This picture was taken 20 years ago on Velvia 50, I scanned it with a Nikon V scanner.
I realize this was taken at the wrong time of day , I don't remember why I didn't get there earlier.
What I am asking for is feedback on composition, processing, and overall feeling of the picture.
Thanks for looking




Walt

Fujichrome 50 ... my fav back in the day ... always in my camera unless I was shooting a wedding (VPS 160).

I'm not quite sure why you think this is taken at the "wrong time of day" though. Could you elaborate?

Velvia and Tri-X were my two favorite films.
I feel that I wasn't getting enough side lighting to make the detail in the mountains come out.

Walt

I like it. To me, it looks like it might have a slight magenta cast. Time of day looks fine for the rest of the image, I'm not sure if you shot at the right time for the distant mountains that it would be the wrong time for the rest of the photo.

My only suggestion would be to remove just a little of the sky. Except for the tree on the right, the very top of the sky is pretty featureless.

I did some scanning of 4x5 B&W negatives on my newly acquired Epson V700 this weekend. I printed on 13x19 with a Canon Pixma Pro 9500 in greyscale mode so that only the B&W inks were used. I took the scan into PS6 and used NIK Silver Efex Pro to dodge and burn. I added a layer and did a little spotting. Luckily the negative was very clean. The resultant print was as good as anything I got out of my print lab.

The next fun project will be to scan in a number of 4x5 and 5x7 glass plates that are over 100 years old.

Took a stab at it ...

Could use some more work, but you get the gist.

Interesting to see the multitude of different colors that the snow presents as depending on the plane orientation and the whether in direct sunlight, partial or full shade. Colors range from warm to neutral to magenta to blue as the mixture of warm (direct) & cool (indirect) intertwine.

It has nice leading lines in the road and fence which end near the color contrasting red house focal point. All very effective.

Given the same scene what I would have done differently would be to crop lower with less sky (just above the clouds) and more foreground. The story is in the foreground, the sky a distraction which pulls eye up off it after the eye finds the house and dwells on it.

The lighting strategy / time of day was actually very effective. All the important detail in the foreground is mostly highlighted, allowing the short dynamic range film to record detail in it.

I'm on an iPad and can't judge the color accurately but it looks like it has a cool / purple bias where I'd expect a slightly warmer than normal color balance. A method I sometimes use when I can't gauge color by eye because they've adapted to the monitor and image is to add a new layer and create a 128.128.128 neutral gray reference square in the middle. That helps "recalibrate" the brain to see any color biases accurately by comparison.

dmacmillan I wanted a little of a cool blue tint to it to convey the cold. I will try cropping at a 5x7 size to do away with some of the sky. I guess it is a situation were you can't win on time of day to shoot.
Scanning was fun got through now I have a nice film scanner sitting idle. It is fun to take old images and give them a new life, sounds like you have a lot to do. Love to see some of the results.

Rustybug I see what you are talking about with the different colors in the snow. I am going to have to rework my image because your mountains look much better.

cgardner Thank you for the comments about the photo, I can't think of any reason why I could not have got more foreground in the frame. I was trying to use the road to lead you into the mountains, guess that didn't work.

That makes sense for the time of day with the dynamic range of the film

I will try your trick of putting a square of neutral gray, in the picture.

Adding advice given hope this is better.





Thanks

Walt

Like the last version much more. Has a painting-like quality and color is what I'd expect at that time of day. Could be on a Hallmark Christmas card.

cgardner thank you for the kind words.

Walt