Need your opinions!

Here is a shot I have been working on from a very secret place somewhere in the southwest. This is a 4 image exposure blend and it was quite tricky maintaining shadow and highlight detail with such a large dynamic range. If you have ever been here, then you know how dark it is inside. I took 7 or 8 shots of this for blending purposes but turned out that these 4 particular shots yielded the best result. The orange glow on the wet walls from the midday sun was magnificent!

My question for you is: Are the orange and blue reflections on the left of the large pool acceptable or do you think they are too distracting? I am not sure I can remove them completely without things starting to fall apart. Your comments appreciated!


Canon 5D Mark II, 16-35mm f/2.8 @ 16mm, ISO 200, 20 sec, 6 sec, 3.2 sec, and 0.8 sec, polarizer, blended in Photomatix.

I don't find the reflections distracting at all, Phil!
They're a very small part of the whole and I wouldn't have thought anything amiss had you not mentioned it (..and I still don't, btw).
Parts of the reflected sunlight in the bottom of the 'tunnel' in the background seem a bit hot to my eye.

Now I can say "your HDR work is exemplary" without error!
I have no issues with that technique of exposure blending when it looks as natural (and beautiful) as this does.

I didn't really notice it until I read your post. With the light coming into that area I would expect to see some reflections. Seems natural to me. Very nice image. Good work with the HDR.

Like the others, I wouldn't have really noticed it without it being mentioned. All in all, this is a very nice image.

I'm actually inclined to think the pool would be a little flat without the reflections. The blue's a nice complement to the blue at the bottom of the little waterspout. More distracting to me are the patches of jet black at the top and in the ULC; my eyes keep wanting to park up there. But it's a sweet image from what must have been a fiendish blend. Love that tunnel of golden light!

Ditto!

Those little bit of reflections don't bother me at all, they don't dominate the scene at all. Great shot BTW, nicely done.

Thanks for the input! When working on images and trying to get them just right, I have a habit of worrying about little things that really don't matter! I'm going to rework this and try to lighten up the dark areas some more. Funny, its not this dark in Lightroom! Perhaps going from ProPhoto to sRGB and from Mac gamma to Windows gamma caused it to darken somewhat (When using "Save For Web" I output to Standard Windows Color because if I use Mac color they always come out too light.)

I like it as is...don't change a thing!

Looks very natural to me. I like the subtle colors.

I don't find the reflections distracting at all. I like your point of view so you see farther down the "tunnel" than the standard view. The orange glow is also a very nice contrast to the pool. Outstanding image and very nice work on the processing.

Except for the previously mentioned black areas, I like this. I think you did a good job.

I love it and sure hope you don't change anything!!!!

Agree, looks really good.

I like this just the way it is also. I just wish I knew where it was!!