Tenaya lake Yosemite@sunset

[Vermenton]

1/3 s exposure
F22
Focal lens 13 mm
ND 3
Iso 100
Canon 40D
Tripod

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Vermenton,
this is one of those cases that you needed more than one ND to get more detail in the FG.....but I would have probably approaced this a bit differently.....I may have just used the rocks silhouetted....with nice seperation as a FG element....maybe even including the edge of the shore.....and ditch the split ND......making strong silhouettes with a nice leading line....sometimes it just doesn't pay to fight it! An alternative would have been an HDR. I also feel getting closer and not clipping the top of the reflection would have been preferable.

[Julie Kenward]

I agree with Roman. The first thing I noticed was how washed out the left side of the mountains looked compared to the FG. I also noticed the top of the mountain cut off in the reflection and the weirdly shaped shadow right at the water's edge on the left edge of the frame.

I like the composition overall, though. The slope of the mountains against the sloping angle of the water is beautiful and well seen (except for cutting off the mountain in the reflection.) I also love the round rocks at the curve of the water - all very strong elements for a delicious landscape. I wonder...did you try to tone down the mountain caps and bring up the shadows in pp at all? If that's not possible then I totally agree with Roman - his idea to work with what you got is always a great way to go.