Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
A Crown Within A Crown
Glacier National Park is known by some as the Crown of the Continent. While this may be geographically true, it is also true in terms of sheer natural beauty. Time and the elements have collaborated in a feat of artistry that has inspired human artists for generations upon generations of both Indigenous peoples and more recent visitors to the area. In this photo, Mount Oberlin, Clements Mountain, and Mount Cannon stand watch over Bird Woman Falls. All their lofty spires create a bit of a crown within the crown of the Park. The glaciers that carved the bowl from which the falls originate have long since vanished, but their effect on the landscape has left a stunning scene for us to admire. We drove up late one night to see how it looked under the stars and we were not disappointed! If you’ve stood at this viewpoint along Going to the Sun Road during the day, you’ll appreciate the thrill that it is to stand at the edge in the dark! I was even fortunate enough to have captured a meteor while the shutter was open. Believe it or not, there were also 15 satellite streaks during one 10 second exposure, but I removed those!
Specific Feedback
I wasn’t actually thinking I would like this as I captured it given the lack of a foreground. This is along Going to the Sun Road and there is a large chasm right in front of me, so a close foreground was out of the question. Then, during one of the exposures, a meteor streaked overhead. I worked this one quite a bit. I usually stack for noise reduction but this is a single for the sky and a single for the mountains, blended using the sky replacement tool in Photoshop. I warped the lower end to keep the composition but remove headlights from the road far below! Does the lack of a close foreground work ok, after all, the Milky Way is far enough away the the mountains are pretty close relatively speaking!
Technical Details
Nikon D850
Sigma Art 20mm 1.4
Sky~ISO 5000, f/1.8, 10 seconds
Land~ ISO 1250, f/1.8, 102 seconds
Each are single images blended using the sky replacement tool in Photoshop. I used the Mini Stars action in Photoshop, Topaz Denoise for the land and processed the image in Lightroom Classic CC.
Critique Template
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