IMG_1320.JPG

I really only took this (cliche) photograph for a snapshot, but when I got home I

realized the recent (actually still occurring off and on) had created a nice scene, but I

wasn't really paying attention because I was just killing time waiting for the snow to

pass in another location.

I think I blew the exposure. I'm thinking I *could* have done better with a grad-ND.

What would you have done?

I would have wanted to decrease the exposure at the top, increase the contrast at the top, and sharpen the focus at the top.  I'd want to increase the exposure at the bottom.  That might best be done by combining different exposures and different points of focus.  It's a lot more work than a single click, but worth the effort IMO.

Unfortunately, I shot this in JPEG (three or four days in and I was running out of CF cards), handheld, and only made three or four exposures, all with the same settings. I'm not skilled at post-processing, mostly because I've shied away from more than very mild adjustments. I'm generally not satisfied with the look of HDR, but I do like the look of focus-stacking. Of course, I don't have the images to use for any significant manipulation.

I was able to make a black and white image I'm satisfied with for my own purposes. Still not ideal, but again, it was really just a snapshot while waiting for the storms to pass.

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=16498987