autumn in the Adirondacks

[John McDermott]

This is my first foray in uploading an image for commentary. This was taken in the Adirondack Mountains in New York state, USA in the fall of 2009. Driving down a country road absorbing the beautiful scenery, a quick stop for a series of images of which this is the best. I'm specifically interested in how you think it could be improved by post processing in either/or LR3 & PSCS5.

[sdwilsonsct]

Hi John,
I can see why you took this picture, the colors are really attractive. My only suggestion are "pre-processing". I think I would have moved around to try and get a better composition. The foreground seems different from the rest and perhaps doesn't add much. Maybe a sandwich of fall foliage between blue lake and sky, for example, would bring out the colors even more.
Happy shooting,
Scott

[RSL]

John, To put what Scott said a different way: There's no there there. It's a pretty scene, but as Walker Evans once said of a sunset by one of his students: "It's a beautiful sunset. So what?"

But in spite of my vicious criticism, you're heading in the right direction. What you need to do at this point is go to the library or to the bookstore and check our or buy and study the work of some of the masters. If landscape is your thing, study Ansel Adams for starters, but there are many others. If you're interested in pictures of people study Henri Cartier-Bresson and Walker Evans for starters. There's a world of worthwhile work out there, and all of it has a center of interest: a there there. Go for it.

[John R Smith]

John

This is a perfectly nice picture. Despite the often polarised opinions here, there is no good reason that every photograph has to be a solar-plexus wrenching, gob-smacking work of art. It all depends on context. This sort of thing is what I often call a "calender shot", which means that it will make a very usable magazine illustration or library shot. My own local newspaper would love it, they run a picture just like this every day as a half-page spread (and they pay money for it). Addressing your original question, as to post-processing, well you have got most things right - it's in focus, things look level, and the colours are very good without being obviously over-saturated. The only thing I might do in LR would be to add a grad filter in the sky, just to darken the top of the frame by a very subtle amount.

John