New Mexico Snowstorm

[jmalbright]

This is an image of South Mountain in central New Mexico I took earlier this morning after the recent snowstorm we had.

I am seeking any thoughts/comments/critiques on how I could have made this image better, both in camera and post processing-wise.

Thanks for looking.





Aperture value mode used

Exif: 1/1600 | f/7.1 | ISO 200

[ovimo]

Maybe more foreground and less sky. Some interesting bush or rock in the foreground, polarize the sky and get some color in.

[jmalbright]

Originally Posted by ovimo

Maybe more foreground and less sky. Some interesting bush or rock in the foreground, polarize the sky and get some color in.

Thank you for taking the time to comment.

I agree that there is probably too much empty space in the sky since there are no interesting cloud formations. I already had cropped of some of the sky and would have liked to include more foreground, but had I included anymore, the image would have been contaminated with houses and cars. I already had to do some cleanup of the foreground in Photoshop as it stands now. Perhaps a panoramic type crop would work best for this image.

When shooting landscapes I usually do use a polarizing filter to get a deep, rich blue sky so I completely get what you're saying. On this particular image, however, I was trying to give the feel of a cold winter day. After playing around with a few edits of the sky color, I felt that this rather subdued tone of blue achieved that goal the best.

Again, your points are well taken and thanks for the critique.

[amadjuster]

Rule of 3rds. The mountain is right in the middle.

[texxter]

Marshall, I am not much of a landscape photographer, so take this feedback with a grain of salt - I am responding as someone who loves New Mexico!

On the technical side, there are no issue, exposure, focus, color, all seem good.

My suggestion for improvement is to make the image to be more clearly about something. As is, it's an image of a mountain in the background and trees in the foreground, all covered by snow. But what is the image about? If the title is an indication it's about a snowstorm - then I expect to see either a snowstorm, or feel like a snowstorm - a peaceful landscape with some snow doesn't convey the feeling of "snowstorm" - of course, creating an image that says "snowstorm" in a strong way is hard!

Please dont take this the wrong way - my intent with this feedback is to suggest how to get from a technically competent image to a wow image.

[jmalbright]

Originally Posted by amadjuster

Rule of 3rds. The mountain is right in the middle.

Thanks for the suggestion. It's something I'll keep in mind next time.

Originally Posted by texxter

Marshall, I am not much of a landscape photographer, so take this feedback with a grain of salt - I am responding as someone who loves New Mexico!

On the technical side, there are no issue, exposure, focus, color, all seem good.

My suggestion for improvement is to make the image to be more clearly about something. As is, it's an image of a mountain in the background and trees in the foreground, all covered by snow. But what is the image about? If the title is an indication it's about a snowstorm - then I expect to see either a snowstorm, or feel like a snowstorm - a peaceful landscape with some snow doesn't convey the feeling of "snowstorm" - of course, creating an image that says "snowstorm" in a strong way is hard!

Please dont take this the wrong way - my intent with this feedback is to suggest how to get from a technically competent image to a wow image.

Paco, thank you for taking the time to respond. Even though you may not specialize in landscape photography I have seen your portrait photography and it is excellent so your feedback is valuable to me.

I do not post very often on this forum, but I do read it most everyday and I have taken note of your posts strongly suggesting to others to tell a story with their images. I think this is great advice and an important aspect to making a strong image. In the future, I will be more conscientious about making the story behind my images more clear.