A New Day

Hello! I am hoping to have this photo critiqued. The specs on it are as follows...It was shot with my D5100 on automatic, so I am not sure what the aperture or shutter speed are. (I will edit if I find them) It was also shot as a JPEG image, as I didn't know about raw at the time.

I have some photography training and I believe I did a good job framing the mountain and also that the rule of thirds is followed well. (Those are the two things ingrained on my mind)

I was hoping to get a waking up kind of feel to the photo, and I used Lightroom to do the editing. It was my first time using that software so I know it isn't the best.

Personally I think I went a little too heavy on the blacks and shadows (clouds), and I find the golden hue in the right distracting (it is cloud coverage over another mountainside).

I am looking for any feedback on anything about the photo. I am wanting to improve my skill, and know that you all can help.

Thanks!!

The blue sky I find distracting. I would try to convert this picture in B&W and add a little contrast just in the dark areas to give the trees a little more texture.

I like the composition but find the color just drags my eyes away from the mountain that should be the center of interest.

Am I right in thinking you de-saturated everything except the sky? If so, I would like to see what it looked like when it had all its color in place.

Marcel said:

The blue sky I find distracting. I would try to convert this picture in B&W and add a little contrast just in the dark areas to give the trees a little more texture.

I like the composition but find the color just drags my eyes away from the mountain that should be the center of interest.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice! Now that ypou mention it I agree. I was trying to bring out more blue in the sky, but I can see it being a beautiful B&W shot too. I'll have to try it out!

Mojo Dave said:

Am I right in thinking you de-saturated everything except the sky? If so, I would like to see what it looked like when it had all its color in place.

Click to expand...

Hi Dave, the original photo can be found HERE, on the lanscapes thread. I did de-saturate the landscape, and truth be told, I didn't realize I sucked all the color from the trees! I tinkered with settings until the blue came through, because I found the color to be very pale on the shot.

i agree that this would look better with some contrast in a black and white conversion. Black and white is all about contrast and these types of scenes work well. Just ask Ansel Adams!

I would strongly recommend avoiding a simple "desaturation". It won't do your image any justice. You need to push the contrast (black and white points) a bit as well as do some selective "color" manipulation to make it pop.

I took the liberty of converting your image in Nik Silver Efex Pro and also added a little sharpening. Bare in mind that it's not the original image so it's not perfect but it should give you an idea of what it would look like. If you don't want me modifying your images, just let me know and I'll delete it out of the post.

Hope that helps!

Jeff

Hey Jeff!

Thanks for the tip! To be honest I didn't intend to do the desaturation of the color on the one shove. I was editing under a yellowish light and it threw stuff off (well that and my inexperience with the software ). And by all means, feel free to edit my pics to help explain your point. I don't mind at all, I'm here to learn and it can only help.

Last night I took the liberty to use the advice of going with black and white and this is what I came up with. It's far from perfect, but a good first attempt I think. Although I think there is a tad too much contrast on the rock faces of the mountain and on the trees in the foreground. (I appologize if this shows up huge, I'm doing it from my phone)