Kibbie Lake

[bdosserman]

Here are a few shots of Kibbie Lake at dawn. I've played a bit with which composition/crop I like best, and have also gone back and forth on how much to bring up the shadows. Are any of these any good, and if so which one appeals most? Any suggestions on processing?

Thanks,

Brian

[degrub]

Do you have access on foot to the lake itself ?

[bdosserman]

Do you have access on foot to the lake itself ?

Yes. Most of the people in our group went swimming later that day, but I'm a wimp.

Brian

[shutterpup]

Very light top portion/much too dark bottom portion tells the story of why I don't care for any of them.

Maybe bringing out the shadows would help?

[amolitor]

I think shutterpup is basically on to it.

Is this about the dawn light, or not? Either give us more of that ethereal dawn light, with the misty soft mountains (and a little lake at the bottom), or make it about the lake (in which case, as dawn, it's all in shadow and kind of flat anyways, so wait a bit..)

Possibly a little later could could have given us the lake with the tops of the trees kissed by the dawn light or something, but as it is these feel pretty schizophrenic as images. The material is excellent, and you seem to have gotten the tonal range you wanted into the frame, so there's some strong technical work here as well. The images just aren't conveying much of anything coherent yet.

[RSL]

Superb lighting in #3 and #4, which I'd guess is a crop of #3, Brian. I've been in places in Colorado that could be the double of this location and I know that the feeling in the last two is exactly right.

[sdwilsonsct]

Very light top portion/much too dark bottom portion tells the story of why I don't care for any of them.

Maybe bringing out the shadows would help?

Or working with earlier light?

Really liked your Huangshan contribution.

Scott

[bdosserman]

Hi everyone,
   Thanks for your comments. I prefer 3 and 4, I think because of the lighting imbalance issues raised by shutterpup and others. 3 and 4 (the latter a crop of the former, as RSL said) seem to me the most balanced in terms of distribution of light and dark (and also the shadows aren't as hopelessly underexposed). Maybe I'll revisit them after I've invested in better software; I don't think I've gotten it quite right yet, but my current software makes it painful to do anything other than global curves adjustment.
   In the mean time, here are a couple more: the first is from the same series, and the second taken about 10 minutes later at the shore of the lake. Do these work better?
   Thanks,

Brian