The vista

[Yisehaq]

Hey All,
The first photo I submitted to ph.ca was a landscape shot. Since then I rearly tried landscapes. Here is my effort from last Sunday. I have also tried to HDR.
What do you all think?

[Marko]

The hazy conditions of the background are unfortunate here and my first instinct is that this looks hazy in the distance...
Then there's the element of the shadowed clouds which is very cool, but its effect isn't strong enough here imo. I might try bumping up the bkgd. contrast to give the background more 'meat' if that makes any sense.
Although the selectively saturated areas of the shot are striking, due to the haze, I'm not sure this was the best image to tonemap.
I have a suggested crop based on my haze obsession here, lol. I also burned in the cloud shadows a bit, and dodged the foreground rocks. This took about 2 min. If it were mine and I wanted to continue - I'd say 10-15 more min. Just a thought though, your image - you da boss!

[Yisehaq]

Thanks a lot Marko! The crop really works for me too. It never crossed my mind to crop the sky out. I wil try to further play on the contrast. The game continues...

[Marko]

No prob - Normally I like the sky...but here I felt it might not be adding to the image despite the cool cloud shadows as mentioned. Sometimes weather conditions are just a bummer...but to tell you the truth I'm sure a few people may prefer your original, these things are personal.

[Mad Aussie]

You two are crazy ... nothing wrong with the sky, or the haze. It helps to show distance and depth.

If I was to correct anything I'd just crop out that top cloud and correct the yellow hue a bit.

[Lizardqing]

Very familiar with the haze around here, it's where the Blue Ridge and Smokey Mountains got their name, so to me it looks normal. Like Marco said it's a personal thing.

[Yisehaq]

Thanks MA & Lizardqing! I believe it subjective then.

[Hillbillygirl]

Very familiar with the haze around here, it's where the Blue Ridge and Smokey Mountains got their name, so to me it looks normal. Like Marco said it's a personal thing.

Have to agree with MA and Lizardqing on this. Really like the original showing the depth with haze, and the shadows/rays in sky from the sun against the clouds.