Autumn Collage +Alts

[Lon_Overacker]

This one is growing on me and despite the rather ordinary and non-dynamic autumn scene, I like it. To me, while not flashy or a grand autumn landscape, this is so typical of the Eastern Sierra in the fall. And anyone who’s been knows how the aspen here come in such a wide variety of color, from stark white, to almost green and often have a hint of red - as these ones do here. This also has the scrubby sage filled vegetation that dominates the landscape

What technical feedback would you like if any?

Processing of course. Color/sat ok? Luminosity?

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

Having trouble with the title. Any suggestions. Of course any/all feedback on composition, etc. is welcome.

What about the pine branches in the UL? Distraction or work to frame?

Any pertinent technical details:

This is a 3-image focus stack. Nikon D800E 28-300mm @55mm f/18 1s

Thanks for any comments, critiques or suggestions!

EDIT: Adding a couple alternative crops. Thanks so much for the honest feedback and critique. It seems the consensus is a crop off the left to lose pine tree.

And thank you @Igor_Doncov for your honest comments as well. I’m so glad you did because you articulated pretty much how I feel about the image! Yes, it’s fairly busy, almost random and the eye wanders around… On the flip side, it’s what I like about this scene uncropped - it’s complex, diverse and captures what I see and feel about the Eastern Sierra. I don’t disagree that compositionally the image may be stronger and simpler by losing the sides. But then it also makes the image more cliche. At least to me.

Here are two alternatives. The first a crop with the consensus, and second one little more towards what Igor suggested, losing much off the right and leaving the open space and “criss-crossed” trees more towards center.

Thoughts, preferences on the crops?

(ps. after uploading and scrolling thru the versions, I like them all! No wrong answers I think. - (great tip btw is to post your reworked images by editing your original post, rather than replying to a comment.))

This folks, is what is so valuable in the Critique galleries. I appreciate not only the suggestions, but also the discussion about what and how we feel about our images. Thanks!

You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.

[Preston_Birdwell]

I really like the concept here. It’s a classic Sierra East Side scene.

The color and saturation look good, and I especially like the color and tones in the FG sage.

Compositionally, I find this to be a little busy. What I am going to suggest may be too radical, but…

Crop out the pine and the two aspens on left so that the leaning tree pulls one’s eye into the frame. Also, crop the almost bare branches on the right side.

The stars of the show are nice foreground sage and grass and the aspens. At least to me, this is one of those, ‘less is more’ ideas.

The contrast looks real nice to me.
–P

[Harley_Goldman]

The processing on this one looks good, but overall, the image is not really working for me. I find my eye wandering around somewhat aimlessly. I read Preston’s crop suggestion and I think that would tighten up the crop immensely.

[Igor_Doncov]

This is a really fine image, Lon. I like the composition fine as is. I like Preston’s comp idea also, except that for me the space between the pine tree and the aspen is exceedingly beautiful and would not like to sacrifice it. The left side has a romance about it which the right doesn’t quite match. A virtually square crop with the criss cross trees in the center looked good to me also. Beautifully processed as well. Compositionally the weakest part for me are the branches coming in from the side on the right but that’s really being picky.

[Paul_Breitkreuz]

Lon, the processing looks excellent to me. As suggested the composition is busy with resulting wandering around for POF or main subject area. I would try the crops and see if you like it. Again, the setting is definitely all natural eastern sierra and as always the sage is a dead give away for us long time autumn leaf peepers along the 395 corridor.

[Dave_Dillemuth]

What an exquisite mix of colors and textures. I too find the composition a bit busy and like Preston’s suggestion. I think cropping the left to remove the intruding pine tightens thing up nicely. Processing looks great, btw.

[Thorsten_Scheuermann]

I really like this scene. The colors look beautiful. My favorite crop is the last 4x5 looking one despite the pine tree intruding from the left. I guess the pine gives it some extra texture.

Really nice, makes me want to go out there in fall someday.