Had this one on the hard drive for awhile as I knew it would be a challenge to process. Although the light on the ridge was perfect for what I was envisioning, there was strong dappled light in various parts of the foreground. I calmed them down best I could as I didn’t want them to redirect one’s attention too much. That said, I did want some sublte dappled light to add interest, particularly on the oak brush. I had some color cast issues as well in the foreground that I believe I corrected to my eye.
Any thoughts on the overall impact or suggestions to improve this image most welcome.
Cheers!
Ken, this is a great photo. I’m jealous…I was there this fall and there was no color, no clouds, and no interesting light. You hit the jackpot. To my eye the composition is spot on. The ridge is bright enough that the dappled light in the foreground doesn’t compete with it. My only nit is that the bright sky in the upper left draws the eye out of the rest of the photo. I would darken it.
Stunning work Ken, a very impressive image. This does look like it was not easy to process, but you have done an outstanding job, it’s very natural looking. The tonality/contrast of the scene looks right on the money.
I would not change a thing in the ridge or foreground, it looks perfect. I agree with Tony about darkening the ULC, but that is a nit. As you indicated, you could try adding a little local contrast to the clouds, but I would be pretty subtle about it. While the overall warm feeling of the image is great, you might be able to create a little control contrast in the sky by cooling it very slightly. but these are nits, this excellent as presented.
For me, it depends on what was going on to the west. If you had clear skies and nothing blocking the sun, the first one looks more natural on the peaks. If you had light clouds blocking part of the last light, the 2nd one looks more natural. I see these peaks from my house and it can get much more intense at sunset.
Ken, this is indeed a stunning scenic shot, grabs your attention right away and holds it for quite a while. I like your idea of playing around with sculpting the tones in the sky to see what it brings out. If it was mine, I’d be tempted to play with the fore- and mid- ground as well. While the colors are stunning, the lighting is so even that the eye isn’t drawn to explore as much as it might. The yellow aspen on the far left ridge glow noticeably brighter. Something similar could be done with other spots to give the eye other focal spots to move to. Imagine broken clouds with the sun hitting different spots. The front lower left (near ground) could also be lightened and warmed and lightened up just a bit.
One other small nitpick: I don’t know what focal length you used, but the peaks seem a little pinched in. If so, they could be stretched out just a bit.
Ken, this is a majestic, powerful scene. Encompasses the greatness of nature from the foothills to the mountains and even the sky. Thanks for posting this.
I appreciate all of you who spend the time providing your critiques. I believe this version includes some improvements that better capture the scene. Most of the work was improving the foreground oak brush hillside. I totally reworked that to better capture the varied colors and lighting. I also did some minor tonal changes to the clouds and enhanced some of the spotlighting throughout the image. Frankly, handling the spotlighting was the biggest challenge on this image since the sun was filtering through clouds, creating some rather harsh spotlighting.
Spectacular landscape combo of the grand autumn landscape with the gorgeous light show on those fabulous mountain rock formations. Wow!
Yeah, the original post, the color, reds/magenta was a bit wonky, but I think your first repost lost some luster in the foreground color. Second repost in that area looks great.
This comment I think qualifies more personal taste than anything, so take this in to consideration. I think in all the versions the lighting on the peak is to magenta(and red too) Most notably check out the strong, almost purple color of the far background peak to the left of the main rock formation. Of course we all know(well, those in the US anyway,) the line of “Purple mountain majesty” from “America the Beautiful…” and so I guess that must have come from somewhere…
One thing is for sure, you have a gorgeous print lurking in there!
The composition is really strong and the light is fantastic. I think you held the dappled light in check perfectly. My only critique might be that some of the pines among the aspen look almost black on my screen. Seems like maybe they could use just a bit more light to reveal their texture.
Good eye, Lon! Yea, I noticed this overall neon brightness and odd color on that distant peak as well. Although not on this version, I had just selectively did some color cloning and burning to tame it down. That was just one of the challenges I had with this image as the sun was quite varied on its brightness as it peaked through clouds. Thanks again!
Thanks for your observation, Tony. That is one of the compelling reasons to get folks to critique, oftentimes just to note what the image looks like on other devices. On my Mac, the darker evergreen trees were not to bad. But I can see where some devices are going to render those shaded areas darker than I wanted. Thanks again, I made some edits that address the issue.
Cheers!
Ken, this is spectacular and brings a great sense of being there. I do like the peaks a bit lighter than the original. The foreground has crisp colors nd truly compliments the background. What caught my eyes first were the peaks, then the sky in the upper left corner. But it doesn’t take away from the shot. Superbly enjoy viewing your work.
