Cades Cove at Dawn

[Lynn Wiezycki]

While waiting for the gate to open we caught the moon as it was setting. The fog was beautiful that morning!

Lynn

[David Kennedy]

Lynn,
Welcome to BPN! I really like the soft feel that you captured. The diagonal of the fog really helps to make the composition much more dynamic, and the image conforms very well to the rule of thirds. The sun is a little centered, but I enjoy the two ridge lines on the left and the placement of the mid-ground tree enveloped in fog on the right, so I wouldn't have wanted you to pan in either direction to relocate the sun. This is also a good example of my favorite proportion for panoramas, 8:3 (jn your case, it's really 3:7, but it's in the neighborhood!). My only criticisms are those of post-processing (and possibly exposure).

I thought the image was too dark, so I opened it up and found that it could stand to be lightened quite a bit. I'm not sure if that was intentional, or if you simply underexposed a bit in-camera. I added a slight "s" curve to boost contrast. I have circled a couple of branches on the right edge of the image that could be cloned out, as they presently distract from an otherwise strong image. There was also one bit of sensor dust that I circled that could be cloned away.

Also, for future posts, it would be helpful to have more technical information about the image. Again, welcome to BPN!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Lynn,
Big Welcome! I think David was on the right track with the re-work.........he definitely brought out more pastels in the sky..........but I feel the contrast boost took a bit away from the mood of the fog. it definitely could use a little boost there though also. This would have been an easy fix for my favorite in camera fix for landscapes..........a grad, soft stop split ND filter......this would have boosted the soft pastels in the sky and also allowed you to get a bit more detail in the FG. Keep them coming..........and welcome to the forums!