Salt Lake City Dusk

[gahspidy]

I always find it interesting in how we all see things a bit different.
I think this is a fine composition of a wonderful perspective. I too enjoy the line of buildings into lights that lead out into the mountains as Brian pointed out.
Its a good photograph which might have been a bit more interesting with a more dramatic atmosphere or perhaps less overcast and a slightly more illuminated sky.
I think you have a few options in post processing to bring this up a notch. I agree there is a heavy tint not all blue but leaning toward cyan as well.
I'm with Jeff but I don't think warming it up is the answer. In fact, adding more of a violet tint by going into the Hue/Saturation tools and adding +8 in Hue which creates amore purple haze and then reducing the overall saturation by about 28. After that, apply some moderate sharpening and I think there is a much improved result. Of course, its subjective and it is merely my preference, but I think if you gave it a shot you might also lean towards it as well.
So, overall I think its a good photo that can be made even better with a bit more tweaking in post processing.

[readingr]

John,

First off I have to say I like this type of shot, BUT and its a big but for me and feel free to totally disregard it.

I find that the lines in the shot take my eye straight out of the picture with nowhere to bring my eye back in, if that makes sense, I have to force my eye back towards the mountains. The culprit is the big empty area in the middle and it would be nice if there was something to grab the attention in there, a bird, plane, alien, or something, or as others have said a more interesting sky which automatically pulls the eye to the mountains, they don't quite have enough impact in this picture. Perhaps a bit of PP'ing to make them bolder.

I guess it's a problem with town planners in that they don't consider photographers when planning cities/towns. If they'd just **** that road to the left a bit in the photo would have made it a lot more pleasing to the eye.

Roger R.

[MilesOfTexas]

Fantastic shot! I really like it, but you seem persistent on suggestions so my four cents are:

(1) I would have tried exposing just a little longer, perhaps by using a ND or polarizer filter, to accent the streets using the lights from the cars.

(2) While the capital building technically fits to the rule of thirds, it seems a bit too low in the frame, so I would have tried placing it just a tad higher. I do see why it may be a little low though. I am guessing where the mountain on the upper left enters the frame may have been the reason.

(3) Warming or reducing the hue for the blue, like others mentioned would bring out the white in the snow. One way to do this without affecting the warmness of other colors is by being selective in what color is warmed. I use NIK Software's PS plugin Viveza to easily accomplish selective tasks. In this case, I would have selected the blue in the white caps of the mountains, and either warmed it or reduced the blue hue, most likely the latter of the two, then expanded my selected area to include the entire photo. Of course, it is easier to say how I would do this after doing it myself, because sometimes it requires a little of both.

(4) Lastly, a bit more contrast to give it more depth and a wee bit of sharpening if needed after the contrast adjustment.

Out of curiosity, is the capital building a little low on the left, or am I just lacking coffee to see it right? ;)

[armando_m]

I like the image, makes me feel like I'm flying

The blueish tone makes me feel it is about to start snowing ad transmits a bit of the bone cold you went through to take the photo.

I also like the lights and buildings are tack sharp

Only a bit disappointed that it is not a wider view,
you can wear something warmer and try a reshoot
or perhaps don't crop it so square.

[apass]

From MPOV cropping just a bit from the top and bottom the pic gains a lot of strength. Yes, on the top I would cut the left mountain and leave just a bit of sky. And on the bottom up to just leaving the white patch untouched. This as other have mentioned will also help on a less square framing.

Antonio

[pisco]

As somebody pointed out, I think that it would look nicer on a day when the sky is pink or purple (to match the warm lights of the buildings and mountains will stand out).

[Photo-John]

good I wish you panned to the right a bit to get those streets on the right third of the frame. other than that looking good!

There's a hill in the way. The framing is partially determined by that hill

[Photo-John]

I find that the lines in the shot take my eye straight out of the picture with nowhere to bring my eye back in, if that makes sense, I have to force my eye back towards the mountains. The culprit is the big empty area in the middle and it would be nice if there was something to grab the attention in there, a bird, plane, alien, or something, or as others have said a more interesting sky which automatically pulls the eye to the mountains, they don't quite have enough impact in this picture.

A very astute compositional comment, Roger! Thanks for that. I immediately took a closer look to see what you meant. For me, the line of lights leads my eye to the hills in the distance and they draw me to the left and then back down in. But I can see what you mean.

I'm going through all the comments carefully and I'm going to reshoot. There were a bunch of comments about sharpening more. I already sharpened more that I usually do. The problem is I was shooting at one second and slower with a light camera and tripod and there was some wind. I think the softness and some of the flatness in the mid tones is due to a tiny bit of camera movement. I can't really fix it - only mask it. And that's never the right solution. I can go back and shoot again, though. That's the right way to handle this. And it's totally worth the effort.

Lots of great post-processing suggestions in here. We probably all have our own standard set of tools and adjustments and don't often get outside our comfort zone. I appreciate all the ideas for adjustments I normally wouldn't look at or even think of

[Photo-John]

As somebody pointed out, I think that it would look nicer on a day when the sky is pink or purple (to match the warm lights of the buildings and mountains will stand out).

Yeah - that's what I was hoping for. But clouds in the west kept that from happening. But as I watched this happen I was liking it. I will be going back to shoot again, though. And every time it's different

[daq7]

Needless to say I would have totally freaking tone mapped it.

But you probably already knew that.

[Photo-John]

Needless to say I would have totally freaking tone mapped it.

But you probably already knew that.

Friends don't let friends tone map :P

[Lori11]

LMAO John.... I cant wait to see the next one

[GB1]

John - Overall I like your photo. The blue is intense but that gives it a chilly feel which is what it was. I like the color of the windows as they go good with the blue, but they specks of light are small. The clarity of the image is somewhat of an issue, as it almost seems smoggy... I thought winter was the clearest time of the year, too.

One thing I think prevents it from being a great shot though is it's tightness within the frame. I think I want a wider view of things. When one zooms in like this, it is OK providing there is something they're emphasizing, but I don't see any particular thing to look at here. I think the entire scene is the photo, and more on the sides would be better. Also not sure how the far left mountain is cut in two.

-GB

EDIT: looking again, not really smoggy. I probably thought that because it's not razor sharp, which is hard to get considering the plane's moving and a relatively slow SS.

[Photo-John]

EDIT: looking again, not really smoggy. I probably thought that because it's not razor sharp, which is hard to get considering the plane's moving and a relatively slow SS.

This wasn't shot from a plane

I think the hazy look is due to a bit of camera shake and slow shutter speed. If you look back through my replies I say something about that.

There's actually a really nasty inversion here in the winter. Unless it snows or rains the air is nasty. SLC was in the national news about a week ago for having the worst air in the country. But it's been snowing and raining all week. I've been trying to get out and take advantage of the clear skies every evening

[jetrim]

Seems I'm WAY late to the party, but I'll toss in my 2 cents.
The blue isn't an issue for me, I think it adds to the overall ambiance, and the exposure seems right on. The leading lines direct my eyes the same way as yours, I don't find my eye wandering off the page, but circling back around.I would like to see the capitol building a little higher in the frame if possible (this would also bring the mountains all the way up to the top left corner, which would be nice) and maybe a high pass sharpen on the entire image (using high pass will improve contrast and clarity in one step vs separate contrast and un-sharp mask operations).
Normally, I'd be temped to process with different white balances for the different types of lighting, but nothing in the original shot is glaringly obtrusive, so it's probably best to set the WB for whatever you had it on in the original.
Very nice shot overall, and not much to nit-pick :thumbsup:

[SmartWombat]

I've been looking at this for days, John and I haven't scrolled down yet.
I like it, the colours are the kind of pastel shades I like to capture.

First off, I think it's suffering being shown against the website's white background, so I'll flip over to Lightroom and look at it in lights out mode.
It looks much better there, the apparent flatness is partly due to the contrast against what would be a backlit lightbox to a print I guess.

What strikes me most is the left-to-right composition.
The mountains slope down from left to right leading the eye to the top right corner.
That's also where the lines of headlights on the roads converge.
The natural perspective of those roads leads my eye to that corner, not back from it.
Also the natural reading direction is left to right, and I think my eyes don't run against that unless they're drawn away.

There's nothing to bring my eye down to the capitol from the top left. It's almost there, the two patches of light in the left almost lead up to the mountain, but there's not quite enough of a path.
So there is no cycle within the image to rove around.

Now try flipping the image horizontally, it feels very different !
I am still aware of the town planners' poor consideration of this vantage point, there is a large void in the image - now on the right.
I am more aware of that patch of light just past the end of the shorter road headlight trail, on the edge of the image.
Also now my eye is led on from the left by the light, I see the distant cluster of lights parallel to the mountain foot more clearly. that curve as a lead-in is more apparent than a lead-out on the right when flipped back to the original.

I found a 0.31 rotation more pleasing, the capitol looks more horizontal and the centre buildings more vertical, but I think a slight skew is what it really needs - not hitting with the sledgehammer of rotation

Overall everything looks soft, at this resolution I can't tell for sure if it's shake or just dirty evening air but from the shape of the light trails in the foreground I suspect a little shake.