Early morning estuary.

[Ian McHenry]

I was extra careful in composing this image as have taken several pix of this subject with dissapointing results.
Consequently did a slight bit of straightening but no cropping from original.
Details: Taken @ 8.24 AM. Late winter.
400 ISO. 1/750 @ F5.6 Minus 0.5 EV 100mm.
Comments Welcome.
Cheers: Ian Mc

[Nick Palmieri]

The soft colors, in my opinion give this image a nice feel. I am often tossed when taking a photo of a reflection like this where the land should fall. Should it be on the middle or should the rule of thirds apply as you did here? I like it as presented.

[Ramesh Adkoli]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2515/3870053965_b81e279c71_o.jpg

Ian, you have captured the morning mood well here. I wanted to see what happens if I crop the bottom reflection of the sky and play around with the contrast and colors a bit. Here is the result. Hope you don't mind my PP with it. Let me know what you feel with the repost.

[Cindy Cone]

I like your original composition, Ian, as well as the soft, tones. Wonderful mood, and an almost graphic quality to it.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Ian,
I think you handled the comp very well with the placement of the trees and mountains in the frame. I agree with Ramesh that the colors needed a bit of boost as it was close to sunrise and they seemed a bit flat. I did about 8 seperate layers adjustments ranging from contrast to levels and even a bit of color balance (added blue).......but the first thing I did was a reverse S curve to even out some of the tones......then added seperately in certain areas and darkened the water a bit as the final step. I kept the crop as your original OP......but I may clean up the top edge with either a slight crop or the patch tool. Let me know what you think.
After I previewed the re-post.....you may want to avoid the contrast/selective colors layers in the RH evergreens.....but this will give you a few ideas! I also agree with Cindy that the OP has a nice softer feel......so just a slight contrast boost there may also be the ticket.

[Ian McHenry]

Thank you Nick,Ramesh,Cindy & Roman.
Ramesh: I like your crop which I feel takes the viewer more into the scene.
Darkened & more contrasty colours give a nice clean up to the image.
Roman: Beautiful image clean up and really impressed with increased colour range.
Appreciate details of image repost.
Will have to learn how to apply reverse S curve.
Cheers: Ian Mc

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Ian,
Here's the link to Robert's tutorial on the reverse s-curve;
http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=20434
A good starting point.

[David Thomasson]

I suspect that this will be roundly cursed as heresy on stilts, but I had to give it a try. The "heavy" element -- the clump of trees on the right -- felt too far
to the right to me, as though it were tipping the balance in that direction. So I tried moving it a little to the left. Also toned down the cyan overall (though I have second thoughts about that).

All very subjective, of course ...

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/328/morning.gif

http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/3465/morningr.jpg

[Ian McHenry]

Thanks Roman
Appreciate the link.
David: No gripes from me !!!
Always good to see what appeals to others.
Clever stuff with the jumping tree and the end result looks neat, composition wise and subtle color changes
Cheers: Ian Mc