Mountain Scenes - Take Two

[IzzieK]

I am in a time capsule here so I have not read any other poster's comments. I prefer #2 here in this series because I like the warmer colours and the composition. Beautiful place. Wonderful shot.

[Brownbear]

Thank you Irene and Izzie. Your comments and noted preferences are truly appreciated.

Izzie, the only important thing to note which doesn't require reading all the comments is the flatness of the light in the 1st image as compared to the preferred images, something to learn from.

[IzzieK]

It is not laziness this time for not reading the comments ahead of me, it is just that I do not want to muddle my opinion so much. After responding, then I read the comments ahead of me sometimes only to find out that I have to delete my comment because it resembles somebody else's...very frustrating sometimes...but I'll live...

[Nicks Pics]

Thank you Nick, Rita, Barbara and Dave!

Nick...
Your analysis of what you see is very helpful to me to see what others see, so I may learn to look at my images more objectively. And encouraging as this particular scene has been very challenging for me to learn to photograph even though the scenery is so beautiful. Yes, photographed with my Nikon D7100, a camera that I love and my only wish for this camera is for better performance at higher iso's.

Look up Mountain Light by Galen Rowell for truly inspiring images of mountain scenery.

Dave...
Thank you for the post processing tips specific to portions of the image. I have Photoshop CC and Lightroom, and will give it a try. Truly appreciated.

Thank you, I checked out some of Rowell's images, and no doubt they are certainly an art of field craft, know-how, and photoshop (at least it looks like photoshop has had a slight influence on the lighting in some of the images to me) They are worth looking at for a learning landscape photographer

[Brownbear]

My pleasure. Just to say the lighting in his images is surreal, but it is definitely real. I have the book and it is a wonderful read, and a great learning resource.

PS I'm not sure if Photoshop even existed back in the early days of his images.

Thank you, I checked out some of Rowell's images, and no doubt they are certainly an art of field craft, know-how, and photoshop (at least it looks like photoshop has had a slight influence on the lighting in some of the images to me) They are looking at for a learning landscape photographer

[Mike Buckley]

All of Galen Rowell's photos in the second edition of Mountain Light were captured during 1970 - 1985 on color slide film. (I have never seen the first edition.) The first edition was published in 1986 and the second edition was published in 1995. Adobe's website indicates that Photoshop was first released in 1990.

Every photo in the second edition is accompanied by the information explaining the tools used, such as the camera model, lens, brand and speed of the slide film and the filter. Most images were made using no filter. The following filters were used: A1, A2, polarizing and split neutral-density filters.

As for Galen Rowell's philosophy about making photographs, consider the following excerpt from page 37:

"I am intent on preserving the integrity of still photography...Above all, I want my subject matter to be part of a genuine experience rather than a scene created for the camrea or one found out of context, such as the taxi in the desert. I recognize that some of my photographs may seem unreal to people who have not experienced the many nuances of mountain light, but all are natural events."

[Nicks Pics]

All of Galen Rowell's photos in the second edition of Mountain Light were captured during 1970 - 1985 on color slide film. (I have never seen the first edition.) The first edition was published in 1986 and the second edition was published in 1995. Adobe's website indicates that Photoshop was first released in 1990.

Every photo in the second edition is accompanied by the information explaining the tools used, such as the camera model, lens, brand and speed of the slide film and the filter. Most images were made using no filter. The following filters were used: A1, A2, polarizing and split neutral-density filters.

As for Galen Rowell's philosophy about making photographs, consider the following excerpt from page 37:

"I am intent on preserving the integrity of still photography...Above all, I want my subject matter to be part of a genuine experience rather than a scene created for the camrea or one found out of context, such as the taxi in the desert. I recognize that some of my photographs may seem unreal to people who have not experienced the many nuances of mountain light, but all are natural events."

Well I'll admit I don't know much of anything about film photography, so I'll refrain from making any more comments on the Rowell mountain images were produced, other than that it probably had something to do with film choice, and development, rather than digital photoshop. One I know is that cameras, digital or film, can't capture light the same way the eyes do, and usually, with digital at least, there is a lack of contrast and vividness in an original image, as compared to a real sight, so enhancing images in those ways can make them look actually more realistic, or lifelike, usually, if done right, but photos can't be made to look exactly like a real sight, because there is a smaller range of tones and colors that can be represented.
From what (little) I know of film, there are different types of film that probably represent colors in various ways, as well as digital images can be processed in various ways, none of which are probably exactly realistic, the best you can do is intend to represent a scene true to how you think it looked, but sunsets and strange atmospheric lighting are among the most difficult scenes to represent accurately, I think, because of the extreme dynamic range, and the unusual, vivid colors.

[Brownbear]

Sorry for the delay in responding with a follow-up to the editing suggestions...

Following is my edit of image #2

Increased clarity from 10 to 20 (Grahame), increased saturation of yellows and greens, and yellow hue to bring out light on the mountain peaks (Dave), un-cropped to include the full scene followed by a crop to 16 x9 as suggested by Terri. I'm still not sure if I prefer the original as presented or the edit.

Image #1 Edited



I thought about trying an artistic merge of the scenes combining the best of all the images (Frank/Mark) but decided not to try because the challenge with photographing this scene is capturing nice light so presenting as captured feels best to me. If I had the post processing skills to create a totally surreal fantasy composite I would do so but I don't so I will keep the thought for sometime in the future.

An Additional Image #5... This is a wider scene of image #3 cropped to 16 x 9



Thank you to all! As always, truly appreciated!

[IzzieK]

These edits are both great, Christina...now you have muddled my choice with your edits...you can rest your weary soul about it. Superb shots! The clouds in#1 is more pronounced as it partly hide the manificence of white mountain in the background and so the simplicity (?) of the second one with the shadow of the clouds and the cloud at the left hand side makes this shot really good. Love it...I have seen your progress in such a short time in your shots while I am still in the struggle-mode and I can say you have done very well indeed in all of them with your patience (which I lack...)

[Bobobird]

I like them.

[Mike Buckley]

your progress in such a short time

Yes!

[deetheturk]

Very nice Christina, well captured

[Downrigger]

Simply marvelous, Christina. Such great images bring out the best in this community's potential for interesting critique, too. With such excellence you are faced with an infinite array of PP options. My teensy contribution would be to consider losing the little buoy in the lower left with a gentle clone if doing so would not offend your sense of veracity.

[Benjy]

Christina,all Belters for me...

[Whistletown Wilds]

Not qualified to critique but I like the third one down #4, Beautiful !

[Brownbear]

Thank you Izzie, Bobo, Mike, David, Mark, Bernard and Sherwood! Truly appreciated.

Izzie... I would best describe it as persistence, so keep trying. There are several images that I wish to capture that I'm still struggling with so hang in there.

Mark... Thank you for sharing. I will clone out the little buoy. There were some small bright red buoys in the water that I have already cloned out. None are important to the scene. I think I left the large buoy in simply because it is my only foreground object.

Sherwood... Thank you. Everyone is qualified to critique. I've learned a lot from making comments on others images. It is helpful to have more than one set of eyes which are typically more objective than my own, and it is also helpful to know your preference for #4.

Thank you to everyone!