[R.W.G.]

So, here is another shot from my small collection that I wish to be criticized.

I used a wood post as a stand for this still. I did have a tripod with me, but the wood post was taller so I chose that over it. I remember I experimented a little with the HDR and the exposure but the following shots the magic of the moment, I think captured here, was gone - sometimes a landscape shot has to be taken quickly, such as is the case here (the clouds and the moon were not that interesting to me a little later).

Camera was set to AUTO HDR by the way.

Can't wait to know how this could look better !

Attached Images

 

[Martin A.]

I like the moon the the clouds reflecting on the snow -
should be less snow 1/3 and more sky 2/3 and not so much of that rather messy track , tripod would have avoided the shake because the trees look out of focus or blurred through shake, ISO 100 and 60-120 seconds shutter speed would show less grain and lighten up the snow and the sky wouldn't look dirty,

[wildman]

Given the differences in monitors this is a hard one to evaluate...

First of all your HDR work is decent. You resisted the urge to overdo the special effects stuff so it looks fairly realistic.

If anything its too well exposed and loses some of the mystery I would expect from a moon shot such as this.
I would make the tonal curve a bit steeper and loose some of the detail in the shadows but give it more of a feel of a deep night shot.

It's hard to explain so here's a quick and dirty idea of what I mean.
At the end of the day there really is no right and wrong way only opinion and here's mine...

[jbinpg]

Many landscape shooters will feel the machine track detracts from the photo. In that case, perhaps putting the camera on the tripod and moving right to get rid of the track and concentrating just on the moon and clouds and its relationship to the forest and snow would have been a winning move. However, the track does create a leading line through the image which works fine. I still would have tried moving over to the right if I had been shooting, though

[R.W.G.]

Woah, thanks guys for the suggestions!

I have to agree with Martin that a lower ISO and a way longer exposure would have worked better, but I wasn't thinking like that back when I shot this while I would indeed now. Thank you Wildman for actually showing the way you think this picture would work better for you, I have to agree slightly darker over the snow adds to the picture. And jbinpg, the machine track is actually the reason why I shot this picture. Without it, this picture would lack story and character (imo, that is)

Thanks again everybody