Bright Water

[SwissJon]

I can't quite decide what to do with this. I took it yesteday morning, driving to work, for some reason I decided to get of the Motorway a stop early, and found, purely by accident, a road that wound its way round the vinyards. The clouds were low, so my viewpoint was almost at cloud level. And I found a lovely viewpoint where I could see a patch of sunshine breaking through the clouds onto the lake.. Really pretty. So I grabbed my camera and took some photos. Unfortunately my view was marred by a few trees, but with a zoom I managed to isolate the area where I was looking, and came up with this shot.

Apart from cropping out a little bit of tree on the right, I've done very little to this.. The colours and light levels are as shot.

So my questions are:

a) Keep or chuck?
b) Keep the colours or go black and white?
c) I'm aware that pretty much the top half of the picture is masked by hase and fog, should I crop tighter and lose the cloud layer at the top, or keep it in to add mood.
d) Any other Post Processing suggestions you can think of?

Thanks as always for your feedback.

Exif:
Camera: SLT-A55V
Lens: Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* DT 16-80mm F3.5-4.5 ZA
Focal length: 70*mm*(equiv. 105*mm)
Aperture: F11
Exposure time: 1/160"
ISO speed rating: 100/21°
Program: Aperture priority
Metering Mode: Center-weighted average
White Balance: Auto
Image Stabilizer: Off
Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode

[dvtldav]

I like this photo as is. It gives a kind of soothing or relaxing mood.
Something I have been playing with in LR is the adjustment brush which acts a lot like the gradient filter tool only you can select the areas you want to adjust and it works really well if you have a steady hand around the edges. I am thinking about getting a tablet like the Wacom Bamboo and trying it. Have you ever used a tablet or heard much about them?
Again, nice capture.

Dave

[zona5101]

nice image. i'd crop to move the horizon off the centerline.

[SwissJon]

nice image. i'd crop to move the horizon off the centerline.

Thanks.. The trouble with that crop is that currently the bright patch and tree on the ridge are at the 1/3 mark both horizontally and vertically, which I think draws the eye nicely into the photo, If I put the horizon at the top 1/3 then the tree and bright patch are at the centre line, you don't think that'll be worse?

I like this photo as is. It gives a kind of soothing or relaxing mood.
Something I have been playing with in LR is the adjustment brush which acts a lot like the gradient filter tool only you can select the areas you want to adjust and it works really well if you have a steady hand around the edges. I am thinking about getting a tablet like the Wacom Bamboo and trying it. Have you ever used a tablet or heard much about them?
Again, nice capture.

Thanks too.. I have used that brush before, but I'm not quite sure how I'd use it here.

I was looking at them last weekend as a matter of fact, but they're expensive and I need to buy some filters first and my wife is getting irritated with how expensive my hobby is becoming. I used tablets several years ago, but in a different context.. Hopefully their quality has improved since then. One thing I will tell you, if you buy a cheap tablet, you'll never use it, because the cheap ones are really rubbish.

[cristen]

I like it as it is... so dramatic. The dark clouds on top balances the dim slope. I like the perfect silhouette of the tree and the curves made by the shoreline. I don't think the horizon being at the center takes the beauty out of the shot. My eyes are more drawn to the silhouettes and that blaze of the sun's reflection on the water that is somehow on the right thirds of the frame.

It's beautiful, SwissJon. For me, it's definitely a keeper.

[Eileen D]

I agree with Cristen that it's a great shot as it is. It's an image that is soothing without being boring, simple without being flat. I love the tones and the textures throughout. Very nice work, SwissJon!

[EOBeav]

Interesting, on my end it says the link is unavailable, but I can follow the link right to the shot on Flickr. Oh well.

My first thought was to crop all of that dark matter on top. Maybe even some of it on the left as well. My eye keeps zeroing in on that tree in the distance. Do you have a longer zoom lens for that Sony? I might have been tempted to use my 70-200mm L and get more of it in the image.

This is definitely a keeper, though. I really do like those colors. Don't you love exploring somewhere you don't normally go and finding a good place to shoot? Thanks for posting this one, Jon.

[SwissJon]

Originally Posted by EOBeav

Interesting, on my end it says the link is unavailable, but I can follow the link right to the shot on Flickr. Oh well.

My first thought was to crop all of that dark matter on top. Maybe even some of it on the left as well. My eye keeps zeroing in on that tree in the distance. Do you have a longer zoom lens for that Sony? I might have been tempted to use my 70-200mm L and get more of it in the image.

This is definitely a keeper, though. I really do like those colors. Don't you love exploring somewhere you don't normally go and finding a good place to shoot? Thanks for posting this one, Jon.

Thanks. Yeah, I've an old Minolta 100-300 that gives me reasonable results. But guess where it wasn't. Yep it wasn't in my kit bag that day I think I'll go back there one day when the sky isnt so low and see what I can get, this time of year we get some interesting weather patterns.

I'm glad you keep looking at the tree, you've no idea how far out over the precipice I was hanging to get it in that little patch of water so it stands out.

Yeah, I love exploring, especially when it results in a keeper.. My wife made me breakfast instead of supper that night.. I've got home a bit late a few nights this past month and she thought it would Be a bit more appropriate if I'm going to stay out all night

[Krusty79]

Me too, EOBeav. I use Firefox and it says the picture is unavailable. I clicked the spot where it shows the placeholder image and it takes me to the Flickr image.

I just wanted to say that it looks like you have some faint sunbeams above the bright reflection in the water and I wondered if some PP could bring those out more to add interest to the top half of the shot.

[SwissJon]

Well spotted Krusty.. I'll have a crack at boosting them..

I've changed the code in the post. Is it showing in Firefox now?