Crater Lake Sunrise

Pretty dramatic, but it feels a little too dark for me. I like the sky and the water a lot.

Smoke has been a way of life in the Sierra this summer, so I can relate.

--P

I can laze for days and gaze into the haze, but I have been to this park and this seems a bit dark.

That being said, I am enjoying the mysterious mood of the processing.

There seems to be some sort of a strange artifact in the sky near the upper right. Some sort of a gray colored shape that seems to be behind the pink clouds.

Lovely colors and composition. I like the realistic quality of the exposure, but I'm not sure how well it would print if that were your ultimate goal.. Maybe brighten a tish?

As for the artifact mentioned, I wonder if it is a shadow from the crater rim projecting upward? I've seen that happen down there when the sun first breaks the horizon and the rim's shadow s are in the clouds. Or...might be something on the lens?

This is a really fine image Ted. I still think there are a few things to really bring this to perfection. The overall image is a bit dark, but the actual landscape areas feel too dark. Bring out a little more light in the landscape and I think it would make a huge difference. The way I look at it now, if the sun is completely visible, it would still cast some sort of bright glow even through smoke (from my experience) so it would still feel natural. The other thing I noticed was the reflection on the right side of the lake. It almost has a muddy smeared appearance as if you cloned over that spot. Hard to say without being there, but it caught my eye. Also, there are some spots on the top of the frame you missed cropping leaving a few white lines. Even if you brighten this up and want to get it printed, you might have the same effect your looking for as prints are usually a stop under exposed.

The light is over the top and a very good comp. I do agree that it could be lightened some. I have the same conditions at Crater last year with lots of smoke in the air.

I hadn't really noticed the darkness at first, but as I kept looking I began to agree with the others. Still, though, awesome image of crazy unique conditions.

Agree on some darkness but the composition is awesome. Easy fix to an otherwise very nice image.

Add me to the "a little less dark" camp Ted. Aside from that, and a little distortion in the trees, this just might be the coolest CR image I've ever seen...

Well it seems unanimous that this is too dark. I find it a bit odd because I reviewed this shot with a facebook group I'm in, and not much was said about it being too dark. In fact I had a lighter version and was suggested that I make it darker! Not sure what I will do, I like this a lot.

Peter, as for the fore ground having more highlights from the sun, they didn't until about 20 minutes after this. Because the sun was being so filtered by that distant smoke, there wasn't much strong light coming off of it. The foreground has some highlights as it is, and that's about all there was at this moment. Also, I didn't do any cloning on the water, that's just how the reflection looked. My guess is that it's a darker part of the sky, and maybe that water had some chop in it at the time making the reflection a little less clear. I don't know. I guess I could copy the sky and paint it in to get back some of the reflection detail.

Also, for that weird spot in the upper right, that's simply just a cloud that's higher up in the sky that isn't receiving any light. I should probably clone it out. I was aware of it, and of course didn't like how it looked, but it wasn't bothering me too much.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! Some good things to think about.

Personally my first thought was that it seems a tad dark too. But a minor quibble in a wonderful image. Love the intense colours.

Beautiful shot Ted, one of my new favorites from CL. As far as the brightness level, I think how you have it now is perfect for projecting it onto a white screen in a dark room, but a little dark for this venue or for making a print. Really fantastic job on the comp.

This is a unique composition Ted I feel the forest fire haze was a bonus here to capture a different mystical mood of Crater Lake! I think why people feel it is to dark is because the "glow" you have in the foreground is causing the background of the image to seem to dark. I feel the background of the image is just fine and typical and natural for this situation with the haze present. If you darken the foreground a small amount to balance the image, this may solve the issue the public has IMO

I agree that a few odd clouds could be cloned out.

I recall my last trip there and exploring all over that side of the lake trying to get a view point/composition where the top of the cone of wizard Island was not touching the far side of the crater rim. But could not find it!! It would be ideal if there was separation there to see some lake. I can see that you found a spot quite high on the rim, and still could not get that separation

Image !!

I've messed around with brightening up the shadows, but I'm just not fond of it. Doesn't feel right! You can judge for yourself, but as of now, I'm partial to the way I did it initially. Just love the mood of it. A lighter version could maybe work better if I put a little more time into it, but this was just a shadows luminosity selection with a bump in the curves.

James, I know what you mean about the lack of a gap. I had thought about actually moving the island down a tad in photoshop to put at least a small sliver of seperation, but decided it was more trouble than it was worth. You're right, there aren't many options to get high enough on this stretch of the rim. You can easily get far enough above it up on the watchman, but not the best angle for sunrise at this time of year. I'm ok with it!

Excellent, love the view
what if you give some since of light that coming from the sun side

I like this a lot. The top 2/3 is superb, I find the FG a bit crunchy, maybe ease up a bit on the sharpening?
Well done.

wonderful mood and light

Great POV, composition and colors, all are very unique to CL images. As to the light/dark debate, I found the repost FG to be slightly better as it opened up more of the details, though both versions are excellent. I would recommend against cloning out any clouds, just personal preference, but they add a nice texture, the "artifact" is clearly a high cloud with different light and adds nicely to the depth of the sky. Well done.

Lake below the island is too undersaturated and bright (should naturally be more saturated and darker). Otherwise pretty darn sweet.

Fantastic shot! Very powerful and moody.

Chris