Wolf Creek Pass, Colorado - Critiques Please

[PhotogJeff]

I really appreciate those who critque here in this forum. For every image I post, I try to critique a couple others. Personally, I've recieved input that has been helpful to the point that I've gone back to the image and made changes based the critique. I'm also trying to determine what views I might eventually frame for display and your comments have been helpful for that as well. Thank you.

Wolf Creek Pass, Colorado

[Jill-of-all-Trades]

I like the picture.
First thing I noticed is that the right third seems to be lighter/washed out kinda looking. It probably is just a natural thing, because not everything (grass at front, tree on extreme right) is lighter. It's just what I noticed.

[Cosha]

Love the picture, and the location looks a dream!

One thing i did notice, is the top right just about the top peak, the cloud is totaly washed out, and looks like a block of white?

Did you use an ND filter of some sort?

It would of really helped :D

[corkneyfonz]

Would have loved to have taken this, well done.

[chauncey]

I'm familar with the Wolf Creek Pass area after doing a lot of work in the Cuchara Pass area.
Your image is quite nice...except for the blown out clouds. Ya gotta figure out a way to bring them back.

[picturepages]

I dont know...something looks very unreal about this shot.
Im guessing its the processing that was done...but it gives me a slight feeling of a photoshopped oil painting.
very pretty scenery.

[jetcode]

Jeff the idea is quite good, it's a grand scenic.

It's a challenging image for a few reasons. It's busy for one. I wish the grasses either continued across the frame in the foreground or that the left side had no foreground distractions. There are OOF elements in the left side foreground. The overall color is a little on the plastic side and I am not completely sure why I am perceiving it this way. Could be a lack of coffee, morning eye drops, and various other sundry routines, LOL. OK now I understand why. The sky is slightly blown out. The mountains are printed quite well. Note also that while the sky above the clouds is blue in the reflection it is cyan in the sky. This is quite natural though the cyan may challenge since the clouds being the brightest element in the composition draw my eye to the differences.

My synopsis would be that the sky could use some balance work and the foreground on the left side of the frame could be freed from the various foreground clutter revealing the awesome reflection. I think some selective sharpening might help as well. The mountains are not quite as crisp as I would like them to be (nothing is in my world).

[PhotogJeff]

I agree with all of the critiques here. For some reason I've had a hard time putting my finger on what the problems with this image are. Thank you, you've all helped to point the problems out. I'll start (again) from square one on this one. I sure wish I'd shot this image in RAW. Jeff

[Cosha]

Jeff, do you not have a picture of a sky anywhere you could drop in?

A little Curve and levels could bring this back, no problem

It almost looks like the photo was scanned in, my monitor is out of calibration, but still looks slightly washed out?

How is it looking for everyone else?