Lake Tahoe shots - comments requested

[bcstanford]

Been a while since I posted here, but then it's been a while since I was able to go out on an expidition with my camera...

I went on a road trip to Tahoe yesterday and took a few dozen shots, and I've posted my favorites to my gallery (http://www.pbase.com/bcstanford/lake_tahoe).

I haven't retouched any of them yet (except the panorama, and that was done hastily with the intention of going back and doing it again more carefully later). I humbly seek the wisdom of you fine people for suggestions on post-processing before I get started.

Comments on the composition and quality of the shots are welcome to!

http://www.pbase.com/bcstanford/lake_tahoe

[rammy]

Brian, very good effort.

Apart from #3, the others land area seem a little underexposed. Did you meter predominately off the sky? An expanse of water in a shot also reflects a lot of light and can fool metering systems sometimes.

For your PP, I would recommend a selective levels and curves adjustment on the land and a faux ND Grad on the sky. Try using a coral or warming filter on the foliage (after leveling) to add some punch to the colours.

Composition is ok; some better lead in lines and certainly foreground interest would help. Otherwise crop the bottom off the ones where there is not much "interest" at the bottom. This is of course subjective and others hopefully will comment their appreciation :)

I keep looking at the bottom right of #1 east shore and keep thinking about those rocks/boulders. Could have made interesting foreground interest, if you could have reached them ;)

[bcstanford]

Thanks for the comments. Actually I could have gotten down to those rocks... in fact, I did for a different series of pics that focused on the rocks instead of the shoreline. Why I didn't think to use them as foreground interest for the landscape... well I guess I'm just out of practice. :)

I tend to like my photos to be a little on the dark side, but some of these did come out a little darker than I would have preferred. I need to learn to trust the histogram instead of the LCD monitor, because the LCD always makes the shots look brighter and more washed-out than they really are. Also, I was using a circular polarizer and adjusting it after the camera took it's meter readings (I was metering off the landscape), which in retrospect probably wasn't the best method.

This was mostly a "get reaquainted with my camera" outing, so all in all I'm pretty pleased with the shots. I appreciate your suggestions and I'll keep them in mind next time I go out landscape hunting. :)