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Lake George Sunrise #9524
07/18/07 04:51 PM
07/18/07 04:51 PM
Joined: Feb 2006
Donner Summit, CA
glamson Offline OP
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glamson  Offline OP
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Joined: Feb 2006
Donner Summit, CA
This is a sunrise at Lake George in Mammoth Lakes, CA. This image actually required quite a lot of effort. First of all I had to get up at an ungodly hour and get up to the lake. It was pretty chilly and my hand were definitely numb by the time the pic was captured. I also had to do some arrangement of some of the wayward boats. I did some old fashioned HDR with a 2 stop hard gradient ND filter. Then there was PP. Question is was it all worth it?


Re: Lake George Sunrise [Re: glamson] #9525
07/20/07 08:44 AM
07/20/07 08:44 AM
Joined: Jun 2005
TN
Julie Offline
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Julie  Offline
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Joined: Jun 2005
TN
It was worth it!! Beautiful shot. The HDR really brought out everything.

Love the colors, the exposure, the composition everything about it.

Re: Lake George Sunrise [Re: Julie] #9526
07/21/07 11:21 AM
07/21/07 11:21 AM
Joined: Mar 2007
Arizona
daveman Offline
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daveman  Offline
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Joined: Mar 2007
Arizona
I agree. I really like this shot. The exposure and composition and PP are really nice. The clarity of the reflection is great and the contrast of the yellow boats really brings it all together.

Since this is the critique forum I will make a couple of observations that you can take with a grain of sand, but here they go.

It may not have been possible, but I think I would feel the shot is a bit more balanced if the front of the first two boats was not cut off. I also notice the reflection of the sky in the lake is lighter than the actual sky. I expect this is due to the HDR, but for some reason it makes me wonder about the color of the sky.

Both of these observations are nits on what is a fantastic shot.

Dave


See my stuff here davedilli.zenfolio.com
Re: Lake George Sunrise [Re: daveman] #9527
07/21/07 12:35 PM
07/21/07 12:35 PM
Joined: Feb 2005
Montana
Tony Bynum Offline
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Tony Bynum  Offline
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Joined: Feb 2005
Montana
nice job, i like it too, with the same comments as dave. I'll add a couple more. It looks to me like it's not level. This might be a product of barrel distortion or just the eye. I think when you go wide, especially with aps, you have to work the distortion into the shot by shooting it off kilter a bit, especially when there's a shoreline that dives off a bit like the one in your shot. even if you shoot it level, it will look tilted so you almost have to shoot it off a bit, or somehow transform it in PS.

It looks to be about <.5 degrees tilted to the left. I also think the boats look great, and I think I would like to see one shot with the entire boat intact.

I also would have off centered the peak in the background. It is a very eye catching feature and because of the power of the peak and the boats, and the lines that your eye follows from the boat 4 through the rest of them and then on up to the peak, the entire right side of the image gets lost. . . But then there's the over exposed reflection that keeps making me look at it and by the time I'm though with all that its out of balance - at least as far as my brain can tell.

Thanks for posting it, at the end of the day, it's a very nice shot. . .

Tony

Re: Lake George Sunrise [Re: Tony Bynum] #9528
07/22/07 10:22 AM
07/22/07 10:22 AM
Joined: Jul 2007
Florida
E
Ewert Offline
Wanderer
Ewert  Offline
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Joined: Jul 2007
Florida
Nice shot. The reflection in between the rows of yellow boats makes this one stand out. It is a little dark in the trees on the left, but the vast majority of the shot seems to be exposed well. Congrats on a fine shot.

Re: Lake George Sunrise [Re: glamson] #9529
07/22/07 11:30 AM
07/22/07 11:30 AM
Joined: Sep 2005
Portland Oregon
RomanJohnston Offline
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Joined: Sep 2005
Portland Oregon
Composition/use of frame space: Good, but a little centered for my tastes. WOuld have maybe walked to your right a tad to bring the peak to the upper right of the frame and juxtapose it with the boats to the left bottom.

Colors/White Balance: Very nice colors.

Exposure: Looks pretty good....but I would have paid a little closer attentin to the left hand side as the dark spot in the trees is distracting. This is why I dont use filters in the field....they can be messy if you dont get them just right...

Creative use of Aperture/Shutter: Not applicable

Perspective: Nice foreground anchor...really nice view.

Creativity: Very good execution of a common theme.

Emotion: Very inviting...wish I was there! :~)

Forethought/Visualization: Again...common theme...so put you in the medium section of that.

Post processing: Nice work...colors are awesome...now if there was somthing you could do with the dark spot on the left it would be quite awesome.

Nice work.

Roman

Re: Lake George Sunrise [Re: Tony Bynum] #9530
07/22/07 11:55 AM
07/22/07 11:55 AM
Joined: Feb 2006
Donner Summit, CA
glamson Offline OP
Veteran
glamson  Offline OP
Veteran

Joined: Feb 2006
Donner Summit, CA
Quote:

nice job, i like it too, with the same comments as dave. I'll add a couple more. It looks to me like it's not level. This might be a product of barrel distortion or just the eye. I think when you go wide, especially with aps, you have to work the distortion into the shot by shooting it off kilter a bit, especially when there's a shoreline that dives off a bit like the one in your shot. even if you shoot it level, it will look tilted so you almost have to shoot it off a bit, or somehow transform it in PS.

It looks to be about <.5 degrees tilted to the left. I also think the boats look great, and I think I would like to see one shot with the entire boat intact.

I also would have off centered the peak in the background. It is a very eye catching feature and because of the power of the peak and the boats, and the lines that your eye follows from the boat 4 through the rest of them and then on up to the peak, the entire right side of the image gets lost. . . But then there's the over exposed reflection that keeps making me look at it and by the time I'm though with all that its out of balance - at least as far as my brain can tell.

Thanks for posting it, at the end of the day, it's a very nice shot. . .

Tony




Tony, Julie, Dave, Dan

As always thanks for the feedback. Everyone's points are well taken. I did knock down the bright sky reflection a little, but I think you're right that it wasn't enough. As far as the tilt, I have to admit I go back and forth on that one. The reason for the tilt is that the lake goes back to the left and that gives the receding line tilt. So the pic really looks like the reality of the situation. However, when I straighten it in PP it does look better compositionally. When I print this one I probably will straighten it.

With respect to getting more of the boats in, take my word for it that this was the widest shot I could get. I was at the very end of a small dock with no way to move further back and the lens as wide as possible (18mm). The only way I could have gotten wider was to have a 10-20mm lens and then the distortion lines would probably have reeked havoc. I did try to get a panorama shot of this but there was a big post and sign that precluded any panning. Had to go with what I could get here.

As far as centering the peak. Well on that one I was sort of stuck with the shooting position, but to tell the truth I like it a little off center.

Thanks again everyone for taking the time to look.

George

Re: Lake George Sunrise [Re: RomanJohnston] #9531
07/22/07 04:54 PM
07/22/07 04:54 PM
Joined: Feb 2006
Donner Summit, CA
glamson Offline OP
Veteran
glamson  Offline OP
Veteran

Joined: Feb 2006
Donner Summit, CA
Quote:

Composition/use of frame space: Good, but a little centered for my tastes. WOuld have maybe walked to your right a tad to bring the peak to the upper right of the frame and juxtapose it with the boats to the left bottom.

Colors/White Balance: Very nice colors.

Exposure: Looks pretty good....but I would have paid a little closer attentin to the left hand side as the dark spot in the trees is distracting. This is why I dont use filters in the field....they can be messy if you dont get them just right...

Creative use of Aperture/Shutter: Not applicable

Perspective: Nice foreground anchor...really nice view.

Creativity: Very good execution of a common theme.

Emotion: Very inviting...wish I was there! :~)

Forethought/Visualization: Again...common theme...so put you in the medium section of that.

Post processing: Nice work...colors are awesome...now if there was somthing you could do with the dark spot on the left it would be quite awesome.

Nice work.

Roman




Roman,

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately a couple of steps to right and I would have been treading water. Definitely some physical restraints on getting the best position for this one. I will work on the "black hole" on the left side. It didn't really register with me until you mentioned it. It is probably due to the ND filter. I'm not a big fan of filters these days either, what with HDR techniques, but the light for this one really called for some equalizing. I don't know if PP HDR would have been able to handle the range in this one. Funny you think it's too centered and Tony thinks it should be more centered. Everyone has their own ideas. I guess thats what makes for the great variety in photography.

Thanks again for looking.

George

Re: Lake George Sunrise [Re: glamson] #9532
07/22/07 05:05 PM
07/22/07 05:05 PM
Joined: Sep 2005
Portland Oregon
RomanJohnston Offline
Pooh-Bah
RomanJohnston  Offline
Pooh-Bah

Joined: Sep 2005
Portland Oregon
Actually Tony said OFFcentered the peak....I took that to mean make it out of center.

Roman

Re: Lake George Sunrise [Re: RomanJohnston] #9533
07/22/07 07:21 PM
07/22/07 07:21 PM
Joined: Feb 2006
Donner Summit, CA
glamson Offline OP
Veteran
glamson  Offline OP
Veteran

Joined: Feb 2006
Donner Summit, CA
Quote:

Actually Tony said OFFcentered the peak....I took that to mean make it out of center.

Roman




Roman,

Oops. I missed the OFF. Probably because to me the peak is already off center. I guess he meant even more. Unfortunately, it's academic because I couldn't have done it anyway. I was really locked into the spot I took the pick from.

Thanks for the heads up.

George

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