The Diamond at Sunrise

[ScottO]

Hello,

This is Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain NP photographed on a trip back in September 2012.



Thanks for looking and best regards.

[ScottO]

I think I fixed this. When I woke up this morning, I looked on my phone and saw an unresolved link instead of my image. My apologies.

[xpatUSA]

Welcome to the Forum, Scott.

Some people like to zoom in to such images to see rock details and such. The posted image pixel size is too small to do that. Probably not your fault.

I found the nearby peak at camera right drawing my eye somewhat and would be inclined to tone it down ...

... or crop it out so as to affirm the major peak as the subject.



If you don't like people messing with your images, I'll be glad to delete the above illustration.

[ScottO]

Thanks for the feedback Ted; I like both ideas and will explore. Cropping wasn't something I'd considered, possibly because I've spent so much time hiking around and on those mountains, it just seems natural to include the other peak.

Regarding the image data, I saw that 700px was the max allowed for an attached image. So I just resized my original to 700 on the long side. Is 700 not the maximum, or is there something else I should do when downsizing to enable viewers to zoom in to see detail?

[Manfred M]

Nice image, but a bit too much sky for my taste. I'd like to see some of those shadow areas opened up and the bright hill on the right is drawing too much attention to itself and in my view, needs to be a bit darker.

[xpatUSA]

Regarding the image data, I saw that 700px was the max allowed for an attached image. So I just resized my original to 700 on the long side.

Understood.

Is 700 not the maximum, ...

Sorry, others here can help you with that better than I.

I myself store my pix on my own website, any size I want to, and go {img}my_url{/img} in my post text (but using square brackets, not curly).

... or is there something else I should do when downsizing to enable viewers to zoom in to see detail?

No. Once down-sampled, the detail is gone and bigger objects become the new image detail ...

Hope this helps.

[Geoff F]

Have you read this thread about uploading images, Scott?

HELP THREAD: How can I post images here?

As Ted mentioned, most of us store images elsewhere and link them into CinC.

Regarding this particular image, I tend to agree with the previous comments. It is a potentially good scene so worth spending a bit of extra time to get everything perfect.

If you can't successfully lighten that dark foreground I would consider a bit of a crop to reduce the amount of dark area. Maybe this scene will end up more like a widescreen size after cropping some of the sky as well?

[ScottO]

Hi Geoff,

I did read the help thread for posting images. I'm putting my images up on a SmugMug site I recently started. I just figured out how to get a link that resolves to a jpeg. When I made the original post, I'd only seen the non-jpeg link to the light box view on SmugMug, so figured I couldn't use that.

[ScottO]

Here's an updated version. Thank you Ted, Manfred and Geoff for the suggestions.



I darkened the right side; lightened the shadows along the bottom and left middle as well as bumping the contrast and clarity too. Too much, not enough? All the cropping came off the top and right. Also lightened the clouds a tiny bit; hopefully helps with the crop to make the sky more of a plus than a minus.

It is a potentially good scene so worth spending a bit of extra time to get everything perfect.

I agree. I recently decided to start working on my images with the intent to print and get them up on my walls, instead of just on my computer. Hence my visit to this forum for feedback. Hopefully I'll remain committed, and for better or worse, you all will be exposed to more of my images.

If you can't successfully lighten that dark foreground I would consider a bit of a crop to reduce the amount of dark area. Maybe this scene will end up more like a widescreen size after cropping some of the sky as well?

As it turns out, after a variety of crops, my current favorite - this update - happens to be 16x9.

Thanks again everyone.

[DanK]

Scott,

Nice image.

Somewhere near the right edge of Ted's crop is where I gave up in 1970. We had a bad case of lowlanders' altitude sickness, and my college roommate, who was hiking with me, had disappeared into the distance to throw up his breakfast. Some other lowlanders I didn't know where huddled together, and I noticed that their lips were blue. I took that as a sign and turned around.

I'd suggest going back to square one with an image like this, rather than jumping right to questions like "how should I crop"? One of the most fundamental questions is: "where do I want the viewer's eye to go?" In this case, I assume that the answer is the rock face. If so, then the material left around it should serve some purpose with respect to that--e.g., frame the subject or have lines that lead into it. Additional material that draws the eye away from the subject is counterproductive. I think that's the principle underlying both Manfred's comment about the sky and Ted's about the bright rock on the right. When something draws the eye away from where you want it to go, you have to remove it or tone it down, e.g., by burning.

Dan

[ScottO]

Thanks Dan.

I'm guessing you were doing the keyhole route on Longs. In 2003, my wife, 12 year old daughter and I climbed that route. We made it all the way around to the other side of the mountain to the base of the homestretch. Only about 100m below the summit. We all felt good and had plenty of energy, but unfortunately a thunderstorm was rapidly approaching so we made the prudent decision to turn back. I think it was a good choice since shortly after getting back through the keyhole the rain and sleet arrived. Fortunately the lightening held off until we were nearing the treeline. I never attempted Longs again but my wife and daughter successfully summited 2 year later.

Good point about drawing the viewer's eye being the more fundamental question. I think my personal bias and familiarity with Longs and its nearby siblings causes a bit of tunnel vision. Hence I never really considered cropping the original image. It seemed natural from my perspective to fully include Storm Peak as my eyes have been drawn to views like that from all directions over years of hiking in the park. But if I'm presenting images beyond the audience of me, I probably need to concentrate more on the truly basic questions like drawing the eye.

Best regards

[Cantab]

... It seemed natural from my perspective to fully include Storm Peak as my eyes have been drawn to views like that from all directions over years of hiking in the park. But if I'm presenting images beyond the audience of me, I probably need to concentrate more on the truly basic questions like drawing the eye.

Scott, I think this is an important point.
In an earlier post you mentioned making prints to go up on your own walls. If you're printing for your personal future enjoyment (including bringing back surrounding memories), what works best for you (and your wife) should perhaps be the most important criterion.
But if you're printing with a view to outside consumption, then other criteria presumably gain increased importance.