Moraine Lake, Canadian Rockies

Wow. That picture is alive.

Amazing tonality! Great place, simply magnificent.

Jeffery, I really like your wok. Your work is very well composed, and I suspect you are one of those guys who just sees composition naturally.

I do color negative photography, and the only way I can manage and control contrast is with real b&w mask. There is no paper contrast to select from in the color world. Unfortunately, most grand scenic images record a huge range of light (14 stops or 2 to the 14th power) and, it can become a big issue to compress or reduce your negative values onto paper. As a result, my mask are as thick as bricks in order to compress the large range of negative values onto the narrow range of print values. This is particularly acute for color papers because they are generally extremely high contrast papers to begin with, and thus, they have very narrow print value range to work with.

A big side effect of my thick masks is the extreme reduction in contrast in regions of the print that share similar print values as seen in your shadows on the left side of your image. In my case, it can and often is much worse. To counter this, I have actually developed a material that restores the contrast in regions of the print that share similar print values like the values in your shadows WITHOUT compromising the global compression you get from the mask to record full detail in both extreme shadows and highlights. I call it anti-compression film (ACF) and it is an amazing material that restores regional contrast throughout the scene no matter how small or big the region is. You can check out my website and see how rich my shadows are at www.stephenwillard.com. Unfortunately, at this time my ACF is proprietary.

I do not have much experience with b&w photography, but I guess you could simulate my ACF by printing your shadows with a higher contrast grade using variable contrast paper. I am not sure if they still make variable contrast paper or not. If they do, then I also suspect you have already done this, and my point is of little benefit.

Hope this helps...

Wow, this place is amazing! Top shot, but I would let the lake/reflections go much darker. This would improve your contrast and make those stunning mountains really pop.

If you use a strong filter (Red?), the a deep blue sky can go very dark

The reflection of the sky isn't such intesnse blue - so doesn't go as dark

Martin

That's a good point, Martin. I knew about the filter taking the sky dark, which is why I used it. But I never gave thought to the idea that the effect on the reflection in the water would not be the same. Thanks for the tip. Now I have to improve my printing skills to bring down that reflection some.

I would suggest that you try your hand at split grade printing for a shot like this. It should bring up the contrast in the shadow area without loing the contrast in the hi-light area. I suggest that you read up on the subject matter if you don't already know about it, and practice on 8 x 10 RC sheets until you have mastered it. There are lots of articles about split grade printing including one by Les McClean on the net.

PS I think that your composition is terrific.

Something I do with multigrade, is to dodge the shadow areas somewhat with a grade 4 or 5 filter. This has the effect of lightening and keeping the contrast, may work with this image, in any case it is worth persevering with a photo like this.