Mountain Mountain

Rick, it's funny sometimes that it's a regular occurrence for people to mistake my most processed images for my least processed, and the other way around.

Harry, all the time.  But in moderation.  I don't dislike magenta. 

My two cents on this image. Firstly, big fan. Like Stephen, your processing is almost tradmark, to the point, I notice others who have adopted your techniques. Huge compliment to you. I think it began with your sharpening, not sure. This image is to the point it is so perfect that its unreal to me. My mind looks for things that I can categorize as being normal, so my bias is with limitations of film photography. As others have pointed out your stuff is out of this world good, and coupled with your processing, head and shoulders above the rest. With this image, having taken at least four trips or views, I would wager a bet that my bias is to associate the foreground with being darker than the peaks, where the lighting seems so even, it isn't anything that I'm calibrated for. You may have blown my mind with this one. :)

Marc,

First, I like the image a lot.  I think my earlier post stated that.  I also said it looked surreal and artificial.  As we are all aware these things are totally subjective, so this is just my impression.  I am sure you and others disagree - which is fine.  But since you posted this and asked for critique, I obliged.  But to further elaborate since you asked - my reference point and favorite landscape photographers are David Muench and Jack Dykinga.  Their work is generally very different than yours and in my HUMBLE opinion is much more realistic of what I would see in nature.  For no reason what so ever , I like this style more.  That being said I really like the images you create, I just gave you my honest opinion about them.  

John

I certainly thank you for that, John.  I think that when we become seasoned in viewing photographs, we develop an eye for what we believe the relationship is between the photographic image itself and what we actually see.  Since cameras are not designed to see exactly as the eye does, we have to interpret, and the root of this interpretation is that relationship.   This, of course, is subjective.  My influence in realism is as much painterly as it is photographic, maybe in part because in painting, there is no technical limitation aside from the 2-dimensional medium itself.  The most realistic interpretation a painter might develop from a scene like this probably wouldn't look much like that of former film purists like Dykinga or Muench, but among those who are photographers foremost, many are more inclined to find the 'truest' relationship between the subject and the capture nearest to the image that comes strait our of the camera.  If you asked someone who was a Hudson River School enthusiast, and not a photographer, which looked more 'real', the answer might more often be something like this.  So in turn, it seems to be the medium we are most familiar with plays a role in our perception of the 'real'.  I personally can't tell what's real unless I'm actually standing there looking at it.  There wasn't that much yellow in the sky....   :-)

Stunning!  Absolutely Stunning.

Stunning image Marc.  Thanks for explaining your field technique.  You successfully brought together the best parts of all of the different images and blended them into a beautiful photo.  Having the foresight in the field to control for all of the limitations of the camera is what really sets you apart from most photographers IMO.  I'm with Rick on this one...and don't feel the image appears to be overprocessed by any means.  If you had not stated that there are parts of 7 different photos here, I would have never known.

This is a beautiful picture. I like the way you framed the peaks with the trees(both sides and bottom), and the colors in the sky . Your use of the creek bed to pull the viewer into the picture works well .Tho the color streaks of the leaves  in the creek don't seem to fit with the still ones next to(just to either side of the streaks)  and the 2 or3 in the streaks. I'm one that needs things to make sense, like Spock from star trek. I need logic,and moving leaves with stationary ones in the middle of and next to without something holding them stopped, in  my mind are illogical    . Thus I would give a 5.5 maybe a 6 the way it is . I think a 7 with out the streaks  but that's just my opinion for what it's worth.  Pat

If the picture is excellent, better is the explanation. Congratulations

Wow, skillful, beautifully created and fantastic result. I enjoyed reading about how you created it.  Having a signature style is a great thing, too, I think it's a characteristic of any artful photographer.  I only wish your photos could be larger to view them in more detail/ larger.  But I'm guessing you have a reason for not doing so. Regards,

Just love the colors, composition and waterflow :)

This is the clever way to make the photo!

I don't see how you would defend and then admit it is a fake?

I know Marc didn't write the post dated 12/16 at 11:00 p.m., and I'm quite sure he didn't write this last one, either (12/17 @ 10:55).  They will be reported and should be ignored.

An absolutely stunning photograph. I am grateful that what you have been able to accomplish with the work you do (pre-vis and post processing included) is to produce an image that gives me the feeling of what it must have been like to really be there. To see the stream pulling the leaves along and feel the breeze and bask in the glow reflected from the rocks. So often in photography the capture falls short of the experience of being there and whenever I look at a photo of yours I feel almost like I've visited the place myself. Thanks for that!

Hi Marc,

Its is very enlightening of you (excuse the pun) to provide such a detailed explanation of how, in this case, you ‘assemble’ the image. Having to consider all those individual elements within just 30 secs to create what is a stunning image is truly a work of art and genius.

Taking this one step further, I would love to see a screen shot of the layers palette you have used in PS for this image to further illustrate and teach ‘the rest of us’ how we can improve on our own workflow. Thanks

Looks Geat! Well Done.