the north peak sunrise

Ok..so I backpacked with Steve this passed weekend in hoover wilderness. well, if you haven't met Steve, like me until I met, he is full of energy and very passionate about photography. I can tell from his eyes. it was lot of fun and amazing place to go for a shot trip. We kept scouting for all the places, chatted till midnight, tried to shoot some star trails (unfortunately I ran out of battery). and had a nice weather. this was one from this trip.

ever since I moved to cs3, I am having lot of problems with the color management. incidentally, this shot was quiet off the camera and I didn't have to do much except some cropping. intentionally, i had put a more stop of grad on the sky to make it a bit stark. Does it work ?

any feedback appreciated.

thanks,
debjit

The sky looks polarized... Too much gradient for my taste. The crest is a little too bright in particular near the snow.
Nice DOF control.

Spectacular composition Debjit, I love how you composed that foreground grass with the peak. Everything looks great here to me except the blues in the sky: they are too intense and dark, moreover, the hue looks a little off, likely a result of the dark and saturated look. Also there appears to be some green/cyan on the left horizon. Fix that and it's a real beauty.

Thanks you Dan and Floris.

Floris, I agree..the sky is a bit polarized. I don't shoot raw. this is a jpeg with landscape setting and I did underexpose a bit with the grad on. again, I am not a ps expert and have much trouble handling it. I will work on this a bit more and post the result.

Ok...sky less polarized and lightened a bit.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3471/3751846728_e22b70c866_o.jpg


sorry, but hyperlinks doesn't seem to work here.

Big improvement in the second version. Very nice light. And I like the symmetry in the composition.

Debjit, I have updated your second post so it will hyperlink. As Mat stated, the second image is a big improvment in the area of the sky. Good work there.

Thank you Paul and Mat.

Paul, I did the same "a href" thingy but not sure why it didn't show up. next time I am gonna try again when situation comes.

No worries Debjit, glad that I could be of help.

Good composition. I think the second version is a big improvement.

Hey Debjit, I really like the both versions and there are a few specific items I like from each. The alpen glow of the first but the blues do seem a little too intense. In the second the blues look much better but the cyan seems a little too strong. There seems to also be a green cast in the reflection of the mountain. Could be just the water but it does catch my eye. Maybe a local layers adjustment might work for that. The polarized reflection is something that seems to lose it's intensity from the center due to the wide angle focal length. One reason for taking an extra shot with out polarization or half polarization. The effect is nice just a little strong so I would just minimize it slightly. Hope I didn't critique you ear off.

Hope you and Mike had fun and learned a few things at the workshop. Oh, and I was amazed at the persistence with you trying out the star trail shots with the tent and peak.

The rework is definitely better. I agree with Steve's observations. Polarizers can be tricky. Another thing to remember is that maximum polarization occurs at 90 degrees from the axis of the light source. Therefore, if the light source (sun, in this case) is behind you, the sky and reflections in water will be uneven. The effect will be enhanced at high alttitude because the light is already slightly polarized. Backing off on the polarizer in the high country will give better color.

Nice job, Debjit!

-P

Hey Steve and Preston, thanks for elaborate comments.