donaldy wrote:
Agreed, it is definitely a little too obvious to me... try perhaps to brighten it up abit, possibly even make it pure white as the moon would look on a long exposure? It might not be as obvious. I don't mind it in the spot where it is though, even if its 'wrong'
Thank you, Donald, for your kind comments and editing suggestions for the image.
An alternative crop idea occurred to me after thinking more about the appeal of that warm light reflecting in the blue area over the lake - that is perhaps the most interesting thing in the scene for me.
This may seem odd, but I'd consider cropping out most of the sky, cutting things right above the peak at the right side of the frame (perhaps barely above that small wisp of a cloud), and leaving a much narrower band of colorful sky. (Yes, I'd lose the moon.. :-) Oddly, by doing this, you make that beautiful and subtle colored light at the lake surface a larger force in the image - largely, I think, by removing the overwhelming and large area of color in the sky - and focus the attention on that beautiful and subtle feature. (I might consider cropping a bit from the right side of the frame as well, with a goal of slightly reducing the mass of the dark mountains above Lee Vining a bit.)
I understand what some are saying when they suggest diminishing the dark area in the foreground... but I'm not sure I agree with them. This area, being dark, allows that bit of luminous color on the lake to stand out a bit more by contrast, and the line of the road into the lower left corner is compositionally effective to my eye. I might play a bit with the intensity of the blue tones.
I think what I'm saying is that in the current image the moon distracts me from the core interest in this scene, and that this core interest is a much more luminous, beautiful and rare thing - the subtle coloration of the light reflected from the sky onto the area of the lake. Bringing my attention more to that could possibly make this scene something more special than another Giant Moon Photograph.
I like the one without the moon much better. I love images that include the moon, but think they need to be earned. To me labeling something "art" that requires virtually no creativity is a real stretch. That said, the original image sans moon is quite nice (though I'm not crazy about 395 exiting straight through a corner). Very pretty scene.
Well, it's cool to have fun and to play around. I definately love the original shot, I would suggest cropping all of the blue sky out of it, leaving just the orange colored sky.
Definitely much better without the moon. With regard to use of the creative license and adding a moon ---- that should call for a revoking of your creative license, followed by traffic school. I realize that the creative license has nothing to do with your drivers license, but the torture of traffic school seems to be a fitting punishment for moon crimes.
The moon immediately shouts "added" - the moon would be obviously affected by orange gradient in some way and would definitely be more subtle. So I'd go with the second version as well.
Gary Hart wrote:
I like the one without the moon much better. I love images that include the moon, but think they need to be earned. To me labeling something "art" that requires virtually no creativity is a real stretch. That said, the original image sans moon is quite nice (though I'm not crazy about 395 exiting straight through a corner). Very pretty scene.
Thank you, Gary, for your welcome and incisive comments.
Well, it's cool to have fun and to play around. I definately love the original shot, I would suggest cropping all of the blue sky out of it, leaving just the orange colored sky.
Jim
Thanks very much, Jim, for your additional comments, critique. I always appreciate the input from the many skilled photographers in this forum.
Ben Horne wrote:
Definitely much better without the moon. With regard to use of the creative license and adding a moon ---- that should call for a revoking of your creative license, followed by traffic school. I realize that the creative license has nothing to do with your drivers license, but the torture of traffic school seems to be a fitting punishment for moon crimes.
Thanks, Ben, for your disciplinary comments and I will stay away from future moon implants. Mea culpa
Milan Hutera wrote:
The moon immediately shouts "added" - the moon would be obviously affected by orange gradient in some way and would definitely be more subtle. So I'd go with the second version as well.
