Lake McDonald Sunset Reflections

As I was driving back toward park headquarters after an evening shoot

along a creek, I saw the sunset on the lake along with a perfect

roadside pullout. That split second decision to stop lead me to this

scene, which may be the best of the day. The photo is an HDR. All

comments and critiques welcome. View large for best clarity.

My initial reaction, even to the thumbnail, was that the colors look a bit off, especially the relative degree of brightness.  I suspect much of that is due to HDR, although I can understand that approach when shooting into the sun.  I think the brights may still be too bright.  It would be nice to see a single shot, one in which the brightness of the foreground would be reduced substantially (the shrub is likely to be a silhouette), but color would be retained in the reflections and some of the rocks.  I'd expect to see the ridge behind which the sun is setting to be just a silhouette, but the color in the sky should be better.

Thanks for the critique. Personally, since I was there and saw the scene in person, I think the colors are almost exactly perfect. It was still early in the sunset (due to the hills), and the colors were not very intense. It was relatively daylight ambient light, too. I agree that with a single shot exposure to be correct the bushes would have to be silhouettes, but that's why I used HDR in order to make the photo match the real life scene as close as possible.

Best regards David!

PDE

David, I'll always defer to eyes that were there (like yours) over eyes that are just guessing based on memories of similar experiences (like mine).  Frankly, the only thing that really gives me a solid clue that this is an HDR is the green in the foreground shrub.

Another thing to keep in mind is although when you are standing there and look down at the shrub it may not look very dark, when you stare at the sky or whatever is in the center on the frame, and "look" at the shrub with your peripheral vision it probably will look a bit darker. Something I tend to forget about when thinking about what a scene looked like in person vs on camera.

This is a wonderfully composed shot, I do agree to an extent with the other poster, it looks a little bright for a sunset photo, also most everything looks about the same brightness/contrast except for that clump of pines on the left. The HDR looks good, but I'm curious to see what a single frame looks like, or some different settings when making the hdr that has a touch more contrast.