A day of studying the snow through my lens yielded this image. The wind formed a sharp snow line on the bank of the lake. The upper line looks like a wave to me.
I like the subtle patterns in the snow contrasted against the sharp line that the wind created. I was unhappy with where I framed the lower edge so I used content aware fill for the first time. Successful? Too obvious?
All types critique are welcome.
ISO 200, 150mm, f/16, 1/1000 sec
Hi Ann,
this is a really beautiful snow scene. I like the shape of the snow. I understand very well why the scene caught your attention.
If you didn’t say anything, I wouldn’t realize that you applied content aware fill here. So you’ve done a great job. 
If I could suggest anything else, it would be the colors. It’s a matter of taste, but in my opinion, the cyan and blue tones are a bit too strong.
I took the liberty of quickly editing your image. And here is the result:
All changes were made in ACR:
I struggle with the colors myself all the time. It often isn’t done in one step.
Maybe you know this already: I like to use the arrow keys when playing on different settings.
If you place the cursor in the small field with the numerical value, you can change the value with the arrow keys.
Up increases, Down decreases the value. It is much more precise than adjusting with the mouse. If you press Shift+Up (or Shift+Down) you change the value in larger steps.
I hope I haven’t bored you now. Again, that’s a great snow shot. I would be happy if I could shoot scenes like this here too.
Thanks for the great feedback! I got caught up in fixing the lower edge and as I was submitting I considered backing out for color adjustments. I don’t know if it was necessary, but I merged the visible layers after I added the content fill layer so I stopped myself thinking it would be better to adjust the CRAW file instead of the PSD file? I’ve been using Lightroom exclusively for 4 years and have just jumped into Photoshop in the last few months. I don’t have good flow or habits yet. It is very intimidating…it’s like a new language. I’ll get it figured out, eventually.
You don’t need Photoshop for the adjustments I described above. Everything you can do in ACR you can do in LR Classic in the same way. Maybe the panels are called a little bit differently.
Nice photo and I certainly can’t see the content aware fill line. Lovely blues.
Thank for the feedback!
Another beautiful winter abstract. @Jens_Ober 's version brings out some natural white too, which I for one think enhances the shot, but it’s almost a matter of personal taste here. I love the composition, with tension between the two lines.
Ann, this is very nicely seen. I like the quietness and relaxation that comes from all the blue tones. There are enough details to keep the viewing interesting, as well. Your content aware fill is not obvious. However, there is one consideration, that is, if you want to print this, it works considerably better to use a “standard” frame ratio. With non-standard frame ratios, you either spend a lot extra for mounting, matting and framing or have base color areas showing on two sides.
