Dawn on Moraine Lake #2

[Rachel Hollander]

I went back to look at some of my Canadian Rockies images and found this one taken as first light hit the mountains surrounding Moraine Lake. Taken from the Rockpile.

Canon 7D
16-35 @ 18mm
1/60
f5.6
ISO 400
EC -1
Tripod, CP and GND. Luminosity mask, selective dodging, levels and curves adjustments, LCE and sharpening in CS5, cropped some from the left and bottom to remove a tree and the canoe dock.

C&C welcome and appreciated. Thanks,

Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

For me at least one of the best you've posted on this gallery - mostly because the light brings out the best in the scene, and the comp is nice and solid.
Golden light is just superb for landscape photography, a non-negotiable in most cases. Love the diagonals of the forest and mountains, with nice details throughout.

Water and sky looks a bit grainy...if you can lift shadow detail in the shaded part of the image just a smidge without enhancing the noise it would work nicely IMHO. Curious about your choice of ISO-400 when you were tripod-mounted? :e3

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Morkel - grainyness seems to have come from compression when saving for web. It's not there in the Tiff or full size JPEG. We've had the ISO 400 discussion before:w3, I tend to use it as my default ISO setting with the 7D. Both Robert and you have suggested going lower. Next time.

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

Thanks Morkel - grainyness seems to have come from compression when saving for web. It's not there in the Tiff or full size JPEG. We've had the ISO 400 discussion before:w3, I tend to use it as my default ISO setting with the 7D. Both Robert and you have suggested going lower. Next time.

Thanks again,
Rachel

Seems my memory is ageing faster than my body :Whoa!::bg3:

[Don Railton]

Hi Rachel

I think I might agree with Morkel on this as one of your best. Every bit of it holds interest, colours nicely balanced, bold lines. Grainyness aside, the only other bit I don't like is in the top RH corner, firstly it should be my name, and secondly if it was, I would make it a lot less dominant so as not to steal the eye...

Well done..

DON

[mikedewitt]

Beautiful shot! Love the morning light.

[Steve Kaluski]

Hi Rachel, I love this area as it provides terrific landscape options and I like the way you have captured this scene.

Just my take, but if this is first light I feel a lot of the FG should be darker (in shade) and have more depth, with the mountains in the BKG having that lovely warm glow to them, as already depicted. Not sure if this helps, but I think it defines the scree towards the base of the mountain and offers depth to the tree line on the RHS. :w3

Great to see your progression Rachel. :cheers:

TFS
Steve

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Don, Mike and Steve for the kind comments, much appreciated. Steve - interesting, I had applied an inverse luminosity mask (for lack of a better term) applying a slight amount of screen to the darker areas. Not sure which I prefer now.:eek3:

Thanks again,
Rachel

[Judy Howle]

That is a gorgeous view! To me it looks a bit washed out so I wanted to try something with it. I used Nik Contrast Color Range and also applied a little noise reduction to the sky afterward. On here it looks more colorful than it did in CS6... I like the vivid colors but some may think something in between the 2 would be preferred.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Judy, I appreciate the repost and suggestions.

[Jay Gould]

I like the image; I very much like Judy's RP. Judy, I would tone down the sky so that it isn't so bright and makes encourages a greater popping of the mountains.

I love vivid colors!!

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Rachel, this is a very lovely composition. I like what Judy did with 'tonal contrast' to emphasize the forest below the mountains a little more.

[Rachel Hollander]

Thanks Jay and Andrew.