"A Room With A View"

"A Room With A View"
©David A. Ziser

The views in Banff from almost any direction are simply spectacular.  This is another image taken from our hotel room.  The time was later in the afternoon and the sun was just kissing the top of the mountains in the distance with the clouds just beginning to move in.  The combination created an “Ansel Adams” moment.

Compositionally I wanted the viewer’s eye to be led into the scene with the darker mountain in the foreground on the left.  The two pines on the right offered another compositional focal point against my main point of interest, the brightly lit mountains in the distance.

I took the image into Lightroom 3, changed it to B&W and then tweaked the color channels to adjust the grey tones to my liking.  I darkened the sky by sliding the blue channel to the left and lightened the foliage a bit by dragging the yellow and green sliders to the right. Ansel would have used filters and processing back in his day.  I just used the electronic versions instead. A few more tweaks with clarity and contrast finished the composition.

Camera specs: Canon 18-200mm IS lens at 40mm, F10 @ 1/320 second, ISO 400.  Enjoy!  -David