Obscured View

[GB1]

A somewhat obscured view of a Zion Nat Park mountain. I tried to maneuver around and get the grass, trees, and other stuff out of the way of the mountain and its reflection, to no avail. Not sure if there's anything here as the result. Comments?

Fuji Reala 100 film

GB

[Frog]

Personally, I like seeing the surroundings of the obvious subject and I think this perspective works well, especially with the reflection. Gives me a sense of 'being there'.
You did well in a contrasty situation.

[gahspidy]

I like this perspective,GB. The fg water and reflection with the blades of grass, sharp is really good. There is just something a little odd about this as if it were almost an hdr process. Looks like some of the shadow areas were brought out too much especially near the middle areas. I think if the middlea area wer darker it would emphasize this great fg work as well as the mountain. Still , I think it looks very good.

[jkriminger]

theres a decent 4x6 or 6x6 crop if you want to forego the reflection

[GB1]

Frog,

Thanks,you may have a pt here. Sometimes something like a pretty mountain is so obvious and overshot a subject that it can be cliché; perhaps throwing in the surroundings can add a new twist to an old plot (so to speak). Definitely contrasty, even with a grad ND.

Gary, you're right - it does look strange in the middle ground. I re-scanned the negative w/o any of the Nikon Coolscan features like Digital DEE (Dynamic Exposure Extender, which smooths out the exposure differences) and Digital ROC (Reconstruction of Color, which tries to restore what it thinks was lost in translation). Note that I always scan the image *without* any of these correction and enhancement whistles first. Here's what I got.. nothing done to this at all, not even any sharpening. As you can see, it came out a little blasé. But the correction quickly shot into the "it's been processed" look. Oh well - maybe try a different editing technique next time. Thanks for commenting!

Rod, I see what you mean. Here's a crop, doesn't look too bad, though I see the bottom more keepable than the top.

G

[gahspidy]

GB, I'm glad to see your original scan. I like the full frame with the extended sky.I had a Nikon coolscan V for a while when I was shooting film and had tried all the software that came with it. I would not use anything except Digital ICE for dust removal. Perform all your adjustments in Photoshop or whatever your using, as you will have greater control and can always go back to the beginning to try other things. As with your scan, mine always seemd to have a magenta cast to them. Could be controlled by adjusting the scanner, but its easy to correct later.
I had a good result on your last image posted by using the "auto Levels" command in PS. Then I used a dodge brush set for highlights to bring out the light on the blades of grass and puddle in the foreground. The photo looked very good imo. Keep that original crop, I think it works great.