Magestic

Wonderful image Linda - I have focused on Fall and now I see I should consider a winter day in the Rockies.

You really should take a trip through the Rockies in winter. They are always beautiful but in the winter they take on a whole new magical, winter, wonderland atmosphere. I don't do them justice. Thanks for stopping by. It's good to hear from you.

I like the crispness. I like the way the snow caresses the trees and grasses and the way those textures play against the majesty of the mountains and the serenity of the sky. I am certainly impressed by your commitment to the strong blue infiltration throughout the shadows, as if bleeding from the sky. It's a distinctive vision and suggests a kind of blending harmony of elements. For me, it doesn't really work. Hard to put my finger on it. Perhaps too much of it. Sometimes, there's no accounting for taste and we shouldn't try to explain it. That being said, I admire and respect your moxy for approaching it this way.

It's good to hear from you. Thank you for commenting. I am always interested in learning how to improve my images. I am going to post the original, unedited straight out of the camera shot and if you have the time and inclination tell me if you think the blue is oversaturated? I used a Polaroid lens, in Photoshop I did some dodging to lighten the trees to bring out the snow a bit, but other than that I didn't alter the colours. This blue is the colour of the sky in Alberta. In winter it is incredible, all you see is shades of white and blue, with black touches. It looks like a big blue dome that is pale at the horizon line and gets darker as it goes towards the centre of the sky. So, if you have any thoughts what would be a better approach it, let me know.

 

Thanks.

 

Best wishes,

 

Linda

It's hard to say not knowing exactly what your process was. The colors look much more electric and the whites much brighter in your finished than in your unedited file. Much more blue has crept into your shadows (it often happens) in the finished image. If you didn't actually do anything to alter this, then some default you have set when you bring your photos into Photoshop or somewhere in your workflow is making some fairly substantial decisions for you. It appears there has been a levels or contrast change and quite a bit of increase in color intensity from the original.

 

My tastes may run very differently from the majority of people on PN who do landscapes. I tend not to like the very saturated look and I also don't often care for what I'll call a more neon palette rather than one with a bit lighter touch.

 

Were it me, I'd work from the original which has the majesty of content that it seems you're responding to, but also the softness of how a landscape actually often feels to me. I would definitely make the snow brighter, because it's a bit gray in the original (as are the trees and grasses). So, yes, I would bring out more life than the original is showing. But if you look, for instance, at the most foreground small tree on the right bottom of your finished photo, the snow is very, very heavily blue, so much so that I thought it was a stylistic decision, a sort of hyper-real blending of the colors of the sky into the whites. If you want what we might awkwardly term a "more realistic" sense, I'd start by figuring out exactly what is accounting for the strong difference between the unedited and the finished version, why the blue has increased so much.

 

Are you using any Photoshop defaults or pre-sets that might be doing things without your actually telling them to? Do you see the strong differences I'm talking about. Sometimes, a level or curves adjustment, even with no specific color adjustments, will dramatically increase color saturation. I often adjust curves and levels and then have to rebalance and desaturate colors with the color controls and adjustments.

 

Hope this is in some way helpful.

Yes, this is very helpful. Thank you!

 

I will check into the Photoshop defaults. I have noticed this before, with the older versions and now with CS4. Sometimes I tone down images by creating a black and white layer and placing it behind the neon glow version and adjust the opacity on the colour level. This really does tone down oversaturation. I like to do it this way rather than with the desaturation control because the end result is more even. I didn't do that here, because I do love this "Big Sky Blue" so much. (I was sadly colour deprived as a child). I think I will try that too. Thanks again.

 

I will have to get over to see what you have been up to lately.

 

Take care,

 

Linda

Very impressive.  Love the light, the color and the composition.  Best Regards,