Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.
Questions to guide your feedback
Without revealing anything about technique or my intentions with this image, I’d like to hear about your initial unbiased emotional (or other) response to it.
Other Information
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Image Description
Water tables have never before (during my lifetime, at least) been as high as during the past winter, and they continue to be high after several spring rains. These birches were always at the edge of a small dune lake, but the lake has risen and flooded the birches (see also my last image, a detail from the same birch woodland). This did not only change my landscape (for the better, I think), but also that of the creatures that live there, such as this coot. What would it think about this lake expanse?
Technical Details
An 820 nm infrared image, made with a converted Olympus OM-D EM-5 MkIII from a tripod.
Lumix 2.8/12-35mm @ 30mm (70mm eq), f7.1 @ 1/40 sec.
Specific Feedback
I appreciate any feedback, on aesthetic, conceptual, emotional and/or technical aspects.
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
A beautiful scene. I want to think that this is an infrared image but I’m not sure. In any case the composition is nice. And the coot in the water, again like in Michael’s Mist-ical photo, gives the photo an overall sense of quietness. However, I think there are two elements that detract from that silence. The sky is screaming ‘look at me’. I don’t know if bringing the luminosity down will help or not. Second, the calm reflecting water is very nice and I think would have been great had it extended all the way down to the bottom edge of the frame.
Gerard, the contrast between the horizontal flow in the sky and the verticals of the trees is quite striking. In spite of your title, the coot seems to play a minor role in the scene. The very high contrast does make this look like an Infrared photo (which may be your intent) but I wonder how a reduced contrast version would look.
A very moody and surrealistic scene. I agree with @Youssef_Ismail about the sky drawing a lot of attention. For me, it adds an almost stormy element to an otherwise calm scene. I think cropping the upper 1/2 of the sky removes that aspect. It also matches that wavy part of the sky with the reflection. Wonderful image.
The image is quite contrasty because it is indeed, as you already guessed, an infrared RAW-file made with a 820 nm converted camera.
I agree that the sky is perhaps too overwhelming for the feel I wanted to convey. I tend to get a bit carried away by the effect of the IR conversion on skies, which are sometimes quite featureless to the naked eye, and in IR reveal all sorts of patterns.
Relative to last year, the coot is confronted with a lake that is at least twice as large, and as it was swimming at high speed past me when I made the landscape composition, I thought about this, and wanted to show the coot in this large expanse of water and sky. By the way, the foreground is water reflecting the sky, Youssef.
@Jim_Gavin suggested to crop the upper half of the sky, and this is the effect:
My initial impression was how the trees seem to glow; I too thought of infrared. I didn’t notice the coot at first; that’s a nice touch. I really like the crop, because it allows my eye to better absorb the interesting features below; it feels better balanced and not competing at the top of the frame.
Thanks John, the glow on the IR-reflecting foliage is caused by the IR sensor.
It is what I really love about IR, although I acknowledge that it’s not everyone’s cup of tea…
I also like the crop better than my original. To me, this is another demonstration of the great value of positive, constructive feedback from fellow photographers!
