Winter in the mountains

[Melody Travnick]

[mugge]

I like the composition well enough. Maybe push the white point to the right a fair bit. That is making the snow whiter than it is in this image.
Cheers Ole

[dje]

Hi Melody

I like the composition too. I'd also like to see the whites made whiter and the darks made darker. You can do this with the Levels tool (slide the right and left hand markers in to the edge of the histogram area). I also think the White Balance is off, the snow is not white but has a blueish tint. Increase the color temperature to achieve better white balance. Finally I think the image would benefit from a 3:2 crop which means some of the top and bottom would be cropped out.

Dave

PS: What would I know about snow where I live

[Shadowman]

Nice effort, agree with others about the tonal values.

[DanK]

I agree with the others. A nice, peaceful image that could benefit from some tuning.

In case this is new to you, I thought I would illustrate these comments. If you are not new to this, please ignore.

First, look at the histogram for your image:



You can see that the tonal range from darkest (left) to brightest (right) is limited, particularly at the bright end. That results in a lack of contrast and pop. So, as a first step, I did what Dave suggested and dropped the white point a good bit and raised the black point a bit to increase the tonal range. That yields this:



Better, but still somewhat lacking in contrast, so I added contrast by imposing an S-shaped curve with the curves tool:



Finally, I warmed it up to correct the overly blue white balance and cropped, more on the top than the bottom:



These are all quick-and-dirty edits, and they are all probably off from what I would really want, but they illustrate what the others were suggesting.

[xpatUSA]

I like the scene, Melody. Looks like your Rebel had everything on auto, including white balance ...

I took the liberty of incorporating some comments to date:



The main thing to my eye is the exposure. In Auto, your camera metering will try to make the average brightness mid-gray which it succeeded admirably in your original (a luminance value of 118 out of 255). With large areas of brightness (snow, sky, white paint) in an image, most of us will apply some exposure correction (EC) before shooting - for this image, between +1 and +2 EV at a guess.

I would recommend reading up on histograms (see top left of above images) which are very useful when examining exposure and maybe your Rebel can show one on the LCD before or after shooting ...

The next thing would be white balance. The Rebel's Auto mode tried to make everything an average of gray but couldn't cope with the snow, which is a large area illuminated by what looks like an overcast sky, and "Overcast WB" would have worked much better for you, I reckon.

As to focus, it looks like the camera picked on the house or perhaps the trees just behind. That is a good thing because the trees and power lines (aka clutter) in the foreground are fortuitously out of focus.

[Melody Travnick]

Thank you, all for the tips. Being a professional driver, we don't get the chance to stop, so for the most part all of my landscapes are done while the truck is moving, including all of the bumps along the road. Not that I am using this as an excuse, but just a statement that its not that easy while going down the road, lol. I am highly glad for the way some of my pictures turn out, out of all the hundreds if not thousands of pictures that are taken most of them turn out very blurry. There are other pictures that I wish I could have uploaded but they were uploading side-ways, not sure why. I enjoy taking pictures and loading them, an seeing where I could either improve or see how changing the color spectrum on the photos that could help the picture.


There is one other driver that I know of that does the same thing, which has inspired me to try harder and to keep at it. Seeing everyone's photos, makes me try and see things in an even more different perspective, an to try an capture it.

Even though I still have a beginners camera package (one's you can buy online), I am still getting to know, understand an play with all the different settings which, I really had no idea about at all. I thought most people just went around taking pictures, I didn't know they had to know about; f-stop, lighting, shutter speed, ISO, etc. this has really opened my eyes and brings on a challenge for me to work and try to master, an all of your tips are helping. Thanks again!!

[george013]

Thank you, all for the tips. Being a professional driver, we don't get the chance to stop, so for the most part all of my landscapes are done while the truck is moving, including all of the bumps along the road. Not that I am using this as an excuse, but just a statement that its not that easy while going down the road, lol. I am highly glad for the way some of my pictures turn out, out of all the hundreds if not thousands of pictures that are taken most of them turn out very blurry. There are other pictures that I wish I could have uploaded but they were uploading side-ways, not sure why. I enjoy taking pictures and loading them, an seeing where I could either improve or see how changing the color spectrum on the photos that could help the picture.


There is one other driver that I know of that does the same thing, which has inspired me to try harder and to keep at it. Seeing everyone's photos, makes me try and see things in an even more different perspective, an to try an capture it.

Even though I still have a beginners camera package (one's you can buy online), I am still getting to know, understand an play with all the different settings which, I really had no idea about at all. I thought most people just went around taking pictures, I didn't know they had to know about; f-stop, lighting, shutter speed, ISO, etc. this has really opened my eyes and brings on a challenge for me to work and try to master, an all of your tips are helping. Thanks again!!

Did you take them through your window? That would explain the strange colours.

George

[FootLoose]

There is some serious fringing on the trees in the foreground. I wonder it that is also the result of shooting through the windscreen?

[William W]

I like the scene, Melody. Looks like your Rebel had everything on auto, including white balance ...

and

. . . I am still getting to know, understand an play with all the different settings which, I really had no idea about at all. I thought most people just went around taking pictures, I didn't know they had to know about; f-stop, lighting, shutter speed, ISO, etc. this has really opened my eyes and brings on a challenge for me . . .

In the first instance, I advise that you should understand and appreciate that by setting the ISO you will then be able to dictate the RANGE of Aperture and Shutter Speeds which you can use.

In this image, as with your Portrait “Jim and our girl Cocoa”, which I critiqued, if you’d taken control and selected an ISO, for example ISO400, then the RANGE of choice of Shutter Speed and Aperture would have allowed for a better technical execution and more control of the Image Quality, for specific examples you could have used a faster Shutter Speed to arrest the impact of driving fast on the highway and over bumps and any wind factor in the trees,(#1) secondly you could have used the lens closer to F/8~F/9, where it exhibits a better image quality than at F/5.6 especially at the edges: the quality at the edges is arguably more important, generally, for Landscape Work than they are, generally, for Portraiture.

WW

Technical Footnote:
(#1) I understand that the lens has IS (Image Stabilization), even if IS were engaged (and I didn't check that, but assume it was), IS will not account for wind moving trees, nor for the (panning) motion blur of the foreground caused by the moving vehicle; additionally IS will (can) only achieve so much regarding the 'bumps' on the road.

[William W]

There is some serious fringing on the trees in the foreground. I wonder it that is also the result of shooting through the windscreen?

Maybe, but my first guess is not.

Using F/5.6 on that lens, at 32mm is more likely the (main) cause:

At FL = 32mm F/5.6 the lens is close to being wide open. The tree in question is situated at the edge of the frame; and in front of an overexposed white background. This presents the perfect storm for the Purple Fringing as a result of that Lens's typical Chromatic Aberration.

That question answered, it is always best practice to NOT to shoot through windows or glass, if that is possible to do.

WW

[William W]

Did you take them through your window? That would explain the strange colours.

George

I definitely don't think so.

It is much more likely an in camera Auto White Balance not being able to correctly interpet the actual Colour Temperature of the Scene, as Ted has described.

That stated: it is always best practice to NOT to shoot through windows or glass, if that is possible to do.

WW