Capitol Peak Fall

Hi everyone. This is one of my fall images which I did not decide to enter into the contest. The sunset alpenglow on the peak never materialized the way I wanted because clouds covered the horizon, but I still saw some potential with the clouds behind the mountain in the sky. I've spent a lot of post-processing time on this image to darken the sky and to darken the aspen groves on the hillsides to bring the foreground trees out better. This is not really an image that accurately depicts the conditions of that evening, which is a reason why I didn't enter it into the contest, but I feel I'm getting closer to making it become more of the striking image I imagined was possible when I took it. What do you think?

Nikon D300, Nikkor 35-80mm f/4-5.6, .9 grad ND, 2s at f/16, ISO 200.

My first impression is, "wow!" I'm sure nothing that we can squeeze into a computer screen could come close to what you saw that evening.

When I spend more time admiring your image, it strikes me that there's something not quite right about the dynamic range. Not quite sure what - maybe the mountains are too light relative to the sky? Maybe specifically the middle mountain is lighter than its neighbors to the east and west? Hard to put my finger on it. And I could be totally wrong about this.

But the colors are just stunning. And I love the contrast between the warm aspens and the cool blues in the sky.

Erik

Put me in the "WOW" category, too! Life is pretty good when this image can be considered not worthy of entering in the contest.

I think you've probably nailed what I've been struggling with Erik. I've darkened the sky to bring out the color in the clouds, which was barely visible in the original image, but the mountains appear now a bit too bright relative to the sky.

As I worked on this image, whenever I darkened the mountains too, the foreground looked too unnaturally bright to me relative to the rest of the shot. So far this is the best "balance" I've been able to maintain, but I agree that the processing has made the dynamic range look somewhat unusual.

Beautiful composition!
I also noticed something a bit amiss at first sight. To my eye, it's the brightness of the sky/orange clouds. I think if you tone that down a bit, the rest will fall into place.

Great comp and colors. Really like the sky in this one.

Joshua, this is one fine image! I think anything negative that could be said about this would just be a small nit. I would have been very happy to have created this.

I like it. The dynamic range looks fairly natural too me. I've certainly seen much less natural results from blending, etc. I think this would have been worthy of the fall contest, but with so many Capitol Peak images, the voting totals may have been dilluted anyway.

The colors and composition are outstanding, but I do agree the brightly colored clouds are a bit oversaturated and some of the clouds appear to be blown out in the red channel. The mountains look pretty natural to me in that the sun has gone down so contrast has evened out at this time of the evening, but that would also mean the colors of the foreground aspen would not be as bright either. Basically, I would desaturate the entire image down to a more natural level and decrease the brightness of the foreground trees and the above mentioned clouds.

I know in my attempts to maximize the attributes of photos I take, I have to consciously prevent myself from making the scene better than it was to the naked eye. However, that is an editorial outlook as opposed to an artistic one. An artistic outlook allows for more flexibility.

I want to agree with Paul that any thoughts on the dynamic range are just small nits. I'd have been proud to submit this one for the contest if I'd taken it! I'd also have been thrilled just to have been there and witnessed it in person. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Joshua..this is a fine, fine shot!! Great layers of colors all throughout the picture, regards, Rajeev.

This is definitely a "wow" scene, and one I would of been proud to enter in the competition. The dynamic range may be slightly off between the 3 main elements, but it's a small nit, I think your pp has made it into a wonderful image!.

Thanks for the comments everyone. Don your perceptions are right on. The highlights in the clouds have given me a few fits. This has definitely been an image where I sided on the artistic rather than editorial side.

I like the fresh composition from this familiar location. That sky is better than the hard-to-catch alpenglow on the peaks.

Nice shot, Josh! The peak seems just a tiny bit too bright to me given the sky conditions. I like the comp and colors.

Josh, this image is AWESOME! I certain don't care if it didn't depict the conditions that night or not, it's drop dead gorgeous. Too bad you didn't feel it measured up to be in the contest, because I think it's in the top 2 for me.