Rocks, ice and sunset

[Jay Sheinfield]

I took this a few weeks ago during a deep freeze on the Mississippi wildlife refuge area here in MO. The reflection is the sunset through the trees. I'm not quite sure on the comp on this' so feedback would be appreciated.

I cropped a bit to eliminate some distracting rocks from the corners. Processing was low-key to emphasize the feeling.

nikon D3s
iso 400
14mm
1/100 @ f/13.

Thanks for the look.

The uploaded image is way softer than the original........does anyone know the proper settings for Photoshop CS5 for uploading? I do a File>Automate>Fit to size (800x600),
then File>Save for web and devices>optimize to file size>Save......and all my images are posting soft. Doing anything wrong?

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Jay,
For me, this one doesn't seem to work as a whole.....because of the 2 areas of seperate interest comp wise. I do feel the lower 2/3 will work as more of a pano......but I do wish for a bit of room on the bottom then. Colors look great as do the textures.
.....now for saving....I looked at your image properties.....and the KB of around 193 seems fine.......so not sure what is going on there. I do know that llandscapes often have to be saved at very low quality to get them to fit......even at 800 on the long dimension with a lot of detail.....so that may be the culprit. Let's see if anyone else can chime in with the same issue.

[Dave Mills]

I'm not sure I can give advice since I do a similar reduction of the file. I reduce using image size than go into save for the web. Haven't had any real issues except for a very few.
Roman gave some good suggestions regarding the 2 separate compositional areas. The warmer colors have a tendancy to hold the eye in that area. Also the first thing I noticed was needing more room on the bottom below the rocks....

[Jay Sheinfield]

Roman and Dave,

After reading your feedback, I agree, doesn't work as is, and now I know why:).

Jay

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Jay, I agree with Roman on the two areas. Might have been good to shoot one of the rocks as I think they look cool coated in ice and the sunset on the ice looks like it would've made a cool OOTB image.

[Robert Amoruso]

Jay,

Roman said what I would have said.

On the image softness; you did not mention sharpening. you should reduce resolution to 72 PPI, size to 1024 wide x 800 high max, 8-bit mode and sRGB. Then sharpen.

[Daniel Cadieux]

Also make sure the reduced size, before posting, is under the 200kb...if over the forum will reduce it to under and the resulting compression will be less-than-stellar.