Minnewanka at Dusk - Critique please ! :)

[Iamcndn]

Taken at Dusk at lake Minnewanka, Banff AB on a very cold evening!
Any criticism is great!

Taken at:
ISO 100
1/80 Sp
8.0 Ap

[Iamcndn]

Any comments at all?

[Deborah]

Awesome light! The only little thing that I see "wrong", is that I would like to see more of the mountain on the right. A landscape version would have given you that, but then you would have missed some of that great sky.

[Iamcndn]

Thanks for the comment! I know what you mean about the mountain. I should invest in a super wide angle lens hehe

[readingr]

Mj,

Been thinking a lot about this photo and there is something that bugs me about it and I'm not sure what is wrong. I think its that black section at the base of the mountain which breaks up the photo.

Also on top of the lower peak there seems to be an organe which looks a bit odd.

Other than that the sky is great the foreground it lovely its just those two bits that put me off. I have been back to the photo several times to try and decide - still undecided.

[Deborah]

Mj,

Been thinking a lot about this photo and there is something that bugs me about it and I'm not sure what is wrong. I think its that black section at the base of the mountain which breaks up the photo.

Also on top of the lower peak there seems to be an organe which looks a bit odd.

Other than that the sky is great the foreground it lovely its just those two bits that put me off. I have been back to the photo several times to try and decide - still undecided.

That orange is called alpenglow and is the sun relecting on the mountain top... it is beautiful!

[Iamcndn]

Ya, I also like alpenglow, too bad I couldn't get more of it! I don't mind the darkness at the base of the mountains either because it isn't the focus, I'm just trying to make it clear that the sky is the focus.

[bkdonnelly]

I love the unique color, and the contrast in the cool lower part with the warmer upper part. I don't mind the dark area - it adds something to the cold mountain. With it's vertical orientation giving sky a lot of height, maybe something like a person walking to/from the mountain with a trail of prints in the snow would add some scale and make the sky even more impressive.

[ShotsbyScott]

Nice colors M.J., You definitely captured the elements. I'm going to have to put on my jacket! HA!
I would like to see more from this area!

Scott

[readingr]

I copied the photo last night and I had a play in Paintshop and I now know what I don't like.

Its the orange ball (Alpenglow) which is to small and obvious and keeps pulling my eye to it - its not the black bits at all. I found this out by clonning a bit of the mountain to get rid of it.

I then tried expanding the aplenglow to more of the mountain and it made it look better for me.

My preference would be to get rid of it all together so that the sky becomes the real focus..

Just my opinion.

I do think you have a good eye for a photo. Keep posting these shots.

[Iamcndn]

Thanks for the comments everyone! I will definitely post more landscapes as I get them

I agree with the alpenglow comment reading, I wish there was more too. Just out of curiosity how did you expand/remove it? could you show me?
Thanks!

[readingr]

Not sure it this is the best way, I am still learning how these tools work.

I zoomed in so that I could see the alpenglow then using Photoshop Elements 2 I selected the area using the magnetic lasso thingy (thingy - technical term)

I then moved the selected noose to another part of the mountain and copied the area and pasted it over the alpenglow. It was very crude the way I did it.

To alpen glow a larger part of the mountain I copied the colour and used the paint pot to fill a selected area.

I was just trying to get an idea of what it would look like - so was not interested in perfection.

I am sure that others on this site like the chap who did the car could point you at better techniques than the one I used,

Have fun playing with them.