Kearsarge

Sunrise at Kearsarge Lakes in Kings Canyon National Park. Comments and critiques are

appreciated. Thanks.

Hi Greg,

Beautiful colours, sharp, very nice. Cheers

Excelente imagen de gran belleza, perfecta luz y color, gran encuadre y una magnifica composicion, gran reflexion, saludos cordiales Greg.

... a few times myself. Great place to be, and worth the hump over Kearsarge Pass.

 

Effective photo and nice timing to get the very smooth water. I think the contrast between the saturated light on the peak and the blue shadow light is interesting.

 

Since this is a critique forum, I'm going to give you a couple of critical reactions for whatever they are worth as well... all in the spirit of suggesting other things you might (or might not... ;-) want to try.

 

To my eye there are a few things about the image that look just a bit "over the top" to me. I know it is a matter of taste, but the colors seem a bit too saturated. I think the image might be effective with a bit less saturation, and also perhaps with the intense blue of the shadows toned down a bit.

 

Speaking of the shadows, this is a very tricky kind of shot to expose. The shaded talus slope was likely much darker than the intensely illuminated peak. As I would have done, you compensated by either using a graduated ND filter or by increasing the brightness of the foreground in post processing. So far, so good. However - again, to my subjective eye - the talus slope looks a bit unnaturally bright to me, and it has more contrast that I would expect in a scene like this.

 

In any case, these suggestions aside, this image really caught my attention as I looked at photo.net tonight... and brought back a few memories of my own trips out of Onion Valley, over Kearsarge Pass, and to these lakes.

 

Take care,

 

Dan

Great shot, but does not look natural as the reflection is very bright. To me, it looks like you have over compensated by grad ND or post processing. Let the shadow area a bit more dark - also blue (or almost violet) cast can be corrected.

Thanks all.

 

Dan and Arnab, thanx for the in depth critiques. It seems a consensus is that the shadows are too bright. This was kinda the effect I was going for, but a little overboard on my part. I was trying to get this shot to resemble the real thing, and you both are right that in person those shadows don't pop like that. In addition, the blue tint is definitely noticable now that its pointed out. I decreased the blue in photoshop before posting, and it looked fine after fiddling with it, but now that I haven't seen the photo in a few days its obvious, I didn't decrease them enough. And Dan, as for the saturation - its the velvia man....Thanks again to you both.

Greg

I think the image could tolerate a little less brightness in the shadow areas; it would give the photo more dynamic range, and you would still be able to see the boulders. I'm also thinking graduated ND filter here, as the reflection on the water is almost as bright as the top of the photo, and a water-reflected image is supposedly 2 stops darker. However, there's nothing wrong with that.

Hey thanks Erik. I used a 2 stop grad filter on this one, and a little bit of PS to match the brightness of the mtns and reflection. But yes, you are right and now every time I look at it it bothers me - those shadows should be darker. Thx again

Hey Greg, of course the other comments above mine are correct about the shadows and blue tint. I felt sad, however, when I read your follow-up that it now bothers you. Let me point something out: this photo received many comments. I just joined this site, and I see many folks posting images hoping for some helpful comments or critique, and all they get are 3/3 ratings with nothing more. The fact this image captured the attention of so many people speaks something wonderful about it and your skill AND about your instinct. I just posted an image last night where I did something similar (bumping up the shadow area) and several people hissed at me, but I felt happy that it made them look. I encourage you to leave this image alone. Yes, there is something unnatural, but you have elevated something slightly ordinary to a work of beauty here. Also, I highly commend you on your use of the GND because you were able to avoid destroying the jagged horizon like most folks do. This image is fantastic. Cheers.

a beautiful image Greg, yes I agree with what was said above to an extent but still a magnificent capture!