Freezing Morning At Mirror Lakes

[Markvetnz]

Taken last Saturday on the Te Anau to Milford Sound highway. There was plenty of snow about and there was a biting cold.

[Bobobird]

Wonderful scene and a beautiful capture.

On first view I was going to say "too garish" but then looked at the large view. Certainly not a pic to be viewed small.

[jiro]

Awesome! Makes me want to use this as my wallpaper now.

[Blueheeler]

Beautiful, interested to see a B&W treatment

[kdoc856]

Mark,

Love this shot. But is there a bit of purple hue on the snow-covered shrubs just below the sunlit portion of the field that might be tweeked?

[Mike Buckley]

That's a very large mirror that you captured! Terrific composition!

I agree with Mark about the purple hue. Notice that it appears in the sky, the wooden part of the tree limbs and the shrubs along the lake shore. Where those parts of the image appear in the reflection, the purple hue also appears. It's possible that the purple in the shrubs represents their actual color but less likely so for the tree limbs and the sky. (I'm using a calibrated monitor.)

If the use of the purple cast is your interpretation of the scene, congratulations on your creativity. However, be aware that it might be a bit too intense for the taste of many people.

I'm trying to figure out why the golden color of the mountainside is not being reflected in the lake. That area in the reflection is very dark. I'm guessing that it's a post-processing error. Regardless of the explanation, it looks odd to me, as all reflections should look the same as the source.

[rtbaum]

I'm going to view this again this afternoon, maybe it will cool me off.

[Markvetnz]

Thanks for the critique. I've had a go at removing the purple cast. I have managed to bring out the frost on the branches and I've tweaked the reflections.

[MrB]

The scenery, the colours, the reflections, the tranquillity - wonderful, Mark!

Philip

[FrankMi]

Breathtaking! I once read that "In a landscape, the more of the following elements you include, the happier it makes the viewer: Fresh water, meadows, mountains, distant sky, forest, and sometime pathways.".

You certainly have validated that statement with this image!

[kdoc856]

Hi, Mark

Coincidentally, I've recently been practicing with hue adjustments and fringe removal, so I had a go at your magnificent shot. This is what seems to work as my monitor is calibrated. I'll take it down it you prefer

[FrankMi]

Awesome! Makes me want to use this as my wallpaper now.

I hope you don't mind Mark, I DID snag a copy for my monitor wallpaper!

[Mike Buckley]

I prefer Mark's and Kevin's revisions compared to the original. The differences between the revisions seem to be a matter of personal preference with regard to style. I prefer the less saturated, contrasty style of Kevin's revision but that's just my taste.

[Markvetnz]

Thanks for the comments guys, I'm going to see if I can get the frost a bit whiter again and then layer that onto the middle image. If I bring the whole image up then the sky starts to get washed out a bit. I shot about 300 different landscape images last week and it all takes time. I expect to get maybe 1/2 a dozn keepers out of it all.

[Dave Humphries]

I agree with Mike and prefer the colours and tones of Kevin's version, but I'm afraid I have just one more question - isn't it worth leveling it?

View it large/full size in Lytebox, then click and start dragging it off the left hand edge of your monitor; notice how the top of the half sunlit peak doesn't hit the edge of the monitor at the same time as its reflection below? It needs a small counter/anti clockwise rotation. Sorry, but I'm very sensitive to this kind of thing - not that it stops me posting the odd wonky one now and then

Great shot though, I shudder to think what the temperature was, well below my tolerance threshold (for more than a few minutes), I bet!

Well done Mark.

Cheers,