copying Iquanasan and trying orton

[Bambi]

thanks Iggy for the instructions on how to load the plug ins with GIMP. I gave it a shot.
what do you think? is it too much blur? should I tone it down?

[Iguanasan]

Hey, Bambi. This isn't the critique thread but you are asking for my opinion so I'll offer up what I can.

The blurring effect seems fine to me. I might have, in fact, actually increased it. It's really a personal taste thing so it's hard to say what's "right". I've tried a number of different values for the blur radius and opacity. This is a good try but I think maybe you started with the wrong photo to try it with as some of the leaves and part of the bridge are a little over exposed - see where it goes absolutely white? That takes away from the image.

Our eyes can see a much larger dynamic range (darker blacks and brighter whites) than the camera can and so with this photo where you have exposed well to get some detail in the dark rocks (bottom right) you've lost the detail in the bright sunlit areas as the camera can't capture that wide a range. This is one of the reasons why HDR is so popular.

I'm thinking you took this photo around 1:00pm or 2:00pm when the sun was at it's brightest which is what's causing you a bit of grief here. This would have been a much better shot around 7:00pm as the sun was going down or at least on the other side of some of those trees to make it a little shady which would make the water and bridge about the same brightness.

I hope this helps and let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

[Bambi]

thanks Igquanasan. I tend to agree. I think that I took this photo around 3 p.m. I will go back to my library and see what else i can find.