I would appreciate a critique of this shot. This is a sunrise shot of the Superstition Mountains. I have struggled with getting the contrast, colors and saturation to be what I think is natural yet also stand out.

Your comments and suggestions will be appreciated.

Dave

Dave

Here are my thoughts on your image.

Composition/use of frame space - I like the way that you have filled the frame in this photograph with the landscape. There is good sense of depth in the image.

Colors/White Balance - These seem a little off to me. The left side of the photograph seems like it is approaching being washed out as compared to the right side. Also my personal preference for sunrise is to try and capture the more golden, warmer tones as opposed to brighter tones.

Exposure - Not sure how long after sunrise you made this image but it seems a little bright almost like it was an hour or so after the sun came up which is starting to tax the ability of the camera to capture the entire range of tones.

Creative use of Aperture/Shutter - The DOF looks goods here; everything from near to far in good focus.

Perspective - I like to low to high perspective on this shot - gives a sense of 'majesty' to the mountains.

Creativity - I like your choice to capture backlight here giving the cactus in the left foreground a nice glow.

Emotion - As has been commented about one of my images 'It makes me want to be there.' Sunrise at just about anywhere in Arizona is worthwile.

Forethought/Visualization - N/C

Post processing - Could probably use a little more to even out the exposure left to right and maybe eliminate what looks like a magenta cast on the right hand side of the mountain range.

Thanks for taking the time to give your comments Joe. Funny - much of what I did in the post processing was to try to "brighten" it.

I am not sure how long after sunrise it was when I took this shot. I was taking similar photos from about 10 minutes before sunrise until about an hour after sunrise. I am not sure if this was towards the end.

I think I will go back and look for the first ones right after the sun came up to see if those shots have more of the subtle colors you refer to.

Thanks again for your perspective.

Dave

Didnt we already work on that shot in the past?

Just looks awefully familiar.

Roman

Roman,

There was a different shot of that same mountain that I posted before. I took comments from you and others on this forum, plus other people, and re-took the shot to try to improve upon it.

The primary difference between the two shots is that the other shot had cactus framing the mountains. Those cactus seemed to make the mountains seem more like hills. Additionally you showed me on the earlier shot how to improve drastically on the Post Processing of that image.

So I re-framed it, and tried to capture the colors more accurately in this shot. I am just trying to do those mountains justice with a shot, and am not sure that I am there yet.

I apologize if you think it is redundant and I should not have posted this other version. If that is the case I will not do so again.

Dave

Nope....didnt think it was redundant....just wondering if my old grey cells were deciving me....lol. Deja-vu all over again.

Roman