Colorado Vibrance

Gallery: LandscapePosted January 3, 2012175 views7 comments

Okay, maybe not a very good title for the image, but the tall trees behind the stream really caught my attention, along with the different layers, colors, etc. Also, the mountain in the background seems to give just a touch more interest to the scene.

This was taken last year up in the Rockies, on an incredible outing. Earlier the same day, we were able to see three bull elk walking around in a lake, and some incredible blooms were spicing up the mountain sides. Deer had velvet antlers, and so on. Well, I guess everyone has to put up with those mosquito pests...

Canon Rebel XSI 10-22mm @ 11mm
ISO 100---f/16---1/6 sec. with 0.9 soft GND filter (if I remember correctly)

BTW, I see a lot of photos taken here using DOF blending. Can anyone point me to a tutorial/person/book that/who could help me learn this?

Would love to hear thoughts on this image...

Comments

7 comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on January 4, 2012 at 2:32 AM

Nathan,

I really like this. What I find appealing is how you've managed a very strong vertical composition for a scene that I think would work perfectly as a horizontal - especially with the horizontal flow of the stream. But I think you have a very well balanced comp from the foreground rocks and flowers, up through the beautifully textured water, rocky stream bed and then filling the sky with the interesting line up of trees and the perfectly placed mountain in the background. I think this is a beautifully crafted image. No nits or suggestions.

Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments

Comment posted by Phil Pogledich on January 4, 2012 at 12:10 PM

Works well for me. I like the foreground flowers, the distant meanders of the stream, and the bare trees against the sky. Processing looks great too.

I believe John Williams authored an article on DOF and exposure blending about 1-2 years ago that you can find in the archives here on NPN. I haven't tried his DOF blending technique, relying instead from time to time on the automated DOF blending in CS4. Frankly, the CS4 DOF blending has created many headaches for me and I usually have to do some manual clean-up after running it. The steps to run it are slightly complicated and more than I can remember right now, but you can probably find a basic tutorial on the internet without too much difficulty.

Registered on August 24, 2009, 123 Posts, 3099 Comments

Comment posted by Nathan Apodaca on January 4, 2012 at 1:46 PM

Thanks for the comments, Lon and Phil!

Phil---That article looks very interesting, to say the least. Thanks for pointing it out to me...

Registered on November 16, 2011, 67 Posts, 1127 Comments

Comment posted by SandyRichardsBrown on January 4, 2012 at 4:43 PM

I'm struck by the various lines, textures, elements here that all combine to make a very compelling image. As Lon said, vertical of horizontal streams often don't work well, but this is excellent.
Sandy

Registered on November 24, 2003, 3937 Posts, 12909 Comments

Comment posted by Nancy Lea Sandy on January 4, 2012 at 7:18 PM

Nice layering in this composition. and beautiful colors. unique and lovely

Registered on January 24, 2011, 576 Posts, 6942 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on January 7, 2012 at 9:17 PM

I like the comp with it's layers and depth. Could actually see pushing the Vibrance slider a bit to the right here to bring out the color more.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments

Comment posted by Nathan Apodaca on January 8, 2012 at 3:50 PM

It's great to hear everyone's thoughts on this!

Tony---(I mentioned this a while back) for some reason my photos turn a bit gray, or become less saturated when viewed here on NPN, than they do before I upload them.

Always love hearing what to improve!

Registered on November 16, 2011, 67 Posts, 1127 Comments