I have posted my pictures of the visit to the glacier “Mer de glace” on 500px and Google + yesterday.
The feedback was immediate and extremely nice. It was the first time that the images went in a couple of minutes into the “popular” category of 500px (over 90% score – based on a 500px algorithm,  taking into account “like” and “favorite” votes).

Statistics on the image “Mer de Glace”

Here just a snapshot of comments:

Snapshot of some comments on 500px

Based on this “success”, I decided to share how the picture was post processed. Yes, this might take away some of the magic, but it’s kind of a give back to the community.

Let’s start with a look at the original image out of the camera:

“Mer de glace” original

and the camera settings:

Camera settings

I thought this is a nice image – but needs some post treatment to give it the right “punch”.

By coincidence I just bought the Nik Filter Collection that weekend. This collection includes the package “Nik Color Efex Pro 4.0″. I decided to give it a try. After some playing around, I discovered a setting called “Bleach Bypass” – and this seemed to suite just to perfect for this kind of image:

Screen Capture Nik Color Efex Pro 4.0

On the above screenshot (click on it for a larger view), you can see the split of the image in “before” and “after”. Some more minor tweaking of the options (right panel) and the final image was ready:

“Mer de glace” – final

Click here for a larger view: “Mer de glace” on 500px.

I hope, that after this explanation – as simple as it is, you still like the image. Please let me know and leave a comment. Thanks!

More to come soon!