Mount Hood Morning

I just learned a new thing with CS3 tonight so I was going through the archives and found this one that I had not processed before....

9-17-06
6:32am
D70
ISO 200
4 sec @ F/14
29mm

thanks for looking and leaving a comment or critique!!

Darren

It's really close to a classic, but I feel like that narrow layer of rock chaos between the water and treeline is just too much clutter and interrupts the flow of the image. Other than that, I think it is outstanding. Nice PS effect.

I like this perspective Darren but to me it has that "over-processed" look. Maybe its the gray water? Or the tree line on the top right? Here's where graduated filters come in handy.

Seems gritty and foreboding. Can't say I'd hang it but it looks like a good shot for an article about that area flooding last winter.

I like it, Darren - I've spent a lot of time trying to capture an aesthetically pleasing shot from that area, given that the natural history doesn't permit much greenery to become established. From a composition standpoint, I think you've nailed it with the water and the mountain filling most of the frame, and also by including some red boulders in the middle of the foreground. The rocky backdrop doesn't bother me. I also like the shutter speed, but would agree with Eric on the water color - maybe bringing back some highlights would improve on that. The clouds are nice, too.

So, the one yellow tree is a cottonwood, I think... but are rest really larches? Or did your PS3 trick involve some color replacement..?

Tom

I like this composition. It seems that this blend is optimized really well for local contrast at the expense of global contrast. Maybe if you burned the shadows / midtones in the stream? That's just a guess because I don't have PS on this computer to try it. I do like the photo.

I think this is a great shot. I love the colors and slight glow to the rocks in the stream - Mt Hood is a letdown after looking at the foreground. Does NOT look over-processed to me, although there appears to be a funk with the trees on the upper right as they meet the sky. What's your new trick?

Nice one Darren! This must have been that saturday morning we almost met up! I was a few miles away on the Barlow Trail looking for a new vantage point.

This is pretty clearly overprocessed in some areas - I can even see a selection line across the tree tops. The tonal levels in the trees need work also - I think you've tried to bring details out too much. With a grad-ND, the whole thing here is a 1 minute PS job. I know the grey in the water is natural though, as I am familiar with this stream. Clean up those few areas and I think you've got a keeper here. I also like it with 1/3 off the bottom.

Darren,
Aside from the processing, I'm not finding this image particularly moving. It feels flat and stagnant artistically.

ok here is another similar scene and I am guessing the comments will be about the same....

better, worse or the same...

Thanks everyone.....

Darren,
I do like the composition but they look like the shadow and highlight tool, especially the second one was over used. You have to be really careful with that tool, a little goes along way. The top of trees on the ridge show a problem with the halo/ghosting from what I suspect is from the blend. I think with a little better processing, you could pull this off. It might be a candidate for lab color using the shadow/lightness tool and curves in the lightness channel. Anytime I want to use the S/H, I always use LAB. It works MUCH better than RGB.

The second is off as well. Same issues as the first, but considerably worse in each aspect. I want to see an unworked native file of these scene. This isn't a major post processing challenge here. I don't S/H anywhere. Others have better results with it than do I. I can be far more precise using various methods for selectively modifiying luminosity.

Here's a rework from your file for a natural appearance. I'd get way better results from one that wasn't so heavily modified. This took about 1 minute.