"SMOKY MOUNTAIN STREAM "

January

Photographer's Comments -

COMMENTS:
 

Karen Leonard	The results appear natural, and as a tourist would wish to see it.
Dean Hellinger	Beautiful scene, perfectly presented, details and colors at their best. A great example of how to capture all there is in a scene.
Eleanor Helper	Beautiful rendition. If your goal was to return the image to what you remember, I like the result. This often is my goal also. However I m not sure I understand the difference between your observation and a straight photoreproduction. I also have difficulty following your explanation of how you used Matrix 4, but I like the results.
Burt Hesselson	A beautiful view taken at the best speed and camera setting to get everything in focus and the slow water. Well done. My only criticism is it looked too wide and when I checked image size it 4.333 x 6. I changed it to 4 x 6, a very subtle change, but a definite improvement.
Tim Christoffersen	Really pleasant, peaceful image. The colors are good and I like the dappled light. The light adds to the image but is not so strong that it casts strong shadows. (Maybe this is HDR?) The only comment I would add is the boulder at the bottom of the image is quite large and tends to block my eye from moving upward into the image.
Larry Beller	This is a beautiful scene, and your use of HDR technique is just right for it, without a trace of HDR grunge, though I would have like a little more contrast in tones between light and shadows. i think you have too much in it; the foreground and background compete for attention. Let me suggest a  simplification that I think improves it. Use the sunlight on and around the backlit tree as a center of interest, crop the foreground that divides the interest (and seems out of focus,) and do shading that emphasizes the COI, something like this thumbnail. I'll leave it to Burt to tell you to flip it. This second thumbnail shows what I did to it. Anyway, very well done.
Donn Miertl replies:

Member Bio

Donn Miertl - Photographic Biography I have been involved with photography since 1948. I began with an Army Signal Corps field photographer kit and an adjustable 35 mm camera. I graduated from Purdue in 1958 with a BS in aeronautical engineering. In 1962 I moved to Detroit, Michigan to work for GM. I joined the Photographic Guild of Detroit and got deeply involved with art photography. Most of my photographic education was the result of my association with the Guild. I was a member until 1996, when I retired from GM and moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where I now live. My interests in photography are varied, and included B&W and color printing, salons, nature, color slide, and experimental photography. I have been a scuba diver since 1952, and began underwater photography in the mid 1960s while diving in the Cayman Islands. My equipment was a Calypso UW camera and flash bulb unit. (The Calypso is the original Nikonos V outfit.) I began a lifelong affair with UW photography. I still dive and have a Nikonos V outfit. I am in the process of converting several thousand UW slides into digital images with my Nikon ED V scanner. My other equipment includes a Mamiya RB67 outfit, 4X5 cameras and lenses, several Cannon 35 mm cameras and lenses, and a complete darkroom. I am still shooting film and converting it to digital with a scanner. I still find it hard to work on a photograph in the computer without having all the lights out and tanks and trays all over the place, but I will adjust.