A Tranquil Moment

[Round Tuit]

My wife and I went to Lake George NY last week-end. Lake George Village is a popular tourist town on the shore of lake George in the Adirondack mountain. The main street runs along the western shore of the lake and is lined with motels, restaurants and souvenir shops. The picturesque lake is a hive of activity all day long. Paddle wheel tour boats cruise up and down the lake. Para gliders are pulled by motorboats along the far shore and hundreds of kayakers awkwardly maneuver the craft that they borrowed from their motel. All in all a fun place but definitely not tranquil.

The situation was very different when I took this picture shortly before 7:00 AM. The clouds were just starting to thin out after a night time thunderstorm. Low clouds were still clinging to the side of the mountain. The air was still and the scene was very serene. That peaceful and reflective mood is what I tried to capture.

Did I succeed?



C & C always welcomed.

Andre

[Wavelength]

I feel the space and time here...... Nice

[MrB]

Andre, the photo undoubtedly depicts a tranquil place. The image has a colour balance towards the darker blue tones which, for me, gives the scene a rather cold and dark feeling for the time and season.

Cheers.
Philip

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[Geoff F]

It is OK Andre but, for me, those bits of boats in the bottom left corner tend to spoil the overall calm scene. I'm wondering about a crop from the bottom and going to a more panoramic size ratio? Possibly a mix of crop and clone?

[Round Tuit]

Nandakumar - If my photo evokes feelings, I must be doing something right. Thanks

John - Thanks for your kind comment

Philip and Geoff - I have reworked the image to incorporate your suggestions. I have nutralised the blue cast which helped but have not changed the brightness because doing so made the mood more cheerful but less reflective. I have also cloned the boats out and cropped part of the foreground out. The more panoramic crop factor seemed somewhat unbalanced to me so I kept the original 3:2 ratio. What do you think of the result?



Andre

[MrB]

The warmer tones appeal more to me, Andre, but although the cloning works in removing the visible bits of boat, it looks rather obvious; in my opinion, with vegetation like this, cloning needs to be more randomised - a bit from here, a bit from there, so it doesn't look as though it is cloned.

Cheers.
Philip

[Geoff F]

I can accept that bit of clone, Andre. It may be possible to recognise the 'pattern' of leaves but I can't see the join.

As an alternative, I sometimes use select with the lasso, copy and paste but resize slightly so the copy version looks different from the source.

[Round Tuit]

The warmer tones appeal more to me, Andre, but although the cloning works in removing the visible bits of boat, it looks rather obvious; in my opinion, with vegetation like this, cloning needs to be more randomised - a bit from here, a bit from there, so it doesn't look as though it is cloned.

Cheers.
Philip

I agree that the cloning is very amateurish. Cloning is not a skill that I have mastered. In my defense, I can do much better but had very little time available to do it. I wanted to see the effect of hiding the boats. I intend to try again when I can do it more leisurely. Thanks for the tip.

Andre

[Round Tuit]

I can accept that bit of clone, Andre. It may be possible to recognise the 'pattern' of leaves but I can't see the join.

As an alternative, I sometimes use select with the lasso, copy and paste but resize slightly so the copy version looks different from the source.

Thanks Geoff. I did use the select, copy, paste and move approach but obviously not very well.

Andre

[IzzieK]

Andre I rather like the original colour because of the drama of the time of the day can be fooled into the shot. The warmer tone just doesn't do it justice at all...(sorry Philip. I thought the second one with the edit looks a bit garish as compared to the calmness and the drama of the bluish scene.) If you look at the difference at the water on the right side side and the clouds yonder hiding a good bit of the mountain on the original shot, it looks better than the warmer tones of #2 image. #2 image seems to have a bit of highlights at the middle of the shot, unlike the original. Just my take...no offense intended.

[Round Tuit]

Andre I rather like the original colour because of the drama of the time of the day can be fooled into the shot. The warmer tone just doesn't do it justice at all...(sorry Philip. I thought the second one with the edit looks a bit garish as compared to the calmness and the drama of the bluish scene.) If you look at the difference at the water on the right side side and the clouds yonder hiding a good bit of the mountain on the original shot, it looks better than the warmer tones of #2 image. #2 image seems to have a bit of highlights at the middle of the shot, unlike the original. Just my take...no offense intended.

Izzie,

Thanks for your insightful comments.

I don't know that I would use the word "garish" to describe the revised version but I see what you mean. The warmer tones certainly changed the character of the image. I am beginning to think however that cropping from the bottom right hand corner was a mistake that changed the mood even more that the change in white balance because it put more emphasis on the sky. Not only did it increase the relative importance of the sky versus the water but it also selected its brighter portion. I also believe that the more prominent foreground foliage has a negative impact on the overall balance of the photo.

I think that I will take a different approach to the cloning of the boats. Rather than hide them behind foliage, I will try to replace them with water and keep the original crop. I should then be able to experiment to find the white balance that works best for me.

Andre

[mknittle]

I agree with Izzie about the blue tones.

[Round Tuit]

I agree with Izzie about the blue tones.

Thanks Mark. I'll start keeping score