Top of Old Smoky all covered with snow

[Judy Howle]

Photo made Oct 29 in the Smoky Mountains after record snowfall during Hurricane Sandy. So happy that our trip coincided with the beautiful snow! 5D Mk II, 24 - 105 lens, f16, 1/125, ISO 250. Nik Color Efex 4 Tonal Contrast filter.

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[Morkel Erasmus]

nice layered view here Judy
good to see something other than waterscapes from you :w3

I do feel the image has a very "HDR" look though you didn't state that you used such algorithms? There needs to be more midtone and shadow contrast in the hills IMHO. Should be easy to fix and will define the mountains more.
Light was unfortunately a bit flat already here...

[Rachel Hollander]

Judy - that's amazing, I left the Smokies on the 28th to beat Hurricane Sandy back to NYC. I can't believe the snow as there was absolutely none there the day before and at the beginning of that weekend temps were in the 70s. I like the layered comp and nice fall colors against the snowy mountains. Good suggestions by Morkel.

TFS,
Rachel

[Judy Howle]

Thanks Morkel. I finally got to travel somewhere with interesting landscapes :w3 Actually I pumped up the contrast a good bit in the mountains already using the Lightroom brush and then Nik Tonal Contrast and then I sharpened them separately also. They were very flat before. I can try it again as I want to print this one, any other suggestions other than really applying a lot more clarity and contrast and probably then have to erase some of it over the foreground trees?


nice layered view here Judy
good to see something other than waterscapes from you :w3

I do feel the image has a very "HDR" look though you didn't state that you used such algorithms? There needs to be more midtone and shadow contrast in the hills IMHO. Should be easy to fix and will define the mountains more.
Light was unfortunately a bit flat already here...

[Judy Howle]

Wow, you missed the best part, all the lovely snow! We got there on the 27th and I photographed in the rain on the 28th and then rain or snow on the 29th - 30th and it cleared up on the 31st. Actually I made this photo on the 31st, don't know what I was thinking when I said the 29th. There was 22" at Newfound Gap and 36" on Mt. Leconte which I think is the high one on the right.


Judy - that's amazing, I left the Smokies on the 28th to beat Hurricane Sandy back to NYC. I can't believe the snow as there was absolutely none there the day before and at the beginning of that weekend temps were in the 70s. I like the layered comp and nice fall colors against the snowy mountains. Good suggestions by Morkel.

TFS,
Rachel

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Judy, lovely scene and agree with Morkel on the distant hills. Have you considered using Viveza to darken the hills and perhaps the sky. I think that might make the snow stand out more as well.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Judy,
This image is a great example where a GND filter will still be useful. It would have tamed the sky and mountains and allowed you to keep the wonderful FG as exposed. you can also try a pseudo HDR on this to see if that works. Just some more food for thought.

[Judy Howle]

Thanks for the suggestions Andrew and Roman. I'll have another go at it after the holiday and post the results as a new thread. I'd like to print it and want it to look as good as possible. I can try the grad ND filter in Color Efex, in fact I used it on my OOTB version.