Lake Erie Ice Dunes

[pasusan]

We were out hiking along the lake and I took these photos for friends and family who wanted to see what ice dunes looked like. They are certainly nothing special as far as composition, color, and lighting so I'm not really putting them up for C&C - although if anyone has any ideas how to make them better, I'm all ears.

Just thought I'd share an interesting phenomenon from the edge of our lake. Ice dunes are dangerous because folks always want to climb them - but they are very fragile and people have been known to fall in and not be able to get out...

The first photo is looking down from a bluff and the rest are from down on the shore:

[splashy]

I know there isn't much to see at ice dunes and they have little contrast, but this doesn't look good, you can do a lot better.

[Geoff F]

Yes, increasing the contrast was my first thought.

Keep the highlights just under the over exposure point and slightly increase the shadows.

Possibly, a little bit of Local Contrast Enhancement would help.

I think your biggest problem is that grey sky; which you probably couldn't do anything about.

A bright blue sky would have made the scenes more interesting.

[splashy]

Is probably how it looked like, but still next time try to find some color ( in the ice)

You used 1/500 and F3.5

If your C2100UZ allows manual settings use them, because this auto is wrong here, often camera's can't handle difficult situations like these.
Go near to the ice and you will see color in the ice.

[kdoc856]

Thanks, Susan for posting those. Quite interesting. I've spent a fair amount of time on Lake Erie but never in the winter. The ice dunes dont LOOK fragile, they look like they could withstand the weight of a tank.

[pasusan]

Thanks Mike for coming up with a more appealing picture - but I assure you everything was really grey IRL.

Also Geoff - I appreciate your suggestions - I do realize these were pretty blah and I probably shouldn't have posted them on a photography forum.

Kevin - thanks so much for being interested...

Here's another photo I took that day of stones on the shore - it's a bit more colorful:

[Shadowman]

Thanks Mike for coming up with a more appealing picture - but I assure you everything was really grey IRL.

Also Geoff - I appreciate your suggestions - I do realize these were pretty blah and I probably shouldn't have posted them on a photography forum.

Kevin - thanks so much for being interested...

Here's another photo I took that day of stones on the shore - it's a bit more colorful:

Very nice. Don't let criticism stop you from expressing yourself. Every photo cannot be a winner and what is interesting to you may not be or interest to someone else.

[Aforns]

Increasing contrast is the way to go, need to get some detail in the ice !! Usually curves will be your best option, with a layer to brush out the areas you don't want. Sure like the re post Mike !! Dramatic and great mood !!

[splashy]

It's not important how grey it was, more important you know how to handle you camera manually in those situations. Because your camera on auto will always do it wrong.
It's good to post these picture, make many people shiver and shows other parts of the world some never saw
As somebody else said 'not all are winners' but even more important many pictures look better because they are manipulated in PP.

[Geoff F]

Don't worry about posting 'uninteresting photos' Susan.

Often, a photograph which isn't perfect plus a question about what went wrong or how can this be improved, creates more interest and replies than an image which is absolutely perfect.