Ice and Sky

[David Eckels]

Comments?

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

I like it, but on my screen the sky looks a little too crunchy.

Dave

[luxborealis]

Good eye, David, I like how the texture in the clouds reflects the texture in the ice. However, my feeling is, the clouds and ice should be brighter, to give the feeling of clouds and ice. Right now, the ice appears not to be ice, but some kind of plastic.

[farbschlurf]

+1 on a little more brightness. Overall a great picture.

[Farmer]

Good eye, David, I like how the texture in the clouds reflects the texture in the ice. However, my feeling is, the clouds and ice should be brighter, to give the feeling of clouds and ice. Right now, the ice appears not to be ice, but some kind of plastic.

That's exactly the feel I get.  It almost looks like a 1960's sci-fi movie set or earlier Doctor Who episodes.

[RSL]

+1

[brandtb]

Dave the foreground and sky is really interesting in the right 3/4s....you might look at it with the left 1/4 cropped off. Sky is really choppy and harsh and that detracts from ice by making it all homogenous. What was color version like if there was? /B

[David Eckels]

Thanks for the comments. This was processed from a 5-frame HDR merge. The color version of the DNG is attached; note, not the "untouched" version. It was further processed in PS. After cloning out the bright spot of the sun, I decided I liked mostly the contrast in textures and tried to balance the sky and ice. Very high DR. Appreciate the differences in preference. I go back and forth in my own mind about the crunchiness of the sky and whether to stick with the low-key B/W rendering

[David Eckels]

Here's another attempt. The sky is not as interesting, to my eye, but all the principal elements are there. Added red filter in B/W rendering.