hello again,
unfortunately it has been a while since i have been able to go out and shoot. i miss those times, when travelling ment exploring the wild and hunting light - and i’m glad i did just that when i have had the chance. nowadays i consider myself lucky when i find a few hours to dig in my archive. half reminiscing, half looking for something to process (or finish).
here’s a shot i kept coming back to over and over again, and now consider done. although it has been three years already, i remember that winter morning quite well. sun rises late in winter, and when we climbed the icy trail it was still pitch black. it was the first time i had made the pre-sunrise trip to laguna de los tres all the way from town. my clothes were wet from sweat but i didn’t bother getting changed yet. i went right down to the lake and set up my gear. instinctively. i liked the ice formations. the crisp air. the warm glow. the stars and clouds were an extra (and both disappeared within less than minute)…
it turned out to be the best shot of that morning (not counting the one of @Andrew_Waddington and the bird that had landed on his camera). sunrise was crap. i decided to come back another day.
i have a deep personal connection with this shot and like it a lot. not sure how it speaks to viewers who have not been there. curious to hear your thoughts!
cheers,
joerg
@Andrew_Waddington - the fact that i can tag you tells me you might be here, are you?
What technical feedback would you like if any?
any
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
any
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
single exposure. had to work quite a bit to bring out the stars.
If you would like your image to be eligible for a feature on the NPN Instagram (@NaturePhotoNet), add the tag ‘ig’ and leave your Instagram username below.
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
3 Likes
Well it doesn’t really need any words of encouragement or advice just simply astonishing will suffice me thinks. I don’t really know where this place is but I am guessing either Pakistan Kakoram or close to there or the other side of the world in South America.
1 Like
Great shot Joerg,
Yes I remember that morning very well.
I’m back in El Chalten and staying through another winter. Back in my cabin.
Sure hope you can visit.
Andy
1 Like
Joerg, exquisite. That light is beautiful and the foreground is very appealing. I really like the alpen glow reflection on the ice/water amd even though the cloud is not what one would like to have for a glorious sunrise, its location in this image is very appropriate. It gives accent to the sky without stealing the show from the glow.
1 Like
This is really beautiful scene Joerg! The light is breathtaking, and I love the stars. The ice makes a great foreground, and I like how some of the light on the peaks is reflected in the water.
I do think that the 2:3 aspect ratio isn’t quite ideal though. It has a tendency to stretch apart vertical compositions, and I think that is happening a bit here. For me, the key elements are the “island” of ice, and the killer mountains in the background. The extreme foreground leads nicely into the composition, but it also competes with that island of ice in the middle. I have come to love the 4:5 aspect ratio for vertical photos because of how calm and quiet it is — it works very well with calm and quiet scenes like this. That being said, I know you chose this composition for a reason, so simply suggesting you crop the sky and the foreground wouldn’t be right. I came up with a different solution.
I pulled your image into photoshop, and tried something. I used the marquee tool to select the lower portion of the photo, from the lower tip of that island of ice, down to the bottom of the composition. I then used the transform tool to shorten that area. This helps to compress the extreme foreground which helps to reduce the wide angle distortion. It also places more emphasis on the ice island, and gets us a bit closer to the 4:5 aspect ratio. I then slightly compressed the area from the top of that ice island to the extreme edge of the lake — again, just a small amount. This bought us a small amount closer to the 4:5 ratio.
Finally, I did a very minor overall crop that took just a little bit of sky, and a little bit of the foreground to get all the way to a 4:5, but without losing any key elements.
The other thing I noticed was that the dominant peaks feel almost a bit flat. The shadows on the dominant left peak are quite bright. Though this is likely just the way the light was, I felt that darkening those shadows a bit and restoring a bit of contrast only to the peaks gave them more dimensionality, especially with that wonderful light that is hitting them.
This is definitely a photo you should be very proud of. The light is killer, and I know it’s just a personal bias of mine against vertical 2:3 aspect ratios, but give it a shot and see what you think.
1 Like
Joerg, this image is certainly one to be very proud of, it is simply marvelous. It certainly speaks to me without having been there. The cool/warm color contrast really makes this pop. And I just love the geometric patterns of the ice chunks. The combination of the color contrast and ice patterns is killer.
While I see the point @Ben_Horne makes about a 3:2 aspect ratio stretching apart vertical compositions, I have to admit that because I learned photography on 35mm slide film I am hardwired to look for 3:2 compositions. I agree with Ben that the ice island with the reflected glow above it should be emphasized more. Another way to do this would have been to use 3:2 aspect ratio but use a slightly longer focal length to eliminate some of the near foreground as presented. This would make the ice island more prominent.
@Ben_Horne, I read through the technique you described, and it sounds interesting. Any chance that you could post another reply that shows how it looks after you applied that approach?
1 Like
you raise an interesting point @Ben_Horne. one that has been raised on my previous post as well as on others before that. although i have been playing around a lot whenever a different aspect ratio has been suggested, i have not yet quite understood the difficulties some people have with the vertical 2:3 format. i do have all the common (2:3, 4:5, 5:7) aspect ratios as presets in the LR crop module and frequently try whatever works best for an image. most of the times i keep coming back to the 2:3. to my eyes (brain) 4:5 feels to square to be a vertical comp.
that said, i played around with this image as well. i tried the selective scaling method and a few other things. in the end i settled with a 5:7 crop of the image as originally presented. 5:7 somehow feels vertical enough. i’m still not sure if i might switch back to the original 2:3. i do miss that little part of the sky and the foreground.
you are right about the left flank of the mountain. the more i looked the more i could see the flatness. i did some selective burning and dodging, and have the feeling that that increased the perceived depth. thanks for pointing that out @Ben_Horne!
there’s another thing that i noticed looking at the file - i don’t know if you see it. there is some weirdness going on with the magentas in the sky, which is due to the srgb conversion. the original file doesn’t show it and although i incorporate soft-proofing even on web images (prior to the srgb conversion) i couldn’t eliminate a certain shift in colour.
thanks for your comments @Ed_McGuirk, @Adhika_Lie, @Ian_Cameron! good to see you’re alive @Andrew_Waddington - would love to see some of the stuff you shot since we last met!
here’s a new version:
cheers,
joerg
1 Like
I think this is really beautiful. The early morning light is really pretty. Love the flow of the image up through the ice / open water to the mountain range.
I read through the other comments on the image. Always interesting to hear what others see. I had a slightly uncomfortable feeling about the length of the foreground and wanted to play with the same concept as @Ben_Horne mentioned using a transform. I did that to shorten up the foreground but tried to roughly maintain the size of the ice / water.
I also wanted to see what it looked like with a little of the luminance toned down on the peaks and a very slight shift in hue. The last thing I wanted to look at was the mountains on the left/right of the image to bring in a bit more light there and a bit more light on the foreground. Just some thoughts as I studied your image.
Here’s the result of a little PS work.
2 Likes
hey @Keith_Bauer, thanks for taking the time to think about this shot and to take it into PS.
i played around a bit more but settled with something close to the version before. i like the tame highlights and a hint of warm light on the distant ice. i didn’t go with the emphasized light on the left slope - i want the viewer to go directly to the mountain and explore the slopes later on.
cheers and thanks again everyone!
2 Likes
