The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
It was a gloomy day, overcast and snowing. We had a small break when the mountains were clear to grab a few images. This was a foto stack of 20 images. I adjusted the WB, straightened the horizon, and experimented with colour toning.
Specific Feedback
I would have preferred more sky above the mountains, but was limited by my wide angle lens (17-55). If I was more proficient in Ps (just a newbie), I guess I could have blended in more sky.
Laura, what a magnificent location. I am just learning how to do photo stacking, so I can’t say much about that. I did download the image because the overall cyan tent bothered me. I took it into PS and straightened it. The final corp left minimal sky. Then, I used the patches of snow to reset the WB in LR. This is the result, which looks more like the RAW file and seems more realistic. Thanks for sharing this beautiful scene. I struggle with blue scenes like this and don’t think I have quite found a realistic rendition. I leave that to others.
Laura, I’m enjoying the scene. I also think that you’ve got an interesting balance between the rocks at the bottom and the mountains at the top. The underwater rocks and the light/dark pattern keep the big expanse of lake interesting and attractive. The blueness adds a sense of melancholy. When I look at the raw file, I don’t see any need to “level the horizon”. This is clearly a long narrow lake, so the lake edges in the distance MUST be at a steep angle to your point of view. The rules for translating a 3D view in 2D require that those edges NOT be level. The amount of sky in the raw file looks reasonable to me. That distant peak near the right edge needs more separation from the frame in your adjusted view. Since this is a glacial melt lake, I expect the water to have a strong blue tint, but less so in the distant mountains. Adjusting blue in distant views is something that our brain does automatically, which means it’s artist’s choice to adjust it or not. Should you want to make an adjustment, you can easily do that in photoshop by adding a saturation layer, dialing down the blue saturation (and maybe the blue luminosity), add a black mask to the entire layer and finally paint white into the mask to control where the reduced blue is applied. You can adjust how strongly the mask applies by using a 25% opacity brush and going back over the same areas in the mask up to pure white.
BTW, since you already have photoshop, it’s a fine way to learn about stacking. However, if you look at a stacked image in PS, you’ll find soft spots, because of the way PS creates stacks. I showed that in my stacking webinar a couple of years ago.
Thank you Mark for your detailed feedback. I especially appreciated your explanation of how to adjust the saturation layer in Ps. It was such an overcast day, sadly the lake didn’t display its usual aqua colours.
Hi Laura - I love the feeling of cold and quiet that your edit brings to life. I’m not totally sure where to focus in your edited image, but found my eyes looking closely at the underwater rocks. Not sure if that was your intention? The low amount of sky definitely creates a feeling of closeness in this image, while also making clear how expansive the location is. A cool juxtaposition that works here, I think!
Hi Ann
Thanks for the feedback. It was such an overcast day, I was trying for a composition that focussed on the water, rather than the typical mountain backdrop.
