I loved coming up to this lake. It was already late morning, so the light was harsher than I like, but the views were pretty. I could say, a typical Colorado scene.
Specific Feedback Requested
I loved my time there, but I am not loving the image that much. I am not sure exactly what it is. Maybe too common? The mountain and lake are framed by grass and trees. (There is a car there I could have erased but didn’t) The log acts as a leading line. It is probably the light that bugs me the most. If I had done a long exposure, it might have worked better. Thoughts are welcome
Technical Details
1/80, F11, ISO 80
Lens at 24mm
Hi Martha, I too, like the comp very much. You’ve done a great job of self critique here. I think time-of-day and the harsh light is probably what most affects things. Adding a ND filter and doing a long exposure probably would have muted some of the harshness.
While this isn’t always a great answer, I often resort to B&W when in harsh light. B&W just seems to be more palatable in harsh light. I hope you don’t mind, I took a stab at B&W with your image:
I also cloned out the wide leaf plants at the bottom…not a very good clone job, but just to get an idea. I also took advantage of that blue sky and further darkened it. Anyway, it was a fun experiment.
Overall, I really like the composition. I think the light is what takes away from that great comp.
Cheers,
David
Hey Martha! I also like the composition in this photo. I kept looking at it to see if it could be adjusted or cropped but I think this is the way this composition should stay. I do think the most difficult photo to make look really nice is a midday landscape. The light is harsh and not soft. It can be done, but it takes a lot from cloud conditions and the exact right moment. I second what David said earlier about ND filter and a long exposure.
Thank you @David_Bostock & @David_Johnston I am digging the BW conversion. I think it works better. Yes, I agree, I should have used an ND filter.
Thank you again for the feedback
Donna, this is a very inviting, bucolic mountain lake scene. It’s easy to imagine sitting there listening to the wind in the trees with the lake gently lapping the shore. The foreground flowers are a nice added extra invitation. Two things strike me; 1) the brightness of the foreground grasses and I see that in both the color and b&w versions. That brightness catches my attention and keeps pulling my eyes back to the bottom, thus reducing how much time I spend looking elsewhere (interest). 2) the dark blue of the sky, especially in the top half has me wondering if you used a polarizer. They are very good with mid-day light, but have to be handled with some care. I’ve downloaded your file and done some burning-in of the foreground grasses and some dodging of the sky and darkest areas of the trees. For me, this makes the entire view more pleasant and captures the sense of joy that such a location offers. My dodging and burning was done through luminosity masks. If you don’t know about them, do some internet searching and then check to see if your software supports them. They allow adjustments that are targeted to specific levels of luminosity so the changes are much more gentle.
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Thank you so much for your feedback, @Mark_Seaver yes, I did have a polarizer on my lens, which makes the blues deeper. It also gave it a greenish tint, although I think that might have more to do with my WB settings. I do have luminosity masks which I use from time to time. You are right; the grasses up front were pulling from the rest of the scene. I used them mainly to frame and not to be the main point of interest. Thanks again!
Since you know luminosity masks…I used L2 to burn the grasses and the sky just above the mountain peaks and then dodged using L2 for the top ~1/3 of the sky. I used D2 to dodge the darkest parts of the trees on the left and their shadow.
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