Ovre Eidfjord, Norway

[pete_truman]

Be grateful for any suggestions on attached view of Hjolmadalen looking towards Eidfjord as sun was dropping below mountains in August 2006. I liked the way the setting sun lit up the mountains on the right hand side, but comments welcomed. Canon 5D, 17-40L (terrific lens!) at 37mm, polariser, ND grad.

Pete

[Dale_Cotton]

> Be grateful for any suggestions on attached view

My suggestion is: Frame it and don't mess with it. What you have here is a composition that works, of a scene with a single coherent emotional message, expressed in a limited pallet of colours that work well together. What's you don't have is either

a) a ruggedly handsome guy leaning against the boulder in fisherman's garb, inhaling a Camel cigarette with restrained but heartfelt relish, or

b) a bird of prey swooping down on a trout(?) that just happens to be jumping out of the water at that instant, or

c) a glorious Technicolor ™ sunset with a shaft of light illuminating the heart of the scene.

Fortunately, none of these clichéd elements are present, so we can relax and enjoy the scene with fresh eyes.

As a technical note, if you hadn't mentioned the ND grad I would have guessed HDR to recover the rocky foreground.

[Carmine]

Great image. I wouldn't touch it. I had to look up Hjolmadalen just to see where it was shot.

[Jonathan Wienke]

There is a minor artifact of the ND grad filter noticeable; the rocks on the far left kind of fade into near-blask toward the upper left corner. I'd do some progressive lightening to keep the tonal range in the same ballpark from top to bottom.

[pete_truman]

Many thanks for the comments. I have struggled with lightening up the left hand side and found that it detracted from the view so have left alone. The ND grad was used to leave some detail in the sky but I haven't yet found an adjustable V shaped filter for valleys like this one!

I have found it difficult to take views in Norway that illustrate the scale and presence of the country. I tried to create a sense of scale but without a figure in the view this is illusive, hence the rocks which I thought provide a lead in to the view. I spent about 2 hours waiting for the "right" light to appear with my feet and tripod in the river during a holiday in Norway that varied from overcast and rather damp to brilliant sunshine. Many of the other photographs are very contrasty and picture postcard. Pleasing, but not what I set out to create.

However I have just printed this at 18x12 and framed with a big white matte and am very pleased with the result. One for my study...

Once again, thanks.

Pete

[pete_truman]

Should have responded that the detail recovery in the foreground was using Aperture. No HDR, but shadow detail tweaked a little.

Pete