This picture has been captured on assignment for the 5* hotel Das Edelweiss Salzburg Mountain Resort in Grossarl, Austria.
For this shot, I lined up all chairs for strong leading lines, let the hotel management turn on all lights possible and took it right in the early blue hour. I wanted to create a blend with "the best of both worlds", as Elia Locardi would say. So I replaced the sky and matched the color temperature of the shot to make it believable. The picture was an hdr with a blend of 9 different exposures + a new sky.
This shot has become the lead picture for their summer marketing campaign and has been printed in numerous magazines.
Well, giving 2* is obviously wrong, as it means "needs work". I was hired and payed a lot to take that shot, so it is at least 3* ;)
I've seen other submissions from you and you do great work. This clearly isn't a 2. People rate images on here as if all of their personal work is a 5 lol.
Thanks, Jonathan. Those Fstoppers contests have become ridiculous anyway over the last few months.