First dusting of snow

[Steve Kaluski]

Following in the same footsteps of some of the previous 'colder' locations, here is one taken about a month ago in Switzerland. Sunny/cold yes, but the mist & clouds were moving in at quite a rate of knots as you can see. This is taken around 9750ft.

Steve
Subject: On top of the world, well not quite
Location: Bernese Oberland, Switzerland
Camera: Canon 1DX
Lens: 16-35 f/2.8 HH
Exposure: 1/800s at f/16 ISO400 0 stop compensation

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Steve, I love this image with the clouds among the mountain peaks. Beautiful work...we should be getting our first dusting of snow in the coming weeks...Yikes!

[Steve Kaluski]

Cheers Andrew, but would welcome any thoughts & tweaks?

Steve :wave:

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Steve, I would leave it as is, no tweaks needed :S3: I do like the way the mountain peaks rise on a diagonal from left to right, with the highest peak in the upper right of the frame.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Steve - I too like this a lot and waited until I was on calibrated monitor to comment. Nice detail in the clouds and leading lines from the middle ridge. The bits of blue sky really add. The image gives a feel of crisp, cool day. Only thing I might consider (and yes, even I might consider it) is cloning out the wires/ski lift in the lrc.

TFS,
Rachel

[dankearl]

Steve,
I would make this a pano.
It looks much better with the bottom cropped to above the road and ski lifts.
I would also take some off the left side.

[Don Nelson]

Steve
I can't help but feel that one simple fix would greatly improve the quality of this image.
You'll note that I left your original color cast in the center box, outlined with white corners.
Removing the color cast gives you white snow in both sunlight and shadows, as well as the clouds....
best regards
Don
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[Don Nelson]

And once that is done. a little increase in the contrast can be helpful.
I don't think that I would crop it any further - you've got a great sky, excellent fogbanks(clouds on the ground)
and mountains.
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[Don Nelson]

Steve
One more hint -- whites and light blues are horrible for showing sensor dust spots.
One really easy way to find them (other than lightroom) is to duplicate the layer in PS, then change the blend mode to linear burn....
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[dankearl]

Steve,
I took Don's color fix and cropped it to what I think would be nice.


steveK1dk.jpg (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=133425&stc=1&d=1381461851)

[Anette Mossbacher]

Hi Steve,

now my take :t3

Did you hike up there ? :w3
Anyway, with the WB I would go between, since I had a closer look again when I have met you there with the blues in the shadows. Oh yes I did my notes on this while driving up, the time and while driving down!
My take would be just between, assuming you have been up there around 11am - 3pm.
Agree with Rachel with the wires in the right hand corner. Crop is fine to me, but might would take a tad off from LHS, just a tad to let the mountain rim bring you from the LHS into the image from there to the first cloud, floating above them to the BG peaks to the right to the little ( but high mountain ) peak. Up into the nice soft clouds in the sky. Now you have my path of my eyes. That's they went when I have seen this image.
Looks great, will see it in Nov myself. Have a 2 day stay there for night Photography :)

Have a great weekend

Ciao
Anette

[Morkel Erasmus]

Lovely scene Steve! Don's critique has really been a booster (all over the forum and now here as well), great repost by him...and I like Dan's crop too.

[Steve Kaluski]

Thanks folks.

Don, appreciate the pointers, will take a look at the whites, but not Contrast, I tend to avoid it. This particular body badly needs to go back into Canon for a wash & brush up, it's been heavily used and I new it needed it, likewise some of the lenses, however the timeframe did not allow me to drop off between getting back home & leaving again and this was more fun, nothing more, so not really too worried. :bg3:

Cheers Dan, certainly the clouds look cleaner and from my perspective, it's a combination between the two. :5

Impressive Anette, notes whilst driving, not even the new BMW has that facility, have to check the specs again for the M4 :bg3: Night photography, nice location, but hope the rain holds off, where are you staying, drop me a line.

[TimothyGriesel]

I really like this image. I would love to be able to take landscapes such as these but it is something I haven't quite gotten to learning how to do correctly. Thank you for posting.

I must admit though that Don's colour corrections are impressive and really boost the images look

[Carl Walker]

A really nice image Steve and I love it when a post turns into a welcome tutorial :S3:

[Cheryl Slechta]

Hi, Steve, I liked the original post and like Don's repost also. I don't mind the ski lift cables leading in from the rhc because you've got the lift on the top of the hill. I think I would eliminate the one oblique line half way between the curving road (I love the road!) and the rhc.:S3:

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Steve,
Late to the party but excellent tweaks mentioned. Was it possible to move left? I ask because I would like the peak in the UR to be more in the ROT position....without the cables of course. Just a comp thought to add to the overall discussion.