I have taken up photography in early 2018 and the past two winters have been a time of hibernation.
Although i have lived in Canada for 10 years and i learnt to enjoy nature and love the outdoors, winter has been a time where i just sat indoors and wished for the summer to come so i can get out more.
This winter i decided to change things around and get out more for photography and to appreciate the winter. I have been hiking so far ( you may think it is not winter it, it pretty much is up here in the Canadian Rockies)
This was one of my first photography outings this season. The Elbow river started to freeze and interesting ice shapes are forming around the edges combined with some nice morning light
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Any
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
What do you think about the composition? I have other comps that i shot and will share later that are not wide angle.
Do you think the foreground is interesting?
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
This is a focus stack image where i have taken a darker exposure for the frame that was focused on the background then blended in photoshop.
20 mm, f 11, various shutters iso 100
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Aref, I like the image and composition. The light is nicely balanced along with the focus stacking. I find the amount of snow on the left and right side to be a little bit tight for my taste and may have moved back a few inches to have a bit more breathing room on the sides. This is just hypothetical because I don’t know what was outside the frame. You may also want to consider time blending and having a slower shutter to blur the water some more as something to try. This would probably require a ND or at least a circular polarizer. Keep up the good work.
Great image overall, I like the use of the foreground, ice and rocks. And the light on the mountains is simply gorgeous. The processing looks great too, exposure, color and contrast are right on the money. I actually like how the water looks, I like seeing the submerged rocks, and I like the texture in the water out in the main part of the river. I 'm not sure that I’d like a longer shutter speed for more blur in the water, I like the water texture as is.
I agree that the composition feels a bit cramped, especially on the right side and at the top. The right edge of the pool gets pretty close to the frame edge about halfway up, and that makes me notice it more than I should. And while you have great clouds, I’d like to see a bit more breathing room above the big cloud. I try to compose images slightly more loosely than my final vision, leaving me room to correct things that I might not see until I’m on the computer. I took the liberty of doing a rework to add canvas and do Content Aware Fill, just to illustrate how a looser composition might help. Don’t get me wrong, overall this is already a great image, these tweaks are nuances that might take it up another notch.
Thanks @Ed_McGuirk I see your point about it being a little tight. I actually already warped it a bit to get more snow on the right. I had a 20 mm lens i had to get close to exaggerate the opening and the icy drops which meant i had to sacrifice not to mention the parking lot to the right of the frame
I love how the cloud looked with the extra canvas. I will play a bit more on Photoshop and see what I can create.
@bryannelsonca thanks for the feedback, I have taken a few frames with a polarizer and was able to do slower shutter (plan was to time blend) but I did not like the look, just like @Ed_McGuirk mentioned I preferred the texture so i got rid of that frame.
Welcome to NPN. I hope you become a regular member and that you post more images as good as this one. You have a winning composition as it is, although I think @Ed_McGuirk’s comments about adding space at the right and top would create and enhancement. The Canadian Rockies are a winter wonderland. I’d be out too in spite of the cold.
Welcome to NPN! A wonderful landscape image. A classic near-far composition that I think you’ve executed beautifully. the framing of the water with the frozen bank sets up nicely for the finishing touch of the snow covered mountains and great clouds.
Sure, a little tight on the right, but overall, I think this is excellent. I have no other nits or suggestions!
There is little to add to what has been said already. Even though this is a near/far composition I like the upper far more than the lower half. I think the rocks beneath the water is really the strongest part of the lower half. I guess the heart shaped ice doesn’t do much for me, nor does the homogeneity of the snow itself.
I have reworked the image based on the feedback and gave it a bit more room on the right and on the top using some photoshop magic (the little i could)
