clouds in the mountains

[madhg]

http://www.pbase.com/image/6442631/

[ltdedorc]

Madhg,

Great shot. I especially like the effect of the 'clouds' in the valley, the stream fading into the distance and the sheep(?) grazing in the fields along that winding path. Personally, I would rubber stamp out the 3 transmission towers on the ridge and crop to a 4" x 6" ratio to eliminate some of the top of the photo and high clouds to emphasise the low laying clouds...Harvey

[madhg]

ltdedorc wrote:
Personally, I would rubber stamp out the 3 transmission towers on the ridge and crop to a 4" x 6" ratio to eliminate some of the top of the photo and high clouds to emphasise the low laying clouds...Harvey

I'll try cropping more of the sky, thanks for the suggestion. As for the pylons (UK for transmission towers) - I got so used to seeing them in the most apparently remote parts of the Alps that they now seem just part of the scenery.

David

[Leighow]

DAVID


Terrific shots.

#1: Yup this is a beauty ! Just like a boiling caldron. Dry Ice on stage. I think that I might try to boost the sense of sun in the foreground green. Not a complaint, just an instinct that it would broaden the color impact. Possibly I would sharpen a tad too.

#2: Tough -- you had to play the hand that the weather dealt you! Can't all be aces.

#3: Great...what can you do if the clouds don't cooperate. All you can do (it seems to me) is wait for a break -- the way you might wait for a sunset , night after night after night! Exposure looks fine.

TY

HOWIE

[ltdedorc]

David,

I did something along the lines of what Howie suggests but I really didn't like it so I didn't mention it. That was to increase the saturation & hue (to a lesser degree). Altho it brought out some nice yellow & tinge of orange in the foreground & depth to the overall picture which was nice, it added to much blue in the mountains for my sake.

http://a3.cpimg.com/image/2D/7D/13836333-d6ac-02000155-.jpg

My 1st guess was the Alps, next the Rockies here in the U.S. My 1st trip to Europe was earlier this year in May and it reminded me of what we saw going from Italy > Austria > Switzerland > Germany...Harvey

[Conk]

Absolutely beautiful shot. Makes me want to visit the Black Tusk again near Lake Geribaldi, Squamish B.C.

[Leighow]

DAVE

1: Pick up the lasso

2: Lasso the green turf in next to the foreground -- but hide your path in the blacken shadow areas (and of course travel off-screen at the outer image edges.

3: Increase brightness +15 and yellow hue +20. (I did not take time to try greens or lightening any added color)

4: See what you think

I think that it is adds enormously to the image, and better balances the overall composition.

HOWIE

[madhg]

I edited the picture last night following Harvey's suggestion (before reading Howie's more detailed advice). I cropped a bit off the top, used magic wand in PSElements to select the sunlit grass, brightened it a bit and added a bit more green but not much. The light at the time was quite hazy so I didn't want to overdo it.

New version is
http://www.pbase.com/image/6493439

sitting next to the original.

Thanks for your helpful comments guys. I've learned a lot in the last year from the other forums on this site, and now I'm learning from this.

David

[eland]

Hi
Your picture has lots of potential.
Beautiful cloud effects and great scenery.

For me, though the composition is still unbalanced.
Lots of excellent action and movement on the right but the top left quadrant is bland and uninteresting.

There are a few ways to help this problem.
The easiest is to crop off some of the left side and then put a dark border around the image to "hold in" the weaker areas.

A more elaborate way is to clone in some clouds to balance the image.
Or, using a wet darkroom technique, 'burn in' the top left corner. ie darken it.

The meadow area I feel needs brightening and perhaps sharpening.
(As suggested by others, I'd also remove the pylons.)

So, the potential is there . If you want to exercise your image editing skills you could have a lot of fun and derive much satisfaction, and also learn a lot about composition balance in the process.

As you no doubt know, work on a duplicate image, not on your original. That way disasters don't matter and are put down to experience.

Clicking the shutter is frequently only the first step.

Kind regards
eland