Winter In the Pacific Northwest

[flechtight]

San Juan Islands, Washington

[kaneohebud]

Jon: Nice composition. Brought back memories of my five years on Whidbey Island.

[kdoc856]

Excellent handling of tonal range and DoF. I'd give some thought to a slight crop off the top, but regardless, a very nice shot.

[easternlight]

indeed a very nice shot, I agree with the cropping on the top

[rpcrowe]

I also agree with a bit of crop off the top but, mainly I agree that it is a very nice image.. Along with Bud, the image reminds me of the time I spent on Washington's Kitsap Peninsula. I absolutely loved everything about the Pacific Northwest even the rain!

[jeeperman]

Very nicely done, Jon

[flechtight]

Thanks all, I have been struggling with the crop issue. Do you believe the branches from the left top should be eliminated or the small cross branch? Bud and Richard the one thing this pic said to me was "Typical Northwest, wet, dreary weather but love it.

[kdoc856]

I'd try a crop just below the upper diagonal branch, and then clone the strays from the left top branches.

[flechtight]

I cropped the top down a bit and removed strays from the upper right and some in the upper left. I ran this through Niks Color EFEX 4 detail enhancer before Silver Efex was applied. I am liking NIK over Topaz Detail 3, Nik cost more but feel I have more control.

Merry Christmas

It's time to take my new Loka F-Stop Pack out for some field testing

[Donald]

Jon - I'd say that the best thing you didn't do with the 2nd version was put the watermark in to the bottom right corner.

I know lots of people like to put one on, but at first I thought there was pone of those plastic plant labels that you get from garden centres lying on the rock. I'm afarid i found it way too distracting in what is a very well constructed image.

I notice folks haven't said much about the sky. I see you have pushed it quite a bit to get as much out of it as possible and it works. Very dramatic.

[flechtight]

Thanks Donald, I did turn off the automatic watermark feature in Border FX . The one thing I really like about Nik EFEX2 is being able to control specific areas i.e. the clouds without affecting the rest of the picture, quickly. I could probably muddle my way through Photoshop but these plug-ins keep my work flow simple and to the point.

Jon