This was taken recently after a winter storm came through. I was hoping to catch snow on the ground but I was a day late. Would have loved to see the orange rocks covered in white powder. Hoping to get out there again real soon.
I re-edited this image (See below) based on the feedback I received from @Nathan_Klein as well as the fact that this posted about a 2/3 of a stop darker than it shows in my Lightroom catalog??? so I lightened the entire image. I also applied @Ed_McGuirk edits, and added quite a bit of negative clarity to much of the image and removed quite a bit of the blue from the clouds based on @Harley_Goldman comments and my own feelings. Let me know what you think. Thanks
Specific Feedback Requested
The sky was a typical blocked up gray with muted blues so I guess I’m wondering if I brought out too much blue in the sky. Any dodging or burning that this needs?
Thanks for any and all advice.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Z7, 24-70mm lens, @24 mm, ISO 80, 1/60, f/11
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Re-Edited image based on suggestions
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@David_Haynes , this is a beautiful scene. I like the way the foreground rocks lead toward the center from the LLC. The color vs. B&W is a toss-up for me. The color is cool with the complementary blues and oranges, with the blues emphasized and offsetting the bright orange in the rocks. A stylistic color rendition. The B&W is also really appealing just because the tones and contrast look so good to me. The snow on the hills really stands out, and looks great.
Congrats on getting out there and finding this scene. It must have been cold, even with no snow on the ground!
This is a great dramatic scene. The arid landscape leading into the snowy dramatic mountains.
I prefer the colour rendition. It’s not too blue for me. The blues create an impact which I think was your intention.
The only item that I can suggest is that the whole scene is sharp with a lot of texture. I think mixing in some softness with a light Orton effect or negative clarity could provide some nice texture contrast.
Wonderful!! I love both but would lean toward the B/W for its classic look. The color version feels a bit too divided into two images. In either case, wonderful use of wide angle!
A great image for sure David, it’s got a lot of drama and mood. I prefer the color over the B&W, it just feels like it has more energy and vitality. The blues in the sky contribute a lot to the mood IMO, and do not think the blues are overdone, you kept them with a lighter luminosity which is more natural looking. I love lichen on rocks, and it adds a nice small touch here. Overall I think the image is very well done.
I would suggest some burning to accentuate the foreground rock formation, by darkening the immediate area area around the rocks.
Thank you to @Mark_Muller , @Diane_Miller , @Nathan_Klein and @Ed_McGuirk for your thoughts and suggestions. It was cold for sure Mark but not too bad. Nathan, I’m going to try out your recommendation at reducing clarity locally in spots to take some of the edge off, and perhaps softening the scene a little bit. Love the idea. Diane, you hit on the one thing that made me worry the sky was too blue in that it makes the scene look like 2 images. With the oranges and the blues I’m not sure I could do much to get away from that and I think that’s why I did a black and white conversion on this.
Ed, I LOVE what you did to some of the bright spots particularly the area above the large leading rock with lichen on the left portion of the frame. Well done. Thanks so much for taking the time.
Nice one from AH. I like what @Ed_McGuirk did, although I would back off the blues quite a bit in the upper third. I tried it in PS and liked the results. That gets into personal preference though. I like the color rendition a bit better. The warm tones in the foreground really look good.
The final rework nails it for me. Looks great.
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I really like this scene, and your composition looks super strong to me. I tend to disagree with Ed on the blues here; they appear too intense for my liking. The sharpening also appears to be overdone in the FG area. I reduced the blues a good bit and introduced a very small blur (.03 radius) to the FG area to reduce the sharpening a wee bit. I removed all of the blur from the BG mountains and a bit of the blur in parts of the FG where the sharpening looked good beforehand. This image is very dramatic on it’s own IMHO, and didn’t really need any additional color in the BG.
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