Marshall Brook, Desert Island, Maine

[Andreas Freund]

First of all I would like to say hello because it is my first thread here in this forum. Originally I am from Germany but I am living in Birmingham, MI since 4 years now. I apologize for my English because it is still hard to write and talk in a foreign language without any errors :)

I am looking forward to get comments from you and to get ideas how to improve my photos.

This year I went with my family to Desert Island, Maine on vacation. On the way to our rental home I saw this river and I was impressed of the the nice flow of the river and the landscape. So I decided that I have to come back in the evening to take a picture of it.

Here it is. I took three different exposures and combined them in Photomatix Pro as a HDR picture.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Hi Andreas and welcome here.
your English is great!

I love your photo - great composition and lovely light. would you mind including the camera, lens and settings you used so we all can learn and/or give advice?

The HDR looks great - more natural than many of mine. I do notice a slight halo around the inside edges of the lake which would be tricky to get rid of but is so typical of Photomatix.

[Robert Amoruso]

Andreas,

Welcome to the forum and BPN. Great first post. You composition is just right with the river entering/exiting the frame in the lower left corner and the gentle s-curve of the river leading the eye into the BG of the image. The BG mountains balance the image well and the colors make you feel that sunset. HDR work looks good to me.

As an original native of New England, Rhode Island to be exact, I have spent a lot of time on Mt. Desert Island, Maine and its national park, Arcadia but I don't recall this location. Do you recall where this was taken. Thanks and welcome again.

BG = Background.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Andreas,
Welcome to the forum! Sorry for the late response but I am stuck in the airport. You have been given some excellent advice and please do post the specs so that others can also learn. I may have wanted the flare of the sun a bit over....but not if it affected the nice s-curves. If you are not against such things....I would eliminate the dark green/black fir brances in the left frame edge in the reflection but still this was a very nice first post!

[Gerald_Gilligan]

Andreas,
Welcome to the Landscape thread....nice first post...
You will get excellent advice from the gents above...(and other folks as well)
I have learned some invaluable things from them and this site..
Jerry

[Andreas Freund]

Morkel, Robert and Roman,
thank you very much for the warm welcome. I wasn't sure, if the photo isn't a little bit oversaturated. I posted this picture also in a German forum. And some of the guys complained about that. But I think it is a personal taste. Perhaps I will also try to create a version with less saturation.
Roman you are right. I will remove the branches on the left side.
I took this photo with my Sony Alpha 700 and my wide angle lens Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6. Here are the main settings of my camera: focal lenght: 11mm / ISO 200 / f/9 / exposure time 1/320s. For creating the HDR I used Photomatix Pro. For processing my pictures I am using Lightroom 2 and PSE 6 (Mac).
Altogether I took 3 different pictures. I used the bracketing function of my camera with +/- 2EV

The spot where I took the picture is located between Southwest Harbor and Bass Harbor. When you drive the 102 (Bass Harbor Rd) in direction Bass Harbor you will find this spot just before the 102 splits into 102 and 102A. I think most of the people just pass this wonderful spot without recognizing it. There is no parking lot. I found a litte place where I was able to park and walked back to the little bridge which is going over the little river.

[Robert Amoruso]

The spot where I took the picture is located between Southwest Harbor and Bass Harbor. When you drive the 102 (Bass Harbor Rd) in direction Bass Harbor you will find this spot just before the 102 splits into 102 and 102A. I think most of the people just pass this wonderful spot without recognizing it. There is no parking lot. I found a litte place where I was able to park and walked back to the little bridge which is going over the little river.


Andreas, Thanks for the location. I don't think I have ever stopped here.

[Harold Davis]

welcome to BPN, andreas. well seen and well done. i like the processing done here. not over saturated for me at all. look forward to more from you.

[Andreas Freund]

welcome to BPN, andreas. well seen and well done. i like the processing done here. not over saturated for me at all. look forward to more from you.

Hi Harold, thank you very much for your comment. But after lot of the same comments in Germany (over saturated) I created a second version. This time I tried to find a more natural look of the photo. I am really curious what you guys are thinking about this version. I mean after all it is always a matter of everyones personal taste. I like both versions but what I recognized is especially the sky is really a little bit over saturated because you see a kind of border in the sky (in the middle orange part / blue part). :o

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Andreas,
Don't know who's been telling you it was over saturated.....but sunsets can and do lok like that in many places like the original post......that is the one I prefer!

[Hilary Hann]

Hi Andreas, I prefer the first image which looks a little surreal, but it takes it that one step further which I really like. For me it has added depth. I especially like the grasses in the first image, the colour and contrast really makes them sway.