Ice Hotel

[Jay.Yang]

Hi,

Below is a shot I got when I visited Hotel de Glace in Quebec City (it's an awesome experience btw). And this is the shot that I am just in love with. I wanna see if there's anything that can be improved upon.

Thanks,
Jay

[Iguanasan]

You have some wonderful detail captured in this image, Jay. Very well done. I think the composition might be better though. For me, this is the opposite of what usually happens. Normally your eye is drawn to the bright spots of an image but since this image is fairly uniformly white/blue snow/ice what actually draws my eye is the dark spots and there appear to be two of them so I feel split. The bar on the right is distracting though I like the wood stove way in the back. Another step to the right might have changed the angle so you could have made the wood stove a real focal point. As it sits now there is a pedestal of ice that's crowding it.

I think, however, that if you cropped off the bar area in the right it would be a fair bit stronger.

[Yisehaq]

Very interesting, Jay.Yang. Brrrrrrrrr.
I thought you people from up there didn't like the snow/ice too much to make a hotel out of it.

[Mad Aussie]

I don't mind the composition but I'd have gone for a much darker exposure so those bright spots stood out more and the blue lights I see mounted behind the ice columns etc would have featured stronger. In other words I'd have played with my exposures until I got something that strengthened the shadows but made the highlights stand out more. Kind of the opposite of an HDR approach.

[Matt K.]

Tough one. Thing that would have liked to see is the continuation of the whale toward the ceiling; however, this may have been impossible given the circumstances. Stepping back may have been impossible, and maybe the lens was not wide enough to capture the whole thing. Since there are a couple of angles leading to the ceiling, I would have wanted to see the tip of that triangle. And yes, exposure is tough as well. I take it this is all natural light, with no flash at all? Maybe bump the contras a bit, and try to bring out the details in the ice blocks a bit more ...

[Jay.Yang]

Thanks for the comments. I took Iguanasan's advise and cropped out the bar area and here's how it look like (Top). My girlfriend really like it, however, I find that by cropping out the right side, it sort of lose the feeling of how big the hall is (which is something I try to capture).

I also keep the composition and darken the exposure (Bottom). The details pops up more, but it kinda lose the white feeling associated with ice/snow.

Oh Matt. This is shot in natural light, and I am shooting at 17 mm and can't stand further back. The cut-off whale bothered me too!

[Marko]

Iggy gave good advice here. For me the shot was too busy as well. Your 1st cropped image in post 6 is much stronger than the original imo. The printing is better as well as I found the original too dark. Hope that helps- marko

[Hillbillygirl]

Agree with everyone on the cropping off bar on right side. That first shot in 2nd post is best for me
Don't forget, if you would have used camera in portrait orientation you would probably have caught the crop everyone was wanting, as in more ceiling , less width.

[Bambi]

everyone has given good advice. I do love this structure though. I hope you can go back and take more shots!