I am not a winter person and the only time when I visit sky resorts is when it is warm and there is no snow.
Mont Tremblant is one of the top ski resorts in the Eastern Canada and it is my favorite location for photo hiking (I just invented a new term). The day I took the featured photo we just finished 3 hours long and pretty demanding hike and this is the scene we witnessed.
Smart people used a ski lift to get to the top of the mountain and they just sat in big chairs enjoying the view.
Loc: 46.219919, -74.552510
Shooting & Processing
Because of the difficult hiking route, I did not bring a tripod with me so I took a series of single shots hand-held.
First, I created Virtual Copy in Lightroom and edited it only concentrating on the sky area. I did not care that the foreground was overexposed and the mountains were oversaturated. The sky looked perfect.
Next, I edited the original RAW image only concentrating on the foreground and the mountains.
In the last step, I loaded both versions as separate layers in Photoshop and blended them together using Transparency Masks.
Finally, I use the Stamp Tool in Photoshop to simplify the composition by removing (masking) distracting elements (people, chairs, wires).
Deconstructing Featured Photo
- Camera: Canon 60D
- Lens: Sigma 17-70mm
- Focal Length: 17mm
- ISO: 100
- Aperture: F8
- Shutter Speed: 1/200
- Bracketing: none
- Tripod: hand-held
Processing:
Lightroom: import, tagging, virtual copy, standard Lightroom editing.
Photoshop: blending, color correction, contrast, cleaning.
Photoshop Plugins:
- Topaz DeNoise was used to reduce digital noise (everwhere).
- Topaz Clarity was used to enhance details and boost colors (foreground).
