Lamar Valley Yellowstone

[EOSThree]

I got up early. No plan. Hard to see much in Yellowstone in the pitch black.
I set up where a creek enters the Lamar River and waited until the sun came up. I snapped off three in quick succession +/-2 EV. Tonemaped with Photomatix.

I am a little disappointed when looking at this at 100%, the wind was blowing a little, and I didn't use mirror lockup. Definitely a lesson in HDR technique.

Yellowstone is great...until about 10am, then it's way too crowded. I live about 3 hours away from the park. I got in the car this weekend and decided to shoot over to the Beartooths. Once over the pass Yellowstone seemed like a good idea. I have vowed to spend more time there this year with the park being that close. With the price of gas, I think I will get a motorcycle.

[Greg McCary]

I think you should crop just a hair off the top. Something a little more prominent in the foreground would have helped too. I love the saturation. Was this hand held?

[GB1]

Great shot. You say it's an HDR? It works. It could be a tad sharper but when you combine multiple shots it's hard to get a razor sharp image. Esp if the wind is blowing.

I would also suggest that like a barber you take a little off the top. This photo is really intriguing because it's leading you down the ways, but I am not sure where. Also not sure if there should be something in the water, like a duck or bird. Nice shot any way.

G

[drg]

I agree there's some need to 'reshape' the photograph. Whether to crop both top and bottom or to narrow the photograph is my question?

Cropping just below the rock line and either through or barely above the cloud line would make the contribution of the various elements have greater impact.

Another possibility is to make this a very tall and narrow photograph by cropping along the left to bring the fall of the range closer to the edge and along the right side to eliminate the green shrubs/trees and let the top visible portion of the stream 'flow over the edge' so to speak. This might lend more of a compact or even focused view than you desire.

Landscapes like this can sometime be perceived as richer by using various proportions or ratios.

There's two or three separate compositions, the mountain and sky, the water and mountain w/wo sky, the water and the flowers in the foreground. Lots of good things going on that need to have some emphasis.

You could even consider bring up the highlights some to add impact to the water surface.

[MB1]

Nice look. Normally I like buckets of saturated colors but this softer color composition works well for the subject.

You can buy a lot of gas for the price of a motorcycle.

A graduated ND filter would have done just as good a job in this situation as HD processing and wouldn't the problems with wind that you have here.

I too think a crop from the top would be just the ticket here.

[EOSThree]

I agree a crop from the top would look good. Just when I thought I could rid myself of my GNDs...

[Lori11]

I really like this photo! I like the feel of it (sans the duck or bird ) But agree with crop idea. Well done :thumbsup:

[jkriminger]

nice composition. maybe position yourself a little lower next time to give the foreground flowers more prominence.

[readingr]

I thought I replied to this yesterday.

My issue with this is the foreground lets it down by not being prominent enough. Getting lower and closer to the flowers and rocks would have improved it some but I think you need something more prominent than the flowers and the bolders tyou have here.

Everything else works well in that the eye is led through the bicture first by the river and then back across by the mountains and into the clouds allowing the viewer to see the whole picture and pic up minor details.

Roger

[Chunk]

I think the shot is well composed and I'm not bothered by the negative space on top.

Nice work.

It may be my laptop monitor, but this seems overly bright for your description. Try a levels adjustment something like this and maybe a slight S shaped curves adjustment for even more contrast. It brings up the reflected clouds a lot and supplies that 'something in the water' that others have mentioned.

[gahspidy]

I like the scene here alot. I think the composition is not bad, but there can be some sky eliminated here. An 8x10 crop might look good for this with everything above the clouds cut off.
The problem I always have with alot of HDR images is that the scene becomes rather flat. The lighting in the fg is the same as that throughout the entire image. It looks unusual and causes the viewer to stop and stare at the surreal looking scene, but ultimately it loses that effect and were left with no depth. IMO.
I think that by adding saturation and more contrast to the fg will help the scene have more of a feeliong of depth. Even adding a slight vignette to this will help. . .something to help rid the uniformity, and flatness that is here.
Great looking scene and composition, but not crazy about the HDR effect.