Mary Ann Carrasco
July 2025 - Lake Louise
About the Image(s)
I took this image in early May of this year during a trip through the Canadian Rockies. I was challenged to capture the snow and not blow out the rest of the image so I took three images and merged them in photoshop. I used the Nikon Z9 with 28-400 lens. I focused one image at the correct exposure according to the camera and then took two more, one stop above and one stop below. I merged the images, took out some of the people that were distracting, etc. I look forward to your comments and suggestions.
5 comments posted
Mary Ann, I love that you took the three shots to merge in order to overcome the challenge of the blinding white of the snow. I think you were fairly successful with your photo merge technique, since I do see some detail in the snow capped peak behind the lake. I like that you've left a few of the people on the lake to add a sense of scale. You've also done a nice crop to include the tops of the trees on the right. What a pleasant combination you have with the snow in the distance, but open water in the foreground. I'm wondering if lightening up and/or saturating a few areas of the trees and golden areas of the shrubbery would brighten the scene a bit. That's just a thought. You've got a lovely view, Mary Ann. Posted: 07/05/2025 22:48:49
Mary Ann, What a lovely place to be, Lake Louise. Your composition is fine, but despite all of the work you did to reduce the brightness of the snow, it didn't quite work, art least on my monitor. I would have tried to reduce the brightness using Highlights in the ACR filters to see how that went first. You could start with your lowest exposure and just ignore the "correct" and brighter one altogether.Naot sure what else to say exxxcept with that much bright sn ow, I would probably add 1 to 2 eve fwhile photographing to see how that goes.. It sounds backwards, but I think that's what I was told many years ago. O jp[e ups enjoyed your wonderful trip.Looking at it again, I'm wondering if using a polarizer would have cut the brightness in the water. Posted: 07/07/2025 18:29:48
Mary Ann, I agree with Ruth that your merging of images seems to have worked. There is detail in the snow in the mountains and the reflection of the mountain in the water is an excellent touch. Leaving in some of the people was a good decision. Well done, both shooting and processing. Posted: 07/11/2025 00:43:39
Mary Ann, beautiful composition and great idea to merge photos to handle the dynamic range. I always seem to forget to do that and end up with blown out highlights. I tried to play a bit in Camera Raw, and my adjustments kept graying out the mountains in the background. Posted: 07/15/2025 01:11:27
Hi Mary Ann,
The scene of Lake Louise in the Canafian Rockies is so captivating! The mountain scenery, the striking colors between the blue sky and the snow, and the body of water with rock flour. You have made a right decision to capture this landscape scene using HDR technique with a mix of bright light and shade.
For the snow at the top half of the image that is quite bright, I'd prefer to lower the setting to two stops below the correct exposure to accurately expose the brightest parts of the scene. Thanks for sharing your technique and your nice shot! Posted: 07/21/2025 13:15:50
The scene of Lake Louise in the Canafian Rockies is so captivating! The mountain scenery, the striking colors between the blue sky and the snow, and the body of water with rock flour. You have made a right decision to capture this landscape scene using HDR technique with a mix of bright light and shade.
For the snow at the top half of the image that is quite bright, I'd prefer to lower the setting to two stops below the correct exposure to accurately expose the brightest parts of the scene. Thanks for sharing your technique and your nice shot! Posted: 07/21/2025 13:15:50