Mt. Doom

[Harald L]

I prefer the name from Lord of the Rings as I can't speak Mt. Ngauruhoe properly.

[David Eckels]

This image has potential, but the sky is overdone IMHO and the foreground is too bland for my taste. Toning down the contrast in the clouds without losing the dappled shadows on the mountains? Upping the saturation in the f/g? Some will find my comment ironic b/c I have received similar critiques! Other ideas: Panoramic crop? Do you have more sky to work with? I find the long bladed plants in the f/g distracting and if I move the bottom of the photo out of my monitor's frame, I like it better, but then that's more of pano aspect.

[Harald L]

... Some will find my comment ironic b/c I have received similar critiques! ...

Bullshit. Thank you for your contribution. I've coped several times with this shot and this version is just an idea to overcome the over-saturated colors of New Zealand. I have a lot of pictures of NZ's cold rain forrest and that heavy-tinted green is a real challenge. I will come back with further ideas...

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

... the sky is overdone IMHO and the foreground is too bland for my taste...

+1

[William Walker]

Why not "go the whole hog" and desaturated it completely?

[Chris Calohan]

I think Dave and William are both right in their assessments. In this edit, I've gone to a full monochrome with three changes of emphasis based on your own assessment.

I refocused the mid quadrant as the prominent focal point to give the eye a place to rest momentarily before attacking Mt. Doom

I darkened the foreground to assist in pushing the eye upward

I de-saturated and de-structured the clouds to allow Mt. Doom to thrust upward and not be overpowered.

In addition, for my own sense of balance, I went to a pano crop, placing the lower thirds quadrant line  at the break between the foreground bushes and the mid-ground in the mid-quadrant. It is just another opinion.

[Harald L]

Thank you guys for your suggestions. I will come back to it as soon as I recovered my archive-system.

[David Eckels]

Chris, very interesting to see your analysis and explanation of your strategy to deal with the image. Are/were you by any chance an art teacher? I do like what you did and the way it emphasized Mt Doom. Harlem, thanks for sharing this with us.

[francois]

FWIW, I had exactly the same feelings mentioned by David but I love Chris' B&W version. Mt Doom is even more threatening in B&W.

[RSL]

Very nice, Chris.

[Chris Calohan]

Chris, very interesting to see your analysis and explanation of your strategy to deal with the image. Are/were you by any chance an art teacher? I do like what you did and the way it emphasized Mt Doom. Harlem, thanks for sharing this with us.

I was an art teacher for 20 years. I wondered if my teacher voice was coming through. 

[Damon Lynch]

I prefer the name from Lord of the Rings as I can't speak Mt. Ngauruhoe properly.

The pronunciation is not difficult! English pronunciation: Nah-eu-ru-ho-eh. Māori IPA: [ŋauɾuhoe]. When I was a kid I'd pronounce it Nara-ho-ee, but that is probably as much wrong as it is right.

[William Walker]

Very nice, Chris.

An altogether more pleasing result, I think.

[Harald L]

Thank you again for your helpful C&C. Particularly the pano-crop works very well for me. I've added another picture from a different angle of view