Hi all, new to NPN and wanted to drop off my first image for critique and feedback. I took this picture of crater lake on what turned out to be really a lucky encounter. It was forecast to be foggy and rainy and I decided to make a 2 hour trip from Medford anyway. I arrived at around the lake at around 8pm and set up my tripod. I took a few test shots and waited and waited. It started to rain and I almost packed it in but something told me to just stay a little longer as others got in the car and left. At about 9:10pm, the clouds opened up a bit and the sun pierced through giving me one of the most delightful opportunities to create an image I ever had. I did a panoramic and took about 27 (9 different pictures, each with 3 different exposures. The portrait shots were then merged in lightroom. I enhanced the colors just a touch and sharpened it but that’s about it. I would love to hear what you would do to this image because I feel like as lucky I got with the conditions, I can perhaps take this to another level.
Specific Feedback Requested
Would love feedback on anything with editing, cropping, composition or any stylistic suggestions you think would make this image stand out even more.
Technical Details
9 portrait shots Pano merge in lightroom with exposure blending. Each shot at ISO 400, f/11, 26mm at 1/4 sec.
OH MY! I bet you’re pretty proud of yourself for sticking it out! Wow, you were well rewarded!
And before any further comments, WELCOME to NPN! Great to have you here. This is quite a grand entrance!
Kudos for being able to concentrate, keep composed and be able to get all those images captured to ultimately produce this pano. This is approacing epic! Congrats!
Ok, for the critique, or more accurately my ONLY suggestion. Maybe it’s an optical illusion, but to me this seems like it has a little CW rotation - it looks like it’s leaning down and do the right. Maybe because the rainbow(s) on the right make it seem like there’s more sky, and the higher mountain on the left makes for less sky… so I’m not really sure about being level. It just appears not level to me. Maybe others will confirm or deny…
Regardless, love your first posted image! We look forward to more and look forward to your participation and contributions to the forums and galleries.
Thank you so much Lon. I really appreciate the welcome and feedback. This has become a quick lesson to never leave your photography spot no matter how bad the conditions get just because of the serendipity involved in Nature photography. I think you are right because I feel there is a bit of a “out of balance” at play in this as well. I may try to rotate the image counterclockwise a bit just to get it not leaning so much to the right as you mentioned. I will see if I can straighten it out without losing any parts of the image. The level feature in lightroom unfortunately did not do anything so I may do a manual rotation and see what comes of it. Thank you so much!
You’re welcome Nick. I’m not a LR user (shock!), but this can be handled in PS pretty easily. I tried and even with a considerable rotation, the content-aware fill does an amazing job with those empty areas after a rotation. Which in the case of this image, there really isn’t much room on any side that you can afford to lose after a rotation. Let me know I can post the results.
Hi Lon, yes please do. I would love to see what you came up with. I would love to learn this technique in PS. I need to get more acclimated with PS. I am not a photoshop user at all. I feel like that is where all the good edits are and if I need to make that move sooner than later
You must be on the West coast! No one else is up doing photography on a Sunday night… ha ha.
Ok, the screenshot shows the empty corners after a rotation. Sorry, I had to desaturate as the screen clip looked terrible! But you get the idea. In PS you then select those areas and the tool does a phenomenal job of intelligently filling it in. The lower right area required a little more work as more complicated areas don’t always clone cleanly. Below is the before/after:
Welcome! Fabulous image, well done. I agree with Lon. A bit of rotation to straghten out the horizon/far lake edge, would improve the image. One easy way to do this in Photoshop is open the photo. Duplicate the layer ( you can’t do many edits on the first layer, which is called “Background” layer). In the tool bar at the top click Edit/Transform/Skew. Then click on the lower left corner and drag down until the horizon is level.
Lon! WOW!! Appreciate it tremendously. I am on the west coast indeed. This is going into my notebook for reference from here on out. Thank you so very much!
Looks great Nick, welcome to NPN! I agree with the leveling aspect - a common problem with Panoramas. Another tool I like to use is the wide angle filter in PS - it can help correct some of these problems sometimes as well.
Nick, welcome to NPN. What a stunning first image to post. I love Crater Lake but the drive from Portland is long and boring. Plus I’ve never had much luck with the getting good light there.
Well done on this. I agree with the others that it could use a bit of rotation. The Content Aware tool in PS is certainly your friend when you need to preserve content.
Thank you so much David! I think it was such a luck of the draw with making this image because this weather condition lasted for about 10 minutes at most. I agree, when driving from Medford to Crater lake, it was not a stimulating drive. The lake is beautiful though and I may try to tackle it during winter when there’s snow or capture the night sky. Thanks for the tip with PS. Time for me to dive into this process!
Hi Nick and welcome to NPN - what a stunning view. I’ve only ever been there once and then in bright noonday sun, so nothing like this otherworldly beauty. Bravo for being there and having the tools and talent to photograph it so well. A pano is certainly needed for a vista this expansive.
I agree with the various edits and am even more curious about everyone’s varying techniques for correcting for tilted horizons and simultaneously preserving the margins of the photo. Without further derailing your thread, I wonder if maybe @Lon_Overacker, @Matt_Payne and @Tony_Siciliano wouldn’t mind starting a thread in the Techniques and Methods section of the Learning space. I know I’d find it valuable for when I goof in the field or when my panos don’t quite line up right.
Thank you Kristen! I love the idea of your suggestion. As I build more knowledge and comfort around my editing, I’d be more than happy to share results . This group has been just invaluable with their feedback, knowledge and expertise! So glad to be here!
Welcome to NPN. This is a great place to improve your photography. I often use trees to determine when the camera is vertical rather than the landscape. I have made the same mistake at Crater Lake due to it’s curved shoreline.
One thing I wanted to ask. What is that zig zag object at bottom center?
The lake is beautiful though and I may try to tackle it during winter when there’s snow or capture the night sky. Thanks for the tip with PS. Time for me to dive into this process!