Rescued

[EOSThree]

I was disappointed by the photos I took in Glacier NP about last year. For some reason I was browsing through LR the other night and stumbled on this one. I spent a little time with it in LR and Photomatix and came up with this.

[Frog]

Nice save!
Might consider cropping some of the water but its nice as is.

[Shebang]

Oooh the sky looks like it is on fire! Nice composition.

[rylan]

I would crop an inch and a half off the bottom (water) myself!
But other then that, this is a great save, and an amazing image great work!

[LeeIs]

Really nice rescue job u did to this one. love the seperation of the mountains in the distance also in the trees. The sky is also beautiful.

[mpatient24]

I love the vibrancy of the colors in this one. For example the trees on the right hand side. Beautiful contrast. I actually like the balance between the sky and the water. I personally wouldn't crop it. There are two shadowed that move down the photograph from top to bottom. They actually reminded me of twisters. Maybe just adjusting the tone of those two areas would bring more attention to the photo as a whole. Instead my eyes were drawn to those two areas.

Great picture!

[Greg McCary]

I agree with Rylan on the crop. The water at the bottom looks OOF. Maybe too take a touch off of the left or right to un-center the gap where the mountains meet the trees. It is a good thing you looked back and saved this one.

[EOSThree]

Thanks for the comments. I agree about the crop, I have one version where I did crop it just about like you said: just below the shoreline on the right side. I went with the full version though, don't really know why.

I remember setting up and watching this sunrise unfold, it was awesome in person. It was a tough quick weekend in Glacier, I was with a co worker and was sharing a car(he borrowed it). He wanted to fish all day and I wanted to get up at dawn shoot and then take a nap and stay out until sunset and shoot. Our schedules kind of conflicted a bit. He knew the area really well, and showed me some really cool stuff around there, but only in the stark midday light.

I also remember getting up at 04:30 to drive the GTTSR and driving out in the dark only to find the road closed about 2/3 of the way to the summit(construction). I was tired, crabby, and ticked that the road was closed. On the way back down I noticed the lunar eclipse was in progress, I was so frustrated that I didn't even stop to shoot the eclipse...dummy.

[retroactiv]

I have to agree wtih everyone just a little to much water for my taste, but those trees look like they are on fire with the light you captured. This is a very cool shot.

[Ron Kruger]

Great shot! The way the shoreline receeds into the mountains and beyond gives it great depth, so you won't lose any with a crop from the bottom. Georgous shot.

[draymorton]

I know this is supposed to be a critique forum, but all I can muster is a "Duh... wooowwww." Seriously.

How did you do this? How did you expose the water and the sky like that? Was HDR (or a similar technique) behind this?

Nice save indeed.

[EOSThree]

Thanks for all of the kind words, this file was relegated for the garbage pile(I wasn't happy with anything I captured at Glacier). I guess this is why it's good to go back and take a look at past shoots. Sometimes there are pearls hiding there amongst the ugly oysters.

This is a single exposure RAW capture. The RAW was processed for the original exposure, +2 and -2 EV and then blended using Photomatix HDR and then selectively burned and dodged to bring out detail. I try in every way to make the HDR look as close to natural as possible, I am learning more every day how to maximize LR and Photomatix to make the most natural looking wide dynamic range photos I can. Photomatix and LR aren't magic, you can make some pretty horrible photos with them. I try to stay away from the obvious gaudy HDR look.

[GB1]

Sky: very nice.
Background: very nice too!
Middle ground: OK
Foreground (water): uhhhh.... disappointing when comparing to the others.

This isn't just you. I've seen so many shots from other photographers (and mine) over the years where the background is outstanding and the foreground is just 'there' that I've come to conclude that it's a hard problem to solve. I've come to sometimes bring my own foreground subject (which is a bit of a pain .........). When you solve this, tell me what you did!!!

G

[EOSThree]

Sky: very nice.
Background: very nice too!
Middle ground: OK
Foreground (water): uhhhh.... disappointing when comparing to the others.

This isn't just you. I've seen so many shots from other photographers (and mine) over the years where the background is outstanding and the foreground is just 'there' that I've come to conclude that it's a hard problem to solve. I've come to sometimes bring my own foreground subject (which is a bit of a pain .........). When you solve this, tell me what you did!!!

G

Yes foreground subject is what separates good from great. I have found it's really hard to get a foreground element that adds to a landscape image without overpowering the rest of the image. Very very difficult. I have been trying to solve the same problem. I am thinking of a class or two on composition and learning to see differently. You bring out exactly one of the problems I had with my Glacier photos.

[SmartWombat]

Photomatix and LR aren't magic, you can make some pretty horrible photos with them. I try to stay away from the obvious gaudy HDR look.

And you've succeeded.
I think this may be the first HDR image that I actually like.
I agree on the foreground though, it's just more and more water.

[sprichmal]

I was disappointed by the photos I took in Glacier NP about last year. For some reason I was browsing through LR the other night and stumbled on this one. I spent a little time with it in LR and Photomatix and came up with this.

Lovely sky and agree with others on the foreground. But overall very nice indeed!

[Hammster]

I think one of the hardest things to do is to move the horizon away from the center of the picture. That sky is amazing and the water is sort of bland. Moving the horizon to the bottom third and capturing more sky would really help the shot. I try to use the rule of thirds whenever possible unless it doesn't make sense to use it.
Anyway, here is a crop (I hope it was ok to do this. Let me know and I'll take the pic down if you don't want it up.) with less water and having the horizon in the bottom third of the shot. I probably could have cropped a bit more water, but didn't want the edit to look so much like a panorama.
I really like the green line of the trees leading to the mountains in the background. And that sky is just amazing with the sun's rays just peeking over the trees. And the sun's rays are in the right hand 3rd of the pic. Great!!