Looking for photography advice on Rocky Mountain pictures!

Can a mod/admin please delete this thread/posts.

Thank you.

I like the second photo much better than the first one. Camera/lens?

The roofs in the foreground are somewhat distracting from the mountains, which I assume was your subject?

Are these SOOC? They're good shots, just need some punching up.

I would suggest opening in ACR and bring out the highlights and lift the shadows a bit. Then saturate a little.

Ignoring the houses in the first one, I like it better than the second. The second has a lot of things in it and I'm not sure what the eye supposed to be drawn to. In the first one the trees form a natural frame for the distant peaks.

Keep working on your composition skills. None of us is born knowing this stuff.

While a wide angle lens is often the right choice landscape photos you would be surprised how often a telephoto lens comes in handy when shooting landscapes in the Rockies. Often the wide angle lens makes the foreground prominent while diminishing the peaks in the distance. You can see how that came into play with your two images. In the first shot your foreground was a bit cluttered and uninteresting and the distant peaks are less impressive in the shot than they are to the naked eye. The second shot works better because there are elements of interest in the meadow and some leading lines that draw your eye to the peaks.

I'm pretty sure I know where these were taken and a longer lens would have made the peaks a bigger element while still allowing you to keep some foreground elements.

The photo you found is more vibrant and has highlights more pronounced. I can show you my edit if you'd like.

ruffsnap wrote in post #18952388
Additional question based on this image I found.

So I'd say the right image in the attached picture is very similar to the shot I took.

Why is it better (if it is)? Cause they look very similar to me as far as what the shot is of.

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Again, as you have already noticed personal opinion comes into this.

As to your question, the pic you found posted on the right has a definite point of interest (something your eye gravitates too immediately).
Your image, unfortunately does not. There is too much going on, no true focal "look at me".

This leads to gonzogolf and his commentary around telephoto lenses.

ruffsnap wrote in post #18952161
This is where I start getting confused, with the person above you commenting seemingly the opposite of you in regards to the 2nd shot lol!

Though I'm sure personal taste/subjectivity comes into all of this!

And yeah ideally I'd have zoomed in a bit more on the mountains for some shots, but I never got close enough/don't have a super good quality zoom lens to achieve that. (I do have the Nikon P900 which is fun, but the quality is definitely not up to par of dedicated zoom lenses!)

I'm not sure the advice is as contradictory as you might think. The first shot includes more beautiful mountains, but they aren't photographed particularly well. The beautiful snowcapped peaks are surrounded by some man made crap and that's what the commenter above was referring to. I suggest that the second shot while containing a less impressive set of mountain peaks is more successful as photo because it looks like you made at least a minimal effort to compose it. There might have been more potential in the first scene, but it looks like you made a simple snapshot not caring if there were clutter in the foreground.

But back to my main point, had you shot it at a longer focal length the interesting part of the mountain would take up 60% of the scene instead of 10%. As for not having a super good zoom lens, a better composition is more important than the quality of your gear in 99% percent of photography.

Finally, while you found a vaguely similar photo to compare yours with, in fact there isn't much of a comparison there. The scene you found has a discernible main subject that fills a good portion of the frame. Your scene didn't have that and no amount of craftsmanship on your part was going to make your photo look like that one. I think one thing you might be struggling with is that your photos aren't capturing the majesty that your eyes saw when you were visiting. That's not uncommon. I live in the mountains, literally on the side of Pike's Peak, and I drive daily on some roads that have tremendous views that don't translate well into photos. Something gets lost on the act of framing and flattening a vista that renders it less than you see with the naked eye. That's just how it is with some scenes in the mountains.

Of the 2, I like your 2nd photo better.

1st image, the high contrast resulted in the sky being very bright, and Long’s Peak is washed out, kind of lost.

2nd image, that looks like Moraine Park, which in many areas does not have significant foreground elements to anchor a wide shot, and then the mtns get lost. I agree with others that a tighter framing would help. Perhaps cropping out part of the foreground or part of the sky may help.

Hope you enjoyed Estes.