new zealand Ode To Reflection

This image must be viewed large. We made a serious effort to get to

Mirror Lake as early while the lake was still. I am interested in your

critique on this result. Thanks. Larry

It's a good composition with dramatic mountain scenery. It looks a little "worked" to control the contrast. Possibly making the exposure half an hour to an hour prior to sunrise or after sunset would offer more even lighting. Regards, -Clayton

Clayton,

Thanks for your comment.  Surely, I agree about optimum times to take the image - of course, as tourists on a timeline such luxuries don't often present themselves.  Actually, the image is an HDR that I processed manually using the techniques of Harold Davis on a  tutorial posted on PN http://photo.net/learn/digital-photography-workflow/advanced-photoshop-tutorials/hdr-in-photoshop-cs5/   Hence, the "worked" look.  I find that I end up with more natural looking images using Davis' approach than the fully automated HDRs.  I'm not yet an HDR fan, but am trying to learn to use the technology.  Thanks again, Clayton.  Larry

I think your HDR approach would work here if you could eliminate the haloing on the left side in both the mountain and its reflection.

Thanks, Dave.  How do I do that?  Larry

Perfect reflection with the dramatic clouds.  Nice contract.  Very good composition. Best Regards,

I'm not sure Larry as I don't do this kind of processing.  You'd have to figure at what point in the post processing the haloing showed up and then adjust to avoid it. 

The alternative using the image as it is would be to take a soft clone brush and sample the sky immediately adjacent to the halo and then clone over it... kind of labor intensive though.  Others may have different suggestions.  Good luck!

Dave,  Thanks for your reply.  I am working on this.  I will likely need to fix the problem with the image in the HDR that caused it.  I tried cloning, and it's not clean enough.  I'm learning.  Larry

My eye for HDR is not so developed, so I actually find this image very nice. Impressive 'vista' for sure Larry!