Lac de la Plagne in autumn, French Alps
Critique the Community
Landscapes
With Elia Locardi
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People to whom I show this photo love it, so I'm wondering what's wrong with it (given the poor rating already) ? I don't photoshop my images because I hate it, I want an honest picture. To me it's about that giant mountain "shooting" that weird cloud, all in a gorgeous alpine setting. It's shot around 10 am in autumn, so not the ideal time of the day, but this amphitheater with the lake would have been in the shade otherwise. I don't know I just think it's very harmonious. I also notice it's much better quality on my computer than on the Fstoppers preview and please bear in mind it's "just" an FZ200, which is a 12 MPixel bridge camera. Comments welcome.
First of all ignore the ratings number but compare your image to photos with similar ratings. Voters on fstoppers are tough raters.
I'm not an expert landscape photographer but here's how I would improve this shot. 1) More interesting light by shooting either at sunset, sunrise or maybe during a storm. 2) Lighten the big shadow on the left. Or you could crop some of it out. There's not a lot of interesting information in the last 2" - 3" of the left side of the picture anyway. 3) Add something dynamic to the image. A bird, a, interesting person, a few cows.
Thanks for your comment. The shade adds contrast that's why I didn't crop it out. As far as the light is concerned, as I said this is autumn, so the lake is in the shade at sunrise or sunset. Most alpine lakes in the Alps can't be shot at sunrise or sunset because there is no plateau here, only valley and amphitheaters. As far as cows and hikers are concerned, I was alone out here in autumn, this is a secretive spot, the vantage point I'm taking the photo from is very rarely used, and cows were down in the barn in the valleys for winter already. Not to mention it's a national park (Vanoise) where you need special permits for grazing. There is a refuge on the bottom left, maybe I should have make it bigger in the frame with a different angle. But like I said for me it was about that rare cloud, huge mountain, lake and autumn vibe. People, cows or other stuff would have distracted from that I feel. But yeah I know a "golden hour" shot would have given me a better rating, it's just not possible in that location so late in the year. I guess the cloud wasn't enough =)
Great to see a picture of Vanoise posted here, I love this place! And it changes from the usual places which are photographed over and over on this website. As far as the picture goes I feel like a lot of things in it please my eye but nothing really grabs my attention enough to truly appreciate it. The cloud has a beautifully interesting shape, the lake and the rivers leading to it have beautiful patterns and colours. The peaking snow on the tops also adds to it. Same goes with the peak. Unfortunately none of these elements attract the eye because there are too many of them and they are diluted in the picture in my opinion. In addition to this, because the picture is so wide, the mountain range feels diminished and not as impressive as I'm sure it is in real life. The light itself could be better but if the composition was worked better in my opinion it wouldn't cause a problem. All of this warrants a 2 for me (since you were asking about the mark you have): more work on the composition mainly and it could turn into a 3 and maybe even a 4.