This is a crop of a reflection of trees in Red Jack Lake in the Hiawatha National Forest, Michigan U.P. The crop is rotated 180 degrees. The original scene contained many dead birch trees(the white streaks) in front of the colorful background forest. I find the reflection conveys the colors of the scene in a more pleasing manor without the details of the dead trees and chaotic branches and individual leaves.
Specific Feedback Requested
Is this too abstract for a viewer to understand what they are looking at, or does it even matter? I originally created a 1:4 ratio crop of a wider view, but decided to submit a 1:3 ratio crop for this critique. What aspect ratio do you think works best for this type of image?
Keith, first let me commend you for having fun and playing with photography. I feel that experimenting and playing are important elements for growth. I love the autumn colors in your image. The green serves as a nice anchor. Having said that, the red color on the right edge is a bit distracting since the left side is green. I would prefer a bit wider scene as well. This crop feels a bit tight to me. At first I thought this was an ICM image but I was wrong. Lovely reflection image!
I love this image, Keith. Regarding your question about it being too abstract, I don’t think you have to worry about that at all if you like it. I love that it’s a pano crop and could easily see this hanging on a wall. One thing of note that caught my eye is the red color on the right edge being possibly a bit bright for the edge so I’d probably darken that a bit to help keep the eye at ease and resting more centrally in the frame. But other than that, nothing else really jumps at me at the moment. Great image.
Hi Keith! I really love your photo. I don’t think it’s too abstract at all. It definitely looks like trees in the Autumn. But it has a soft beautiful dreamy look to it because of it being a reflection. Beautifully seen and captured!
First, welcome to NPN! Not sure if this is your first post or not, but no matter, welcome aboard!
Absolutely not too abstract. I can’t speak for everyone, but I’m guessing 100% of the folks on this Nature Photography forum know what they’re looking at! (general public, Instagram… maybe not?)
This is a wonderful abstract autumn image. Love the colors and the pano crop. And you’re right, the reflection is so much more soothing, eliminating all the forest clutter, branches, etc.
Also, love that you flipped this. Now for most of the photog’s, we know that it’s flipped upside down and can usually iron that out in our heads… I really like how this looks “natural” ie. the trunks at the bottom and foliage at the top… even though I know it’s technically upside down. ok, enough of that. I love this as presented.
My only small nitpick agrees with Matt about the red on the right edge. Personally, I would just crop it out as you certainly have enough pixels and I don’t think a little crop would change any impact this image has.
Hey Keith! I agree with everyone else that this is not at all too abstract, in fact I love a good flipped reflection shot, as it makes it look like a painting rather than a photograph.
I also agree that the spot of red on the right edge is problematic. Lon is correct that a crop would work well, not just because you have the pixels, but because it would even out the spacing between the white trunks and the edges of the frame on both sides.
However, if you want to stay in this aspect ratio you could simply darken and desaturate the red, maybe even shift the hue more toward yellow so it’s not so stark against the green (or you could crop and then squish/stretch the whole image into whatever aspect ratio you need for printing).
The other thing I see is the really dark conifers in the center and right of the image, as they kind of throw the overall balance of luminosity off. I would try dodging those up (I tried it here through a Darks 3 mask along with the crop on the right):
Ditto Lon’s comment on the red… good job not oversaturating–I get up there(Mich UP) pretty much every October and the first day out most of my workshop attendees oversaturate colors. This takes away from the mood. You nailed this one!-JG
