Yellowstone's Mammoth Hot Springs Main Terrace

slpollett · May 26, 2014

Criticism and/or critique of this one is welcome and appreciated.

This is a shot of the main terrace of Mammoth Hot Springs at Yellowstone National Park. I took this picture mid-May 2014. This is not snow in the foreground. The 'soil' is chalky & powdery at this location. (It is snow on the mountains in the background.)

I like the picture a lot, but seems to be missing "something" but I can't put my finger on it. Is it my processing? I didn't do much to it beyond adjusting contrast, shadow, & highlight plus a small bump in blue saturation. I'll listen to any and all suggestions. Thanks.

Sherry

kdog · May 26, 2014

Good comp of an interesting subject, Sherry. What's missing is the light. You've got bland midday light which rarely produces outstanding photos. Now picture that same sky lit up in pinks, yellows, oranges and purples of a gorgeous sunrise or sunset which in turn adds color to the entire scene -- then you have a wall hanger.

slpollett · May 26, 2014

Yep...maybe that's the problem. My camera (Central time) marked the time as a little before 1:00, so local time was right around noon. The weather was mostly cloudy the whole time we were at Yellowstone, so that gave us a predominately gray sky most of the time. We did get little peeks of sunshine & blue sky, but not much. No nice sunsets either. The areas we visited were either covered in a lot of snow or were around the geyser basins (grey/white/steamy). So combined with the cloudy days, most of my photos from the entire visit are kind of blah. Such a beautiful place and I just didn't get the images I wanted.

We were actually on our way out of the park when we stopped at the Mammoth Hot Springs. It ended up being one of my favorite stops.

Thanks for taking time to comment.

Sherry

JC · May 26, 2014

slpollett wrote: »

Criticism and/or critique of this one is welcome and appreciated.

This is a shot of the main terrace of Mammoth Hot Springs at Yellowstone National Park. I took this picture mid-May 2014. This is not snow in the foreground. The 'soil' is chalky & powdery at this location. (It is snow on the mountains in the background.)

I like the picture a lot, but seems to be missing "something" but I can't put my finger on it. Is it my processing? I didn't do much to it beyond adjusting contrast, shadow, & highlight plus a small bump in blue saturation. I'll listen to any and all suggestions. Thanks.

Sherry

On my monitor, and looking at the histogram, the foreground is overexposed. You've lost all the weathering details, the broken brown/taupe crusts that form in the sinter, which is why you have to mention that the foreground isn't snow. I'd isolate the terrace on a layer, and move the black point higher, or draw down the curves line for the terrace. Maybe a local contrast enhancement would work, but I think that just moving the black point for the terrace and leaving the mountains alone (a la a digital ND filter), or applying just a tiny stretch to the sky would make the shot more interesting.

I've seen this shot a lot, and always wondered what it look like getting on the ground and shooting up at the dead tree, trying to get the base of the tree closer to the sinter/background line, would look like. You've framed it well though.

I think the mid-day sun is ok, it adds a starkness that is appropriate to the scene, it doesn't have to be soft and fuzzy with golden hour light.

Or maybe try B&W? use the blue layer for the foreground, and stretch it as per above, and the red layer for the sky and clouds?

Cornflake · May 27, 2014

I agree with what's been said, and in particular I think the absence of local contrast in the foreground soil is a problem. I don't know what software you have, but in Lightroom I'd probably try a graduated filter over the white area with a clarity increase. In Color Efex Pro, I'd try the tonal contrast tool and increase the tonal contrast in the highlights.

slpollett · May 27, 2014

Thank you JC and Cornflake.

I have Lightroom & Photoshop, but I don't have Color Efex Pro. I will try the graduated filter on the foreground to see what that can do. I really like this image for some reason, but it does need some work to be better.

It was a really bright day and the sun on the white chalky soil made it tough. I couldn't see my lcd screen good enough to tell what I was getting, so yes it is overexposed a bit. I had my camera set on 1/320, f11, ISO 200 and still too bright, doggone it.

Thank you both for taking time to comment and critique. It is appreciated.

Sherry P.

Stumblebum · May 27, 2014

slpollett wrote: »

Thank you JC and Cornflake.

I have Lightroom & Photoshop, but I don't have Color Efex Pro. I will try the graduated filter on the foreground to see what that can do. I really like this image for some reason, but it does need some work to be better.

It was a really bright day and the sun on the white chalky soil made it tough. I couldn't see my lcd screen good enough to tell what I was getting, so yes it is overexposed a bit. I had my camera set on 1/320, f11, ISO 200 and still too bright, doggone it.

Thank you both for taking time to comment and critique. It is appreciated.

Sherry P.

In LR, you can apply multiple effects in same grad filter. So you can try these for foreground elements......

a) reduce exposure b) increase clarity a tad c) pull back highlights d) pull back whites e) increase contrast

In general I believe for bright and reflective areas, if they are prominent part of the picture, as is the case here, you expose for those details and what you end up elsewhere, you either live with it or try and fix in pp.

Another option to consider is mono-chrome processing. You still would have to apply the grad filter as above, BUT you can crank up the contrast and darks, and that would also help your dead-tree.

Last point that I want to share, more I see dead tree shots, both mine and others, I am coming to a conclusion that they work best when they have clear background behind them, so they don't cause sensation of blocking the view....that just might be me.

Share when you have the re-processed version(s)! Cheers!

wtlwdwgn · May 31, 2014

I think in this composition it's all in the details as it really isn't a landscape per se. I would start by reducing the highlights with the slider and maybe adding some vibrance before playing with the contrast as it's already pretty contrasty as is. This image looks like it might convert well into B&W but again it's all in the details. Just my two cents.

MntnKarie · June 15, 2014

I agree with the others. Contrast bump, maybe gradient,
and possible tweak tones on LR.

Real possibilities to tweak this in B&W as well. Great potential
for several possibilities. Play in Topaz or play with Tonal levels
in Photomatix HD, etc.

Yellowstone's Mammoth Hot Springs Main Terrace

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