Grand Tetons

[Kerry Perkins]

Hello all, I'm sticking my toe in the landscape water again... I have recently retired, so I'm hoping to be able to travel to some good locations and vastly improve my landscape skills. This one is actually from four years ago when I visited YSNP. This day was cloudy and rainy and I was dismayed to have no sun, so I tried an HDR approach. The three images are +/-1 EV, centered on 1/60. The image could be sharper, but all I had to work with at the time was the 50D and the kit lens. I have much better gear now, so looking forward to getting out there and making better images. Thanks in advance for your feedback!

50D, EF28-135mm f/3.5-5.6@28mm
Manual mode, f/16@1/60 ISO 100 WB 5400K
AI Servo autofocus, hand-held no flash

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Kerry - Congrats on your retirement! A nice classic view of Oxbow Bend. Well composed with a decent reflection and a nice amount of snow. To me however, it looks over processed and lacking detail. I'd like to see a post of the original image for comparison sake. Looking forward to you jumping in to landscapes and not just sticking your toe in :S3:.

TFS,
Rachel

[John Ippolito]

Hi Kerry - a beautiful iconic composition that I think has a lot of potential from the TIF or RAW. I really like the reflection, clouds, and the gentle ripple of the water.

I made a quick go at a couple of luminosity masks and NIK Viveza to bring out a bit more in the forest and the sky, reduced overall saturation. Hope you don't mind, and sorry if I ruined it:S3:

[Don Railton]

Hi Kerry.

Congratulations on the retirement...! looking forward to that day myself, and with the same intentions...

I like this image a lot, nice clouds, mountains and a big still lake in front of it all..Wonderful. I like what John has done with the trees especially... My only thoughts were that the blue tinge at the base of the mountains was a bit strong, but I don't know if that is real or not in this sort of country. In Australia we have on the east coast the Blue mountains, apparently named because of the blue haze created by the Eculypt oil in the air from all the gum trees on the mountain... maybe that happens here as well?

thanks

DON

[Kerry Perkins]

Thanks so much for your comments! John, you really brought out the best in the image - thanks so much. I'll revisit the original images and see if I can follow the same path. I do believe the blue is much more natural in John's version too. Thanks again, looking forward to this challenge...

[Morkel Erasmus]

Good to see you here, Kerry. Congrats on the retirement...I expect to see you here as you travel more often then :5
I like the composition and soft overcast light. I do feel the saturation/vibrance of your OP is a bit too much, John's RP sorted that out. There also seems to be a lack of fine detail (see the treeline), perhaps aggressive noise reduction?

[Kerry Perkins]

Thank you Morkel! You are correct in that NR (NIK Dfine) conspired against detail in this image. Even at this low ISO, the 50D had a lot of noise, which was of course most evident in the sky. What I think I'm going to try when I revisit this image is using a layer mask on the NR so that it is only applied to the sky. Thanks for your comments and I look forward to getting out there too! :c3:

[James Fuller]

Congratulation on your retirement. Beautiful reflection in this shot!

[Jerry van Dijk]

Congrats on your retirement! Very pleasing image. John brought out some good details in his RP. There are a few additional points that may have contributed to the softness of the FG. I found that fine details tend to get lost in HDR treatments, especially if there is some movement in small elements like the leaves in the trees (due to ghosting). Another thing that may have contributed to the softness of the FG is that you probably didn't make use of the hyperfocal distance when focussing, but focussed on the mountains in the BG instead.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Big congrats on the retirement Kerry...I really like what John did in his repost of this lovely scene...look forward to more landscapes