Spring Snow

[LenR]

Freshly fallen snow on Aspen & Spruce following a spring snow storm 2 days ago.
Taken in the Sheep River Valley on the eastern flanks of the Kananaskis Range.

Canon 5D series, 200mm @f9, 1/250s, ISO160, 40Mb.

[Manfred M]

Sorry Len, this does not do much for me. There is no focus or area of interest per se, just a mass of snow covered trees.

What might have made an interesting image is what you show along the top, the line where the tops of the trees meet the sky.

[LenR]

Manfred, not a completely unexpected critique. Having been cooped up for so long now I was glad to be able to get out and point a camera at something. Have some shots, still to be edited, taken in landscape format that show more of the spruce against the sky.

[xpatUSA]

Manfred, not a completely unexpected critique. Having been cooped up for so long now I was glad to be able to get out and point a camera at something. Have some shots, still to be edited, taken in landscape format that show more of the spruce against the sky.

No disrespect to the scene but it would be perfect for a superimposed eagle or a landing DH Beaver w/skis ...

[LenR]

Thanks Ted, now there's a thought...... a little beyond my abilities! The only things airborne that day were search & rescue helicopters looking for a missing hiker who had been caught in the snow storm. Given the terrain, sadly like looking for a needle in a haystack.

[selig1656]

Nice, yet needs more contrast and to increase the details. How I miss Aspen, my sister lives there and my niece.Down at the bottom of Ajax.

[LenR]

Hi Raymond, appreciate you taking the time to comment.

[xpatUSA]

Thanks Ted, now there's a thought...... a little beyond my abilities! The only things airborne that day were search & rescue helicopters looking for a missing hiker who had been caught in the snow storm. Given the terrain, sadly like looking for a needle in a haystack.

I did play with it by adding a flying saucer in the GIMP and promptly lost it somehow. Was going to add a crack about the hiker being abducted ... All very jolly - i.e. English gallows humour ...

[LenR]

Hi Ted, a flying saucer........ that would have been interesting to see. Unfortunately, despite the efforts of the search and rescue teams, the hiker has not been found.

[xpatUSA]

Hi Ted, a flying saucer........ that would have been interesting to see. Unfortunately, despite the efforts of the search and rescue teams, the hiker has not been found.

Sorry to hear that, Len. Glad I didn't post after all!

[Geoff F]

I think, Len, I would be tempted to either crop closer (eg 4 x 5 ratio) and lose everything above the tops of the foreground trees or, if there was a decent sky, go wider to include more sky.

[LenR]

Thanks for the input Geoff. The sky was a uniform grey/blue when the shot was taken thus the rationale not to include too much of it in the scene. The crop you mention may have merit though.

[ripperonline]

view is very good but why the focus isn't good. quality is very poor

[DanK]

It doesn't look out of focus to me, but it's posted in such a small format that it's hard to see.

I agree with Raymond. I did a quick and dirty edit: pulled up the black point, added midtone contrast, added global vibrance (a lot), and increased saturation of the greens (which I almost never do) to bring out color contrast. It's a crude, quick edit and is probably overdone on some dimensions, but it illustrates that direction.

[LenR]

Dan, thanks for taking the time to comment and illustrate by way of edits.
As you have surmised, the focus is fine but there are of course size limitations in uploading to a CIC album.
After the initial posting, edits were revisited to increase contrast and adjust black point much as you have now suggested. Temperature was increased a little which gave a subtle boost to the yellow/greens of the aspen foliage. Will have another look at increasing the green saturation.

[xpatUSA]

view is very good but why the focus isn't good. quality is very poor

Welcome to the Forum.

Pixellation on the snow-covered branches indicates good focus.

Exactly which property of "quality is very poor"?

• Spatial Frequency Response (SFR)
• Lateral Chromatic Displacement (LCD)
• Color Uniformity
• Local Geometric Distortion
• Texture Blur
• Visual Noise
• Chroma Level.

[LenR]

Ted, thanks for the confirmation of good focus.
Waiting to see what response your other "quality" queries will elicit.

[xpatUSA]

Waiting to see what response your other "quality" queries will elicit.

Not holding my breath ...

[Wavelength]

I liked it; i liked the inclusion of strip of land and a strip of sky as borders....