Hot spring by Yellowstone lake, MT

Needed some feedback on CPL use. Would you use a CPL in this situation or not? Please CC on composition as well.

First off, the exposure is definitely under, could use some brightening.

I do believe a CPL would have allowed a more vibrant color capture. Is this PP, or SOOC? I think you could work with it as-is honestly, working with your camera raw sliders first and foremost.

Crop the pot on the bottom off.. it doesn't add to the image.. and bring your blues back down a little - clouds should be white rather than blue.

Is it just me, or am I seeing heavy pixels/blocking in this?

Flo wrote in post #14931806
Is it just me, or am I seeing heavy pixels/blocking in this?

I did notice the sky's color gradient seems rather blocky rather than smoothly progressive...if that's what you're referring to. If you look closely it looks like (roughly guessing) 50 pixels of a shade of blue, another 50 pixels of a darker blue, and so forth, rather than a smooth and progressive transition.

Flo wrote in post #14931806
Is it just me, or am I seeing heavy pixels/blocking in this?

I see them too.

RevvdImages wrote in post #14931884
I did notice the sky's color gradient seems rather blocky rather than smoothly progressive...if that's what you're referring to. If you look closely it looks like (roughly guessing) 50 pixels of a shade of blue, another 50 pixels of a darker blue, and so forth, rather than a smooth and progressive transition.

erikfig wrote in post #14932228
I see them too.

Ok,just asking because I saw them in another post, but it seemed no one else did.

I think a CPL is good here - it looks like the sun is to the right. I'd clone out the weed twigs in the center that cross the lake. Composition looks OK to me. If you crop the bottom pot then the horizon will be centered and I'd avoid that. As mentioned, it is a little dark though.