NT

Gallery: LandscapePosted March 24, 2012551 views17 comments

Hi all,

this is my firt post here.

This is a view of the "Pale di S.Martino" mountains, in Dolomities. I hope you enjoy a view from Italy, which is not so common on this forum.

I usually visit this forum as I found here a lot of good inspiration, and I'd like to receive as much critiques as you can, as I am always try to learn and improve.

About this image: the clouds are enlightened from the sunset (that was at my back), while the rightmost mountain peak is enligthened from a small town in the valley behind.

I shot this on my way back from an afternoon spent hiking.

You can imagine my surprise when I saw all these stars on the picture (I was able to see only few constellations at naked eyes).

Comments

17 comments

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on March 24, 2012 at 8:57 AM

The sky and the mountain are gorgeous, almost other-worldly; the brown hill in the foreground not so much. It is very noisy and lacking in detail. A crop to just below the lighter area on the hill would do much to relieve the over strong presence of that hill, cropping almost to a panorama. Some selective noise reduction of the hill might benefit as well.

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Jorne de Bruin on March 24, 2012 at 11:49 AM

Welcome Marco! Lovely scene and the stars work wonders with the colourful clouds and imposing peaks! I do agree with Philip above about his suggestions, but overal a very nice first post! Looking forward to seeing more from you!

Registered on June 26, 2008, 178 Posts, 2136 Comments

Comment posted by Rick Turner on March 24, 2012 at 11:52 AM

Welcome aboard and lovely capture. Please share with us the exposure, lens etc. details.

Registered on February 18, 2012, 534 Posts, 2755 Comments

Comment posted by Jared Atencio on March 24, 2012 at 11:58 AM

Welcome Marco and quite a nice first post! I actually like the comp here but would prefer a slightly darker FG leading into these majestic peaks and incredible sky. The saturation in the sky is a bit much for my tastes (esp. the blues) and not sure how much of this is noise and how much may be oversharpening for web, but some work there would help the presentation as well. I love the contrast of the swirling clouds and stars and think a bit more work on this will put t his over the top

Registered on June 23, 2009, 21 Posts, 422 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on March 24, 2012 at 12:34 PM

Welcome to NPN. I really like the stars, clouds, and rugged peaks. I agree with the other comments about too much saturation and a modest crop from the bottom. It looks like an amazing place and with some modest changes this image shows that off well.

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on March 24, 2012 at 12:45 PM

Fine image, Marco. The detail created by the snow does a great job of adding light to the non-sky areas.

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

Comment posted by Kyle McDougall on March 24, 2012 at 3:16 PM

Welcome!! A really stunning image! The sky is fantastic and so is the faint light on the peaks. I agree with the other suggestions already mentioned and think they could really help complete this image.

Registered on June 10, 2011, 9 Posts, 52 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Metternich on March 24, 2012 at 6:46 PM

Welcome to NPN. Nice shot. Almost like a painting. The larger might benefit from some careful luminance noise reduction. What camera did you use and settings?

Registered on June 19, 2009, 276 Posts, 6240 Comments

Comment posted by Rick Lundh on March 24, 2012 at 6:47 PM

Thats some beautiful color and those stars really make the image sing!

Registered on April 28, 2004, 774 Posts, 4351 Comments

Comment posted by Aaron Feinberg on March 24, 2012 at 8:25 PM

Really noisey...really really...but badass view. Great conditions and capture of light

aF

Registered on October 26, 2009, 399 Posts, 2789 Comments

Comment posted by Daniel Rappaport on March 24, 2012 at 9:50 PM

Wonderful image. Like the way the clouds reaching up to the stars mirror the peak.

Registered on September 9, 2009, 294 Posts, 2006 Comments

Comment posted by Yiming Hu on March 24, 2012 at 10:57 PM

Welcome! View nice comp. Yes, the picture is very noise, and can benefit from some careful noise reduction.

Registered on April 28, 2011, 38 Posts, 733 Comments

Comment posted by Marco Presi on March 25, 2012 at 4:02 PM

Hey thanks to all! Thanks for the comments. I'll try the crop as suggested. About the noise, I already applied a lot of reduction. I don't think I can go further. Unfortunately, the D300 doesn't allow clean images at high ISO. Anyway, when printed at A2 size, on a Canson Rag paper (for display in my house), at "viewing distance" it is not so bad, the noise is almost noticeable.

For those who asked: D300 12mm, f/4, 30", ISO 6400. I didn't expose longer, in order to have the stars fixed.

I look forward to add some more images soon!

Ciao,

Marco

Registered on February 21, 2012, 5 Posts, 18 Comments

Comment posted by James Fougère on March 26, 2012 at 12:15 AM

Nice mountain range and detail Marco

The starry night sky and clouds look great! Well done! I look forward to seeing more of your work from Italy etc.

Registered on October 25, 2010, 41 Posts, 831 Comments

Comment posted by James Fougère on March 26, 2012 at 12:16 AM

Nice mountain range and detail Marco

The starry night sky and clouds look great! Well done! I look forward to seeing more of your work from Italy etc.

Registered on October 25, 2010, 41 Posts, 831 Comments

Comment posted by Ben Horne on March 28, 2012 at 1:24 AM

The foreground layers really help give this photo an excellent sense of depth. It feels like something from a fantasy world. It works very well as is, but my only suggestion would be to perhaps darken down the foreground jsuta tad so it reads a bit more as a night image.

Registered on August 27, 2009, 51 Posts, 959 Comments

Comment posted by Marco Presi on March 28, 2012 at 4:22 PM

Dear Ben, thank you so much for this nice comment! I'll consider also to make the foreground a little bit!

ciao,

marco

Registered on February 21, 2012, 5 Posts, 18 Comments