landscapes Consolation Lake

Spectacular scene and nice composition.

Since you posted in the critique forum, I hope you don't mind a critical comment or two.

The original scene apparently contained a very wide dynamic range, with the foreground likely in shadow and the distant peaks obviously in full sun. You have made - as I would have - some adjustments to compensate. I'm not certain whether you used a ND grad filter or did this in post-pro. (I suspect that latter.)

These are standard and pretty much required techniques with a scene like this, and it is always difficult to know how far to go in modifying the image so that it corresponds with what you saw rather than what the camera captured. (To me, and I suspect to you, the former is more significant than the latter.)

In this case, my feeling is that the processing could have been a bit more subtle. Here are a few things that I notice: On the talus slope above the lake to the right side of the frame there is a feathered border that seems too disjunct for me - the difference between the shaded foliage below the further sunlit slop and the talus slope seems too great. The foreground water also seems unnaturally light - one cue to the viewer is that the reflection of the sky is much lighter than the sky itself; the same holds true for the reflection of the peaks.

From doing this sort of adjustment on my landscapes - a lot! - I have to say that I recognize just how hard and how subjective this process is. In general, I wonder if it might be possible to tone down the foreground stuff a bit without losing the wonderful details (submerged rocks and sticks, moss on the "rock island," texture of talus rocks) that you have captured.

Take care,

Dan

Thanks for the thoughtful comments. I used a 3 stop hard ND grad and a post processing blend of two exposures from the same RAW file in an effort to deal with the enormous dynamic range in the scene. This gave me the reflection lighter than the sky phenomena that jumps out to veterans of this stuff. I did try darkening the foreground but I was losing the submerged detail that drew me to the scene. I may try another stab at even more post processing to recapture (ironically) that more natural look.

Chuck

I understand your description of processing to achieve the original view... :-)

I also use the technique you describe - shooting two (or three or even four) raw frames at different exposures, and then combining them in PS. (Though I don't combine this with the use of the ND grad - it is an either/or thing in my mind.)

One thing that sometimes works in a situation like this is to work separately on the foreground. Take the overall brightness level back down a bit, but adjust (perhaps via curves) to expand the dynamic range there a bit - in effect darkening the darkest areas a bit more than the lighter details. The use a bit of dodging on a few of the highlight details such as the rock in the foreground of the lake, etc. (Alternatively, you could also use a mask and paint out portions of it to allow a bit of a brighter layer to come through from deeper in the stack.

Tricky stuff, I know, and it really is a matter of judgment and preference how far to go with this stuff.

Take care,

Dan