What technical feedback would you like if any?
Any 
It is a composite from more complete different shots (foreground (focus stacked) / forrest / sky), so I am interested if it looks ok from technical point of view.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Any As mentioned above, it is a composite and I would like to know if it works as a complete image.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
As mentioned above, it is a composite. I used 3 shots to create focus stacked foreground, than one shot with trees and one with sky. Lot of work with foreground color and transition to horizon to match the sky (not that much editing there, the light was superb).
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@stefancondik
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
Stefan, I think the technical aspects of the focus stack and luminosity blending of sky/foreground work well. and I like the concept of the image, with the snow patterns in the foreground leading you eye to the trees and wonderful light/color in the sky. Those ripples in the snow are fantastic, and to me are the star of this show.
That leads me to a suggestion to crop away about 30% to 40% of the sky. The top of the sky does not have much in terms of colorful clouds, and I think reducing the sky somewhat would place even more emphasis on the snow ripples by making them larger in the frame. This is subjective, but I also think the very nearest foreground snow is a bit too dark, and would raise its luminosity slightly. I hope you donât mind but I downloaded the image and took a go at these changes.
thank you very much Ed for your feedback. I have to say I like your crop a lot!
regarding the technical aspects, it is not a âtime blendâ, but a composite of three separate (I count final focus stacked as one shot) photos that each is from different composition from different locations in different times of day, so I wondered if it looks natural.
Stefan,
Quite a beautiful winter, frozen landscape image. Iâd say your blends/composite are done near flawlessly. I had to read a couple times thinking more this was a focus/exposure blend from different frames of the same scene. But now I understand to be from 3 different times and locations (or at least tripod locations. And so the blend is technically even more impressive. The only slight difference would be the color transition between the bottom snow formation/drifts and the snow in the treeline; the former a bit more blue, and in the trees leaning more purple. But then again, maybe your processing is even more brilliant as the drifts are sloping downward, away from the sky, where as color is being picked up among the trees⌠which could explain the slight color variation.
The only thing I can think to suggest is just agreeing on Edâs crop suggestion. The digital frames for me are too tall in situations like this and the upper part of the sky isnât adding anything; in fact it pulls away from the fascinating formation, texture and details of the carved snow below.
Well done.
Lon
Thank you very much Lon for your time and feedback.
Crop:
You and Ed are absolutely right about the crop. Crop that Ed created is great and works better. I am not a huge fan of that format in vertical, but I simply don´t like to crop. It is strange, because I have no problem to create digital composite far from reality, but cropping is obviously a sacred ground for me (without a proper reason). Maybe a medication would help 
Color:
I processed the foreground quite a lot to be blue-ish to match the sky and the transition (tree line) was tricky. I wanted to create some sort of gradient but I am still not happy mainly because of that purple in trees that also you mention. I played a bit with light bleed so I could screw the transition during that stepâŚ
Locations:
Yes, there are three different tripod locations (radius more than 2km ). Thinking I will post the base shots so it is clear for everyone.
I like the bluish cast in the foreground. Itâs fittingly chilly. I might be inclined to crop even further than suggested above. I did this just in a Windows photo editor, but itâs a harder crop (just to toughen you up ;-)) and tish more contrast and saturation and a teensy vignette. I probably went too far on the crop, but I thought it might be fun to see what it looks like. I swear Iâm not doing it out of cruelty!!
ML
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A very inviting scene, and to me that foreground alone is already a great image!
A small comment about the technics: I opened the image and looked at the foreground in detail (because I liked it so much ) and saw a few small misses in the focus-stack. It seems you missed a bit of the dof (in the images or in the stack?), and created the stack with a soft edge brush, I see some ghosting at the lower part.
thank s Ron, I will definitely check it!
