I’m not so sure with the overall composition or better said with the crop. Sure the lake is nice to have but do you think, the photo would make more sense with just the top of it (Clouds, Alpenglow and the glacier)?
Thanks a lot!
Is this a composite: No
This is a panoramic photo ( 2 rows, 5 shots each row with a 50mm lens on a full frame camera) of a glacier lake at sunrise in the Swiss Alps.
Nice image. I would lighten the darks just a fraction but this has a certain mood to it.
To answer your question, it depends on where you make your crop. Currently the top of the peak and sky do compete for attention with the lake a bit. They seem less important because the lake is there. But I really like this composition. It’s more complex than cropped. I would crop to not very far below the snowlike and make it a long panorama of a mountain tops. Then the relationship between the peak and the glow in the clouds is emphasized and you have a very nice image. I would pick the cropped version in such a case. If you lift the darks and provide more detail in the land then the lake image becomes more appealing. That’s my take on it. Hope it helps.
I would not change a thing. I like the balance and flow of the image as is and it is a beautiful image.
Thanks for your input - that is one version without the lake - here the focus is more in the sky and the glaciers. Maybe it makes sense to both images and image itself. So there is one with the lake as a prominent feature and one without it.
Interesting to see both versions. I think the one with the lake has far more depth to the scene and much more emotional impact. The touch of warm light in the lake and sense of place provided by the foreground look great. To my eye, the comparison is not even close. I am really enjoying this one.
It’s a complex scene, but one that I like a lot so I pulled it into Photoshop and used the TK8 panel to do some Luminosity masking and added some clarity for some punch. I’m not entirely happy with one bit of it, but this is a quick take -
Matthias,
This is a spectacular scene and for my tastes I think the lake adds so much to this stunning landscape. I quite like those warm and cool toned reflections in it’s waters. Obviously the alpenglow is magical as well as that drama laden sky. My only suggestion would be to bring up the darker areas just a bit for just a little more detail. Thanks for sharing this beauty.
Although all three are beautiful, I prefer your original (and even more with a slight lightening of darks). As mentioned by Harley, there is so much more depth to it. In Kristen’s version the blues seem to draw too much attention.
I’ll take the original with the darkest darks and the deep shadows brought up some but I like your composition a lot. This image has tremendous mood to it. I feel like it might need a little bit of counter clockwise rotation as it “Feels” like it’s tipping to the right and down even though that may be how the actual landscape was. Also, if you have any more room underneath the lake I would add that in as it feels like there is not enough under the lake to support the weight of the image. Just my take on it though. Beautiful location and a beautiful image for sure.
Gorgeous light and a lovely landscape! I’d consider just a bit of lightening of the mountains. It definitely feels to me like it needs a considerable CCW rotation. Here’s my take, with the mountains lightened but the sky and lake left as they were.
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Matthias, nice shot. I would have liked to have been up there with you to see that great light. And, I had to chuckle when I saw your dilemma as I have often faced the same problem. Good that you created a large file when the light was right. This gives you lots of flexibility. So, for what it is worth…
Beautiful scene! I really am loving the composition. It feels like I’m there standing on a mountain looking down and then across to all the other mountains in the distance. The colors and lighting are great!
