This is a digital image I posted on NPN a month or two ago. Thought I'd post it here as well. It was taken in May of 2007, but it sort of has a winter feel to it. It was taken with a Nikon D200, 17-55mm, using a soft 3 GND filter. I really wish I had my 4x5 when I took this one! All comments welcomed and much appreciated.
Posted by Mat Malone on January 23, 2009 at 12:29 PM
The comp works pretty well for me. The FG is nice and leads into the image pretty well, and has a symmetry with the reflection and mountains, although I wish it had a little color. The reflection is great of course. The postproc seems to need a fair amount of work. Lotta dust. I'd crop about half of the sky off. I'd darken the yellows and oranges and maybe punch their sat. Some burning on the mountains' highlights still might be necessary. Then also some dodging on and above the left horizon.
Michael, as already stated the composition works very well. There are some needed processing items beyond the world of trying to enhance the image as is. The dust spots are an easy fix, the other items fall into the enhancement area and become subjective on improving the scene as much as possible. Again, those become subjective and are of individual taste. The image is actually exposed nicely for what looks like a fair amount of dynamic range. No doubt the filtration applied in the field helped with that aspect. It is a very typical scene with respect to those types of photographic challenges. I think some basic D&B here and there would help improve things overall. Another thought is posting it at full 200k X 720pixel size too. Always nice to make them as large as we can fit them in IMO.
Very pretty Sierra alpine scene! I would concur about the crop suggestion. I always have the 4x5 when I should have the digital and vice versa. Murphy's Law at work.
Posted by Rudy Ruberti on January 23, 2009 at 8:50 PM
One of my favorite places in the Sierras. Very nice.
Posted by Dan Baumbach on January 24, 2009 at 10:36 AM
This is a nice image but it definitely needs more post processing. I'd open up the shadows at the base of the mountain as well as darkening the sunny parts a little. With a little work you'll have a fine image.
Thanks to all for these fine suggestions. Best Regards.
Posted by Bryan Pezman on January 26, 2009 at 8:01 PM
Michael, I like the framing of your image and can see exactly what your lines were leading into very well. Great job there!
As my only critique, I wonder if you might try to warm up the lower portion of the image a tad without becoming overly reddish? Maybe around 5500 kelvin as opposed to the background (which appears around 4500k) Just a thought.
Discussion
7 replies- Dan.
As my only critique, I wonder if you might try to warm up the lower portion of the image a tad without becoming overly reddish? Maybe around 5500 kelvin as opposed to the background (which appears around 4500k) Just a thought.