AzPicLady wrote:
This is Cotacachi, a 16,000+ foot dormant volcano that sits beside Lake Cuicocha, which is actually a caldera of a sister volcano. Chicocha has minor activity that makes the water contain sulphur and gives it a high temperature.
I have worked this image a bit in LR (contrast, clarity and tone), then in NIK to bring out a bit more detail. I think I'm done. The clouds were moving rapidly, and I chose a moment when the apex was clear and in sun.
Comments? Thanks in advance.
Your image is
not quite 'done:'
Technically/objectively: You've left a dust-on-sensor spot approximately 1/5 of the way in on the right, just above the brightest section of cloud. Easy fix, so fix it. As well, as a result of whatever you've done in post, you've created the dreaded 1-2 pixel wide 'blank white space' between the ridge line and the sky (most noticeable on the right half of the image), and while most won't notice it, or comment on it, I will, and have. Another easy fix. Fix it and you'll improve the image.
Compositionally: The sliver of lake you included at the bottom is awkward. It neither anchors nor equals the tonally similar sky. Similarly, the bit of foreground foliage in the extreme bottom right, neither anchors or equals its opposite --the rising cloud in the upper left. Likewise, the forested island left of center seems more an afterthought than a photographic element. The fix? Eliminate the lake, the foliage and the island. In a human face, "beauty" is often considered symmetry. In a landscape --which to me is the 'face' of the land--, that symmetry can often be expressed as a symmetry in light and dark. In this instance, achieving a symmetry (in volume) between the darker treed area of the lower cliffs/middle ground and the space occupied by the sky would work toward that goal, and in the process, the somewhat overbearing cloud that occupies the top left third of the image would be less a draw for the eye.
Subjectively: A common response might include a revision of your image and add that to such a reply. I did a couple of revisions --in color and in b&w-- and both better please
me. But I'm not you, and there's no reason for you to 'like' any revision I might make, nor would either necessarily achieve whatever intent
you may have had in making
your image.
Its difficult to comment on another's image. In this instance --and especially since you asked for comment-- and in past work you've contributed, you're clearly enough of a
photographer that I believe you'd have come to these determinations on your own.