Firehole River

I dug this out of the archives and after working on it for awhile I wanted to get some constructive criticism on this image. This is the Firehole River in Yellowstone NP. It was taken at dusk as a rainstorm was coming through the area. It was pretty dark and steam from the various hot springs along the river really stood out. I decided to leave the image dark as most of the foreground and middle ground was featureless and also because the darkness really focused attention on the steam plumes. Does this work at all for you? For reference the steam cloud on the left in the far distance is from the Grand Prismatic Spring.

I really like the mood that this image portrays. There's something ominous about the clouds and the steam plumes which really makes the image work in my mind. The burned (I think?) tree trunks on the hillside on the left also add to the stark feeling. Nice work!

This is really awesome, Scott! My only thought is that the land seems a little dark, and I might experiment with lightening it up a bit. But not too much: this one's all about the interaction between the steam clouds and the sky clouds, and too much detail on the ground could just be a distraction here.

My immediate impression is that the image feels a little too "heavy." In other words, it feels to me like there is a little too much pure black in the frame. But I do love the interaction of the foreground mist and ominous, threatening sky.

Really like the composition but would lighten up the ground a touch. This is one of my favorite rivers.

The sky and steam clouds look great. I think that brightening the shadows for the gound to give some detail and set it off against the darker ridges, and then increasing the midtone contrast to regain the steam clouds' prominence is a consideration.

I too would like to see the detail in the blacks to compare, but it's still a very nice image that I would like to have in my files.

Like it but would also like to see it in color.

I agree with Glenn--its not bad at all, but i think the blackness overwhelms the subject here--which to me is the hot spring and steam clouds.

Really like the starkness of the image. Cool clouds as well.

I concur with the dark foreground comments and wouldn't mind seeing it lightened up just a smidgen. The whole image actually appears a bit dark for me except for the about the top quarter of it that includes the bright sky portions. Moody and beautiful scene though!