Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
An unforgetable moment many years ago while hiking in the Sabino Canyon in Arizona.
Contax RTS III, Zeiss 2.8/35, Sensia 100
Scanned with Nikon Coolscan 5000ED, cropped to panoramic and enhanced contrast with Photoshop.
I can see why this is an unforgetable moment for you. The colors in the clouds are quite dramatic and contrast nicely with the greens and yellows of the succulents. My parents live near Sabino Canyon and I visited there last year. The conditions were not as special as this, but it is a lovely area!
Lovely desert scene with very dramatic cloud cover. I love the flowers around the base of the Saguaro cactus and the desert landscape mood of this image. There are a couple of distracting elements that I’m noticing which are easily fixed. The first is the color of the sky. There is a purple/magenta color cast that I’m having a hard time getting past. I would pull back on the saturation and change up the hue and white balance on just the sky. I find the foreground colors work quite well. The bush in the LRC is a little bit distracting as well. Not terrible but something you could probably remove if you’re ok with that. I also think that the trail or open space in the middle of the image detracts ever so slightly from this and it could be filled in with content aware, again if you are ok with doing that to your image. Lastly, the top of the left Saguaro is so much darker than the rest of the cactus and it might be because of the work you did to the sky. Again, easily fixed. These are very minor points that I thought I would mention. I think this has great potential and could easily be reworked.
David, thank you for your recommendations and I had a look to the original scan. The Saguaro at the left hand site has a shade at the top and does not relate to a contrast work. The sky was very special that day and had a strong purple coloring. I worked around the contrast and that emphasizes that mood. I selectively run a white balance on the sky, which lets the purple appear less strong. I am OK whith cloning away some distracting elemenst in images and tried as well to remove the right hand site bush. For me it works, but did not find it too much improving. Regarding the trail, I included it in the original image since I have the feeling it guides the eye to the hill formation. Thanks again for you helpful comments.
Lovely desert scene. Whenever the sky is darker than the land there is a sense of drama. This image has that. I like your almost panoramic presentation of this scene. The wide open spaces are one of the attractions of the desert. I do agree somewhat with David’s comments about the road and the lrc but they’re not a big deal for me at least. You could argue that the road draws the eye from the mountain, where it should be. In fact, I think dodging that central mountain a bit might be a good idea. It would add to the drama.
