Hey NPN. New to the site and have to say it’s really cool! I look forward to seeing what everyone is up to. I will start off with a critique. I have very thick skin for this sort of thing, so if you think this shot sucks you can say so and I promise I won’t hate you.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
From a processing and compositional perspective, I am happy overall. Of course I would be interested in any views that disagree!
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
The main thing I am wondering from you lot is whether this shot is interesting enough to justify its own existence (and subsequent addition to my portfolio). With abstracts, I find it easy to get something good, but very difficult to get something great. I have looked at this shot too much to tell which one it is anymore!
Any pertinent technical details:
Single shot, D850, nikon 24-120, f16, don’t remember the focal length but somewhere in the middle ranges. I think there was a polarizer on there too? Maybe? And rocks. There were rocks. Photoshop wise not much, cloned out some dead leaves, color balance, add contrast.
You’ve got a very cool variety of colors and textures here. I like how you have found an area with reds, greens, blues, and even some oranges, and the texture is fascinating. The diagonal emphasis of the blueish area is also quite cool. If this was mine, I would consider a very subtle vignette to place a bit more emphasis on the central part of the photo. I think that green area in the middle needs just a little more attention so it will dominate a bit more. Did you take any closer shots as well? I would have been tempted to move in a bit closer to place a bit more emphasis on some of the textures.
Welcome to NPN! I’m a sucker for these images too and always find myself stopping at my favorite spot to see if I can’t find some new composition.
I think the natural thing to want to do is include all the color and texture you can in a nice comp. But I think Ben eludes to this that some times it’s good to zero in on a smaller area. I see lots of potential crops and/or original zooms.
I agree with you in that I think the processing, color/sat, and luminosity are excellent, no suggestions there.
Not sure how this happens, but wish there was a larger view. Curious if you remember uploading the photo prior to writing comments, or after? and where the cursor was when inserting the image. The larger view should be automatically created. Maybe @David_Kingham will catch this one.
I agree! It’s not to say this one isn’t great, but it’s really hard to find/capture one that really stands out. I think this would be great as a part of a series or triptych.
Thanks Ben! I can definitely see a bit of vignette being cool here as it is kind of flat. I did some that were closer but unfortunately I feel like I blew those comps haha. Luckily this is a hike I do all the time so I will give the close angle another go. Thanks for the thoughts!
I did notice the no enlargement thing and not sure what happened haha… I added the pic after the commentary if that helps… Thanks for the thoughts and the welcome!
Love the colors and textures on this one. I like where Ben’s thought process was going regarding the vignette, and I might experiment with slightly darker upper right and lower left corners, instead of an even vignette all the way around. That might help reinforce the diagonal pattern that adds a lot to this one. Really good stuff though man!
The color palette is really good on this one though so I would lean towards a portfolio inclusion. It definitely warrants existence lol. I can never tell what does for my own work though so take that with less than a grain of salt.
Abstraction is always interesting to ME. You’ll find plenty of others who can’t ‘see’ other than the literal. Add it to your portfolio.
I like it as-is but also see potential for lots of cropping options. The far left edge of the frame - where the saturated color tails off - could easily be cropped away with a 5x7 or 4x5 aspect while keeping most of the remaining frame.
Cool! Like Lon and others, I’m a sucker for abstracts like this. I agree with several others, in particular Michael, that this image is good, but I think there are some fabulous crops in there. For example, I clicked on the image to enlarge it (twice?) and I loved that crop. It was just a centered crop that focused on the big blueish patch and the greenish patch in the center. Doing that crop really made the texture and detail come through.
Left as is, for me, this would need to be printed really big, so you could stand right in front of it, and feel it all around you.
Nice one.
Definitely a keeper. That colour contrast really pops for me.
My main suggestion is just a tighter crop generally to make the subject (I see it as the sharply contrasting yellow/green patch) more prominent in the frame.
Welcome aboard. This one is working for me. I love the colors, shapes and textures making a fine abstract. You could crop in and find other compositions, I am enjoying this as presented.
Isn’t that the truth. I am so bad with it which makes me all the more excited that this site is back, especially having missed the first go-around. IG and the other options we have are pretty close to worthless for real development.
