Sometimes the job I have takes me to some spectacular places. This past week, I spent time at the Coldwater Science and Learning Center at Mount St Helens in Washington. While counting postcards, I kept my camera nearby in case we got a break in the snow and the sun came out.
Feedback Requests
General critique, does it “read” well, too yellow?
Pertinent Technical Details
Sony a6000 with Tamron 18-300 lens @18 mm, ISO 200, f11, 1/160th sec, handheld. I loved the golden glow of the clouds against the bluer ridgelines so tried to emphasize the color contrast a bit in post-processing.
Hi Heidi,
We met at the Out of Oregon Coast workshop. We got Covid from the same carpool guy (“I’ve been having some flu symptoms”: Boy, did that suck, and apparently Week 2 went fully online as a result). Anyway, great to see you here!!!
I love the layers in this scene: sky, mountain, fog, treeline, foreground brush and snow. It reads really well for me, and there is enough to keep my interest while still feeling like a well composed image with a solid subject.
The yellow was the first thing that stood out as “other than expected.” That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I know how sun trying to burn off the fog or low clouds can create that kind of “smoggy” color, and here, it feels natural and also creates some nice separation from the other layers of cooler colors. It might feel more accurate if the yellow were reduced by just the tiniest tish of a hair (you know, slight rotation of the wrist more than a true dial back) on whatever slider that would be.
I’ll be curious to see what others think as well.
ML
Heidi: This looks pretty good to me. I played around with the WB a bit and think your settings were spot on. My only tiny nit is I would like a touch more of the FG snow to give it a bit more prominence in the frame but the exposure on the atmospherics and the distant BG is really nice. Well done. >=))>
Heidi, the color balance looks good to me…there’s some blue in the foreground snow, especially the shadows (which is expected) and the color contrast with the yellowish cloud/fog is striking.
This image really draws me in. I want to know what is behind the clouds. There’s a lovely sense of mystery. The yellowish cast did make me wonder at first, and in fact think this could work relly nicely in B&W. But the composition really works for me, the lenses of visible mountain on the left and right mirroring the foreground.
Thanks Elizabeth, thank you. Behind the clouds is the gaping maw of the volcano. When conditions are right you can see the lava dome that formed not long after the 1980 eruption.
Thank you Laura. Not really - the fog is formed by low lying clouds drifting up the valley of the Toutle River. Through the fog/clouds, you can see Coldwater Lake (kinda, there is a glowing reflection through the mist) which was formed during the 1980 eruption.
