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NN
{K:26787} 2/2/2004
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Love the tones ... and the surface of the snow ...
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Christian Barrette
{K:21125} 1/29/2004
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Audrey, that's a neat idea to desaturate the blue shadows - I would prefer not to turn them B&W but I've been playing for a moment on various ways to desaturate the area and, with some time and being less tired than now, I think I could come out with somethnig interesting. BTW my second post, well I find it rather bland. Your suggestion to put some more contrast is a good one, but I wouldn't go as far as you - it's graphically good but takes me too far from the delicate snow surface I wanted to convey. I guess there is room for personnal taste here.
Chris, I do have an old Gossen lightmeter, not very fancy but still working. I should try it and see how if behaves wih a CCD. Only for the expriment, I'll try it soon and post the results. I'm so tired of the cold. It's been weeks well below zero, in the -20 C marks for days (that's around 0F if I remember well). When this Ice Age shot was taken, it was around -25 C and my fingers were really hurting after 4 or 5 minutes of handling the camera. So, I'm a bit lazy and waiting for better days to go out on a photo hike.
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Audrey Reid
{K:5872} 1/29/2004
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Haha, the three of us are on the way to starting a book right here :)
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Chris Lauritzen
{K:14949} 1/29/2004
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If you don't want to carry a gey card then an ambient reading hand meter would work good too as the snow won't effect it's reading.
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Audrey Reid
{K:5872} 1/29/2004
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Hello Christian, I guess snow conditions are hard to control and master for both film and digital cameras - at least for me that is! They say 'grey card' but who carrys a grey card around with them the whole time? I took some snow shots this morning christian, while I managed to keep the snow white with detail, the blue tint was there. With limited PS knowhow, the only way I could get rid of the tint was to select the snow, converted the whole area to B&W.
Carrying a ND filter all the time as Chris says is probably a very good idea, regardless of sun or snow, less silly then carrying a card :)
In your new version, cropping a bit off the sky is nice, the white of the snow could still do with a tad more contrast, I think.
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Christian Barrette
{K:21125} 1/29/2004
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I agree Chris. A ND filter would have been a better tool in this case.
You might know this article that has influenced the way I do my exposures lately :
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml
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Chris Lauritzen
{K:14949} 1/29/2004
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Christian,
With digital I guess its more of a production after the image is taken to get the correct exposure. If I was there shooting that on slide film which is close to the exposure range of digital then I probably would have exposed for the hills in the background and then used an ND filter over the snow to hold the exposure.
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Christian Barrette
{K:21125} 1/28/2004
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Thank you Audrey and Chris, I appreciate your contribution. I made about 4 or 5 shots of this scene, checking the histogram after each. It was really hard not to overexpose and blow out the white snow. This is actually mid-day sun ! The reflection on the white snow is just incredible !
The whitest snow is on the distant shoreline. In this shot, it is white (actually a bit blown out but it's acceptable). I had to compensate a full stop DOWN to keep the rest within the dynamic range of the CCD. Opening two stops would have washed out the entire image. That's how it goes with digitals.
The foreground snow you both find too dark is in the shade, so it shouldn't be white but you may be right that it has to be brighter somehow. I went back to the original and worked with the overall levels to brighten the middle values. And, oh, I did crop some of the sky too, as Audrey suggested.
This is quite compelling to me, so if you have time I think I could learn more from your additional comments.
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Chris Lauritzen
{K:14949} 1/28/2004
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Christian,
Very nice capture of a nice snow scene here but as Audrey said your exposure is off about two stops. The white of the snow and the deep blue sky confused your meter. When taking shots like this compensate at least two stops to help make the snow brighter (less grey).
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Audrey Reid
{K:5872} 1/27/2004
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Christian,
Here's my 'fiddled' copy. I also took the chance and cropped the sky a bit. Let me know if you think adding the white has improved or not.
You know, if this were mine, I'd have a go and converted to B&W as well, think the composition will lend itself well, but again, you may need to add quite a bit of white. Nice to see you shooting so much. Audrey
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Christian Barrette
{K:21125} 1/27/2004
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Nice to see you back (here) Audrey.
Please, go ahead with your suggestion. Clear winter days make incredibly blue shades, but it is also my feeling that digitals tend to exagerate the effect. Perhaps a lightly warming filter would help but this could lead to greenish sky... Your selective retouch is perhaps the solution.
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Audrey Reid
{K:5872} 1/27/2004
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Christian, I see you have been very busy with your camera this winter? I've lots to catch up with, but this one pops out. I thought I won't read others comments and give my 2 cents worth then read on......
This is a lovely winter composition with nice eye leading snow tracks in the foreground. You've done a great job retaining the snow texture, and the late or early light is wonderful.
Nic-pick? I'm a little bothered by the snow not being as white as should be especially in the foreground, so played with the image in PS, (image-adjustment-selective colour)added more white. Seems to have made a difference. Let me know if you would like me to attach it?
Otherwise, I think this is a really nice shot.
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Matej Maceas
{K:24381} 1/26/2004
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To crop this or not seems to be an interesting problem. As you probably know, my attitude towards cropping is somewhat reserved. Even here I would say that if you composed the image like this in the first place, you must have seen an aesthetic reason for doing so. Furthermore, I would ask 'does the sky distract from the main subject?' instead of, or at least in addition to, 'does it add anything?'.
So, does the sky distract? In my opinion, no. The snow wrinkles are reasonably clear in the image, and the large foreground area is dominant enough. Does the sky add anything? I think it contributes to the feeling of cold that I get from the photo. Such a clear sky on a winter day is something I associate with freezing temperatures.
I have taken the photo into PS to try several crops with different aspect ratios. Nothing I came up with struck me as clearly better than the original version. Also contrary to the intention of reducing the amount of sky in favour of the foreground, I found myself removing some of the foreground instead, to move that bush isle closer to the bottom third.
In the end I guess I would leave the photo as it is. However, I'll be interested to see any crops you may come up with.
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Christian Barrette
{K:21125} 1/25/2004
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Matej,
That's how a polarizer works, according to the angle of the camera to the sun. Sometimes, like here, the effect is too evident and looks unnatural. In such cases, I would prefer a gradual filter. In this case perhaps a neutral grey of -1 would have come handy. Perhaps even no filter at all as this was shot at least 1 stop down to avoid blowing out the white snow - so that would have kept the sky deep and saturated.
I thought I could crop some of the blue sky whch doesn't bring much. I mean, what really caught me here were the ripples on the snow. I'd like to hear your point of view on this if you have time.
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Matej Maceas
{K:24381} 1/23/2004
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It's nice how the lines in the snow lead the eye first towards that little island of shrubs, and then curve away to point towards the birches in the distance. The exposure looks good, I like that the sunlit snow in the background is still readable. Any thoughts on why the polarizer left that brighter patch of sky on the right?
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Mike Marcotte
{K:3948} 1/20/2004
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Good composition. The close foreground gives it real depth. The rippled snow reminds me of desert sand only 100 degrees [F]colder.
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Govert Nieuwland
{K:674} 1/20/2004
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great patterns in the snow! i love snow. nice picture!
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Marusnik Bela
{K:11611} 1/20/2004
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Very nice composition, excellent work!Congrats!
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Don Loseke
{K:32503} 1/20/2004
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Great texture and lighting. The polarizer really brings out the sky and details in the snow. Very nice. Sure glad that I am in Az. Don.
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xy x
{K:41915} 1/20/2004
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wonderful winter scene and atmosphere, great lines, shadows and lighting, perfect composed, congrats, best regards
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Hugo de Wolf
{K:185110} 1/20/2004
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Christian, the lines in the snow are excellent..... the skimming light is perfect; very impressive. It enhances the atmosphere of solitude and desolation. The twigs in the foreground in compination with the long shadows and lines in the snow lead the eye nicely to the right corner on the image, just about where the treeline starts. This provides a subtle contrast in your photo. Great work!
Cheers,
Hugo
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Marcos Duarte
{K:15402} 1/20/2004
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beautiful Landscape.
Nice shot.
Congrat.
Marcos
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