Sunset on Thirteenth Lake in Winter

I knew the sun was going to set over the mountains around 5:45 PM, so I set up the tripod after picking out my composition. The wind was blowing directly into my face, and the temperature hovered around 20 degrees, with a windchill that made my eyeglasses make cracking noises on my nose. As the sun set, it began to create a light beam from under the clouds that were streaking across the sky over the mountains. The sun quickly disappeared for the evening and I packed up to warm up inside the lodge!

Specific Feedback Requested

I’m wondering if the hotspots near the sunset detract from the image, even though I tried to keep them minimized, and if the snow is too grey, even though it was early evening and there was no direct light on the snow?

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM @ 30mm, 1/640 sec, ISO 100

PhotoGuyAlan

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Welcome aboard, Alan. This is a fine, cold-looking scene. The hot spots don’t bother me at all, but the yellows look a bit too saturated for my tastes. Otherwise, the processing looks good.

Welcome to NPN, Alan. This is a great scene and certainly does feel cold. Like @Harley_Goldman mentioned, the yellows could be toned down, but everything else is stellar.

Thank you, Harley. I agree with you on the yellows. I dialed them back a little and warmed them up more toward the orange side using Lumenzia luminosity masking. I appreciate the candid feedback!

Best regards,
Alan

Alan LaBrecque

Thank you, David. I agree with both you and Harley. Sometimes another set of eyes help to bring you back to something more natural. I appreciate the feedback!

Best regards,
Alan

Alan LaBrecque

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Welcome Alan. The repost has a much more natural looking coloration to the sky. You certainly have a beautiful scene. Tough conditions to be shooting in though. I’m cold just thinking about 20 degrees with a major wind chill on top of that. I can hear your glasses creaking.
I like the composition with everything you’ve included but the bottom seems cut off. Is there any more canvas you can add to the bottom or is this full frame? To me it seems like the snow should go all the way to the LLC at a minimum to provide a base for the image to sit on. If you don’t have any more pixels at the bottom you may be able to add snow along the bottom anyway but you would have to add some of the bush in the LLC also. Might be a little bit tricky. Hope this makes sense. Keep em coming! :slight_smile:

That’s a great question and observation, David. I had a lot of trampled snow in that LLC of the image, so I had to compose this a little differently than I really wanted. I had hoped that the zigzag pattern (tree line moving to the right to the lake moving to the left and back up to the right on the mountains) would lead the viewers eye toward the sunset, even though it is the brightest spot in the image. So this is the full image except for some of the tree on the left that had a lot of distracting branches that I tried to minimize by cutting off on the left. I really appreciate your observations and feedback! Thank you!

Best,
Alan

Alan, here is a very quick and dirty edit job on what I was trying to convey. Hope you don’t mind. Crop from the top, crop from the left side and added canvas to the bottom. Also brightened up the whites. :slight_smile:

Thanks, David. I don’t mind at all. You beat me to the punch! I worked on your suggestion last night to see how it would look and here is my version. I was initially concerned with the snow being too grey, but also wanted to be realistic with the brightness (or whiteness) given the time of day this was shot. I appreciate everyone’s feedback on this one. I think the print will come out 10 times better with these suggestions! Thank you!

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