + 2 RP

Nice blast from your past, Preston. Nice take from Mono, a different view.
 

Preston,
Very nice image with lots going on to hold my interest.  The sky and water action gives it a dynamic feel. Processing looks good and natural - you managed the exposure range well for E6.

Very nice, Preston, I like it.  Usually don't see many taken from that location.

Apart from some purplish artifacts in the sky, I really like this. Especially the rocks scattered around in the water are sweet.

Preston,

Ahh, the many moods of Mono.  Definitely a pending storm look and feel to this - like I said, one of the many moods to be seen and experienced here.  The water here, while not quite yet turbulent, does show signs of the pending turmoil.

I just noticed, but I'm really liking the silvery, monochromatic tones in the water and tufa that are sandwiched between some color.

A different view and take of Mono Lake. Well done sir.

Lon

Hi All,

Thanks for your comments!

After reading Roel's comment about the purple-ish artifacts, I did some further tweaking.

--Pulled a lot of red, some cyan, and blue, out of the sky.
--Warmed up only the sky a bit by setting the grey point in a levels layer.
--Increased the yellow saturation in the sky just a bit
--Reduced the green saturation in the foreground.

The large version is on my website.

Thanks for taking a look and providing your thoughts on the re-post.

--P

Preston,

I can understand Roel's original comments, but didn't bother me so much and I didn't comment.  But now that I see the repost and have looked at the colors in the sky, I can see more now.

However, I think the repost went a tad too far and I think you've lost some drama in the sky; especially reducing the impact of the little squall in the UL.  I played a little with a screenshot (permission granted, right?)  And if it were mine I would adjust very similarly, but not all.  I think simply adjusting the saturation (masked for the sky of course) and simply dropping the red and magenta takes care of what I think Roel was referring too, kinda that excess lavendar/purple, and sure, pop the yellow back in a little. I think you tried to eliminate the color, but I think it's natural to have a little purple in the clouds given the conditions; just not as pronounced.  I don't think there's a need to do a gray pt adjustment, I think that's maybe where you lost some drama.

Just my .02.  Good call on the green at the bottom too.  Overall, it's just one of those small tweaks to make the image the best it can be.

Lon

Preston, Great looking scene with some really beautiful colors. Nice when you and come up with images this nice from the past.

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

I much prefer the original post. The repost looks flat to my eye.

I think I agree with Lon about the optimal would be a result somewhere in between the original and the repo, especially the sky. I do like how the purplish stuff is gone in the sky, they were a bit of an eye magnet for me. Your decisiion of pulling out some of the green from the land was a good one too btw! If the sky gets a bit more of the blue from the original back then I think you have a really great photo. There is something about this photo that really attracts me, but for some strange reason I can't really put my finger on it why.

I like the original version more than the repost.

What I like about your images is that you don't get too artsy with them. You let the subject carry the wow factor.

Thanks once again for your comments, everyone!

I tweaked the sky based upon comments from Harley and Lon.

Any additional thoughts are always welcomed.
--P

I like the first version the best, the funky sky does not bother me, lovely color pallet and a different take on the place.