Trail Ridge Sunrise

Any thoughts on this image? I took it this morning at sunrise near the Ute Trail TH. (I'm having some calibration issues with my monitor so I'm not sure exactly what this will look like to you guys.) It is an HDR image while also using a 0.9 GND. 5D 17-40.

Nice shot, Eric. It looks perfect on my uncalibrated laptop. Good job with blending too. It doesn't have that HDR look.

I think it looks great, the light is wonderful, and with the contrast of the sky, it gives a good balance to the image. Technically, I think this image is well-done. The only thing I might suggest (this, according to my taste), is crop out the very top part of the image, where the sky gets to the really deep blue, without much cloud in it. It looks somewhat "wasted" space. Making me wonder why that space is there when I 1st looked at it. Give it a try, and see what you think of it. Again, that's from my opinion, everyone is different.

Nice shot though, really. How large are you planning to print this one out with your 5D?

It's yet another stunning Stensland shot and all, but I want to know how the heck you propped those rocks up there like that??? They look heavy!

Love the light and I want to peer through the opening in those rocks. What is HDR?

Dave, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. It typically refers to a process where you shoot several exposures of an image to capture the complete range of light. This image was shot at a balanced exposure, then 2 stops under, and then 2 stops over. I then blended the images with Photomatrix.

looks good, I'm suprised it's an HDR because the overall look is pretty high contrast. I wonder if the clouds & top of the sky shouldn't be a little brighter?

A really wonderful image, Erik. I think it will look great large as there's a lot to explore here. I also really like the way you snuck Long's into the background. I think it adds a real sense of depth. I agree with the others about the top being maybe a bit too dark, but that's my only nit.

I've adjusted the sky to lighten it up a bit. Did a lighten it enough? Any other thoughts? http://morninglight.us/forum/07/0905a.jpg

I prefer the new, lighter sky version.
So, in hindsight, did you really need to use that GND ?

Nope! I guess I was trying to add a bit of Adamus drama to the sky, but over-did it.

I like the Adamus version better.

I actually like the darker version better too. Nice comp with the rocks. Not a typical RMNP image and that's a good thing!

fantastic shot Erik! I think that the darker version is better as well, as it seems to have a more natural feel to me in terms of overall contrast of the image. Maybe thats the beer talking or the years of polarizer abuse...

Another fantastic image, Erik! That sky is out of this world, but I think your work on the composition trumps the sky and is what makes this so compelling.

My initial reaction to the first shot was that the top part of the sky is too dark. My initial reaction to the second was that it was a scoche too light. Of the two, I like the darker version better, but I'll play Goldilocks and say something in the middle would be just perfect - not so dark as to pull the eye away from the rest of the image, but dark enough that it keeps the eye in the scene and has a natural graduation of light as you get higher into the sky. Sorry about the nit pickiness with the sky - you just don't leave much else to critique.

Personally, I'm not a fan of HDR images (with a few exceptions) because the ones I've seen look too unreal and plasticky (is that a word?) I would not have guessed you used HDR on this however, but would have guessed a grad filter was used instead. I really like the composition and overall the image is beautiful and also agree with Rick that somewhere in between would work best.

Great shot! Love the color and the warm light.