Melting Pots

Another from my recent backcountry hike. I found these interesting melt patterns in a high elevation tarn and decided to set of camp nearby to shoot at sunset. Interested in any comments/suggestions on composition or processing. Thanks

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You are killing it with these images from the High Sierra, Dave. Your backpacking trip went very well. You have got to love the glow on the peak as well as the warmth in the clouds. Of course the reflection in the tarn is wonderful as well as those melting pots. They make for a very interesting FG. My only suggestion; and this is being very nitpicky; is to clone out the little bit of debris in the bottom melting pot on the right edge. Outstanding scene.

Dave, another great shot from the Sierra! The light is incredible, as well as the comp and colors. My only nit is the (very) small dark area in the lower left. I might crop a sliver off the left or just clone that out. Looking forward to more of these.

Dave, a truly classical high sierra look with this image. A very fine placement of the overall scene with the reflection and the melting ice in the FG…:+1:

A very nice image with the proper balance of light, color, and saturation. I like the sense of depth created by the foreground patterns.

Hi Dave. You have a great image here. I just wanted to make this suggestion because (a) I prefer wider landscape verticals and (b) I feel too much canvas is being given to the fg snow. I feel that the lake and mountains is the meat of it. So my crop suggestions makes those look bigger. In your previous image with highlighted snow the snow deserved all the attention it got but this one is different. Just my 2 cents. A very quick assessment on my part.

Very nice and peaceful image, Dave. The color is wonderful, and spot-on. I could see raising the tonal value of the snow hummocks just a bit.

Igor’s crop suggestion works well, but I prefer the original crop.

They don’t call the Sierra the “Range of Light” for nothing!
-P

I really love this! Spectacular light. Great composition and foreground. Wonderful color palette/balance. Excellent exposure/contrast control. Really, really good. I played with a couple of things just out of curiosity to see what they would look like. One is I transformed the image a bit to mitigate some of the key-stoning caused by pointing the camera down with a wide-angle lens. (I tried to maintain the great framing you did in the foreground, but a little got cut off). The second is that I darkened the edges and lightened the center a bit for more depth and eye draw. It looks like you had perhaps already done some of this, so I just took it a bit farther. Not sure if these are worthwhile edits…so I’ll let you be the judge. Again, wonderful image.

Dave, I’m coming in late on this one, but here is my $0.02. I think I’m in the minority at the NPN landscape critique forum, but I actually like 3:2 verticals, and I strongly prefer the original composition. I really like retaining the complete pool in the LRC that gets cut off if you made a crop similar to Igors 5:7-ish rework.

I love what @Sean_Bagshaw did with dodging and burning in his rework, it takes this scene up another notch. I especially like what Sean did with the reflection of the mountain, it just adds a lot of vitality to the image, and still keeps the reflection darker than the sunlit mountain :grinning:.

The heavy snow in the Sierra this past winter has created a bonanza for you, I’m glad you were able to get these shots, they are gorgeous.

Hi Dave. I think you have a great shot here with multiple comps because of that foreground if nothing else. To me that great light is the key, For what it is worth here is my feed on it.

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Beautiful light and scene, Dave. I like Sean’s tweaks, subtle but effective. Either way, another excellent high country look.

This image makes me really want to be there, beautiful. A lot has already been said. I personal preference would be for Igor and Greg’s crop. I also think the light and the reflection are the stars of this image and that is where my eye wants to stay and explore.

Dave,

Yet another gorgeous High Sierra image. Excellent near/far comp and of course the light and colors are “range of light” beautiful.

The good news for all us nitpickers here is that the image has enough strength that even subtle tweaks like Sean’s can elevate this, if even just a bit. I really like what he did. The other crops/edits are viable too as I’m in the fat vertical comp (4:5) much like Igor. But all is good when you have such a stellar image to begin with.

Looking forward to the next.

Lon

Thanks very much for the insightful comments, suggestions and all around input, @Ed_Lowe, @Craig_Moreau, @Paul_Breitkreuz, @Tony_Kuyper, @Preston_Birdwell, @Ed_McGuirk, @Harley_Goldman, @Richard_Teller, @Lon_Overacker.

@Igor_Doncov, @Greg_Stokesbury Thanks for your input and taking time to play with an alternate crop. I like both of them. I think I need more soak time to decide…

@Sean_Bagshaw, I really like your rework. Thanks very much for taking time to play with my image and your insightful comments. I was conscious of trying to keep the camera as level as possible to avoid distorting the reflection but I see that the trees were in fact key-stoned…