Brief Moment of Clarity--WITH RESPONSE.

The image basically depicts what I recall the scene looking like. The reflection appears lighter because of the lack of depth in the water that allows the details below to show through, thus the browner tint to the reflection. The sections of the mountain are for the most part, truly that dark; they hold quite the variance in tones. I could alter this to make it more appealing to the eye, but it would come at the expense of trying to be somewhat true to the scene. If the mountains were truly lighter, I would never submit something that had that excessive of grad butchering.

These conditions precede a night of virtually no sleep as my tent was pelted by rain and hammered by wind. This was taken from Bryan and my recent three-day backpack, and weather was really only exceptionally conducive to imagery for 30 minutes of it. Thanks for your comments.

-Sigma 10-20, lee 3 grad-

Wow - that's a beauty, Trevor! the foreground is really nicely composed and exposed, and the sky is obviously stunning! I also like the very dark mountain face - it really adds to the boldness of the scene. Beautiful!

Tom

Beautiful sky Trevor. 30 minutes of good weather in 3 days At least you were out there.

well,some of the conditions we were exposed to were workable, but for the most part we were denied the sunset/rise light we were hoping for.

Awesome sky and scene. You made some good work with those 30 minutes, strangely I find a strong wind on the tent helps me sleep as I am not hearing all the little sounds I think could be an unfriendly mammal outside the tent. Rain on the other hand is the pits. Great shot.

We joked that the wind and rain probably kept the Bears and Mountain Lions, of which we saw plenty of evidence in the area, away from us. I heard some really huge beast of an animal charge through the woods away from our campsite the previous night after hearing a loud crash followed by what I can only describe as the sound of a deep steam whistle (most likely an Elk that freaked when a Bear spooked it - saw tracks of both the following morning). I kept the bear spray close the following night.

Great shot Trevor, beautiful colors and lighting. I would dodge out the reminants of the GND filter across the ridge top if it were me.

The sure is an eye-catcher Trevor. Love those colors and cloud patterns. Really beautiful. I agree with Brian about the GND filter across the mountains. They seem to turn dark pretty abruptly. I'm curious if the colors were more intense in the puddles in real life, or if it just came out that way through PP.

Stunning shot - only unfortunate part is the dark center mountains from the grad.... I'd expose a brighter version of the RAW file and mask in only that part to try to get the mountains to look more even exposure wise. Sky might be a tad over saturated also, but I love the look.

Trevor,

your colors are amazing here....

however, I am having serious trouble with your comp....I would like to see the reflection go all the way on the left side....I don't like how it stops.....I could also do without the foreground and just have the water, sunset clouds, and mountains in the scene....

Darren, I obviously shot alternate comps that I have yet to sift through.This is the first I went to. I like the addition of the foreground and edge of the water.

John, that section of the mountain is really that dark. The rock on these mountains has an interesting variance in tones ;I held the grad specifically to avoid increasing any darkness along them. The sky was actually pretty colorful; this image may even contain less color than what I recall seeing.

The water wasn't all that deep here; the reflection conflicts with the bottom details.

I like it but I think it needs more work. The very dark mountain and lighter reflection bug me and the whole shot seems a bit dark. This photo is certainly worth working more.

Very nice Trevor, looks like you made great use of the 30 minutes

Mark, to reiterate what was said: the image basically depicts what I recall the scene looking like. The reflection appears lighter because of the lack of depth in the water that allows the details below to show through, thus the browner tint to the reflection. The sections of the mountain are for the most part, truly that dark. I could alter this to make it more appealing to the eye, but it would come at the expense of trying to be somewhat true to the scene.

I think you've made a good call, Trevor - the powers of Photoshop often lead to over-brightening dark areas, IMO, and I include myself in that critique. When you look at the old masters of landscape photography, they often produced images that would be deemed way too dark or contrasty by today's post-Photoshop standards. But I like the drama and sense of dimension that the old classics bring -- I flipped your image to black and white to test this, and it works very well. In fact, the amount of contrast you have in the image right now is almost spot-on for a black and white version. For me, the fact that I can see hints of detail in that dark mountain face is plenty, and more would dillute the mood. I like it!

Tom

This really is pretty spot on to what we saw here. The slightly more saturated tones in the water is really what it looked like - all my shots of the same scene reflect the same characteristic - and the big central buttress of the mountain is indeed that dark. Its a big plug of andacite surrounded by a much lighter formation of petrified volcanic ash and related deposits - said volcanic materials are what gives the streambed in the foreground the lighter brown color.

Well, You're the artist, this is your vision. I'll hang with that.

That's a beautiful photo, Trevor. Gorgeous!