What changed: I cropped to 4x6 aspect ratio, played around wit the clouds, and boosted the saturation in the foreground tundra to accentuate the blueberry and bear berry foliage.
Added after receiving feedback from the community.
The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.
Feedback Focus: Artistic / Expressive
About This Image
This is one of several landscape images I made while in Alaska last month. I’ll be sharing some of my “B sides” this weekend as I consider which of my “non-favorites” have some staying power.
As noted in previous posts, the weather was not very good most of the time, but occasionally, we got some moody clouds. I have smaller slices of the Alaska range shot at longer focal lengths, but the scale of this one, to me, makes the mountains look especially painterly.
Feedback Requested
As usual, I’m grateful for any feedback you can offer. I’m struggling with processing here, not sure whether it needs to be brighter, more mid-tone contrast, more saturated, or whether the composition is just not particularly interesting. It was not a very intentional composition. I just liked the way the mountains looked and liked their monotone contrast with the foreground blueberry tundra.
What do you think:
Does it hold your interest at all or is it just a little to uncomposed?
Would a crop, brightening, or saturation boost improve it?
Thanks for any suggestions,
ML
Technical Details
Canon 5D4 with 100-400mm at 188mm
ISO 320, f/ 10, 1/800s
I love the colors, the contrasts, the painterly mountains. And I agree that the composition is challenging. The lack of a focal point loses my interest – so yes, for me it is too uncomposed. If you have the resolution, you might experiment with a large crop. Pick a feature and compose around it, make it into more of a telephoto shot. It’s so hard to capture the drama, grandeur and scale of it all!
You have made a fine capture here Marylynne. Beautiful and subtle but tells a story of isolation. The red tundra draws my eye back into the mountains and onto the peaks that disappear behind the clouds so beautifully.
I don’t think it needs a saturation boost or a contrast boost. The strength of the image (for me) is the atmosphere. I can feel the chill.
There could be a version with not so much sky, and then perhaps take a slice off the left, at the expense of the expanse and isolation feel. So, I think you have done a fine job for a “not very intentional composition”.
Marylynne, I’m finding the mix of drama (long, steep and rugged mountain range) and subtlety (the foreground colors look quite real, but don’t “pop”) pleasant. There is some drama in the sky that a bit of 'cloud sculpting" (more contrast), especially in the left half, could boost. The quiet and isolation work very well here.
I like the composition as posted, Marylynne. the wide view appeals to me with all those wonderful shadows on the hills and mountains and the way the mountains disappear into the clouds. This gives me the feel of the tundra with incredible expanses of open space, though I was there in June so the colors were vastly different. I did wonder what this would look like with a boost in at least the red saturation to get some of the feel of the posts you’ve been making the last week or so, but I’m not altogether sure it would work in this context since it doesn’t have the yellow to work with.
I’m a fan of layering, and this is a three-tiered cake for me. I read the comments so far and decided to play with the themes. Hopefully that’s okay. Here’s the result:
I like the idea of cropping. It’s so hard when looking at a mountain range to know where to crop, especially when a) some of its peaks are shrouded in clouds and b) when you are unfamiliar with the landscape and don’t have a sene of what is geographically critical. I notice this when someone shoots the Three Sisters in Oregon and lieave out South or North sister.
So I took another stab at this, and ironically, it is closer to what John did, and his version encouraged me to share the revision. I’ll do that above. I have a totally different frame that I’ll share here in case anyone thinks it has more potential. Initially , I didn’t like the clouds as much, and I felt that the sliver of a kettle pond was more of a distraction than a bonus. But…if any of you think this one has more potential, I can shift gears to focus on it instead. It does have more interesting layers in the foreground.
New version of the original will be posted above momentarily, but here is the other frame from same location, though at 200mm and selecting different parts of the range.
