I took this image about 30 minutes after sunset with a long exposure. Longs Peak is an icon in Rocky Mountain National Park and there a millions of photographs of it. It’s hard to do something different. I welcome your thoughts, especially the questions below.
What technical feedback would you like if any? What do you think of the contrast in the mountains? Feels a little crispy to me, especially in contrast to the soft sky.
What artistic feedback would you like if any? Is the image generally too dark? The scene was very dark, and I feel that I’ve brought the exposure up as much as I can and still keep the mood of the late-dusk.
Pertinent technical details or techniques: Sony a6500, Zeiss 16 -70 lens at 70mm, 30 sec. at f/18
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
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Beautiful image Matt! I would lighten the very bright part of the clouds; those highlights do draw the eye from the rest of the scene. If they are blown out and it just goes grey, instead I would create a new blank layer, use a brush, pick the pink color of the clouds, and paint using Soft Light and 5-10% opacity. Also I do think the land could be a bit lighter. Again, well done.
Did you mean darken, Tony? I do agree with your suggestions. @Matt_Gordon, you might also consider playing with crops from both sides. I like the color, and do feel the foreground and the mountains could be brought up some.
-P
Thanks, Tony. I’ve lightened the FG and that helps. Now I can’t take my eye off the bright white glob in the middle of the cloud. I understand your suggestion of the light pink paint over the bright area.
Unfortunately, I work in Lightroom, and don’t have the know-how to use the layering in Photoshop. Time to up my game. Matt
@Matt_Gordon, I’ll try to explain Tony’s idea to fix the ‘white blob’…
Open the image in PS
In the Tools Panel, click the Eyedropper and select the Color Sampler tool
Place the Color Sampler tool cursor on the color you want to sample and then click. (The RGB numbers of that color will be displayed in the Info Panel and a color swatch will display as the ‘Foreground Color’ in the tools panel)
Create a new empty layer above the background layer using Ctrl/Alt/Shift N
Click the Brush Tool, set it to a soft brush and then in the Brush tool bar, click the down-arrow for “Mode”. Set the mode to Soft Light and then set the brush opacity to 5-10%.
Carefully ‘paint’ the area in the cloud you want to change. (Note that the more you paint the area, the stronger the effect will be, so go slow.)
Beautiful mountain/alpine landscape. Great cloud and your inclusion of the “tundra” works wonderfully too as does the more narrow crop.
The repost is awesome! I especially like the extra bit of glow on the foreground - just right. Nice job on the cloud touch-up as well. thanks for taking the time to rework.
You nailed it with the repost, Matt. The lenticular cloud looks perfect and I like the layering you created with the tundra and BG mountains. I always enjoy images with lenticular clouds because I live on the east coast and have only witnessed them once first hand while in the White Mountains.
