Ok so the last Lake Superior image I posted was a bit weird for everyone, maybe this will fall into the more traditional landscape space.
Another case of the foreground giving me fits. Yes it’s a major component to the overall composition, but is it too heavy compared to the background? I didn’t have the presence of mind to get the tripod all the way up to see if I could have isolated the icy rocks more, but maybe that was the way to go. I have a cropped version without the island or cliffs in the back.
Trouble is it doesn’t really showcase the scene very well and could be anywhere, not just Superior. This says Superior to me and that’s part of my goal with the workshop, to make photos that work to show the unique geography and topography of this Greatest of Great Lakes. I feel a slice wouldn’t do that in this case although artistically it may be a stronger photo. It would be a more generic one though and that doesn’t fit my goal to tell the Story of the Place.
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.
Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
Try for the life of me to de-center the boulders and I couldn’t do it. Partly because if I went left I would be on thin ice, literally, and if I went right I’d be interfering where another photographer set up. So this is where I stuck and this is a crop, mostly to eliminate the blank water on the right.
Technical Details
Tripod & 6-stop ND
Lr to massage the tonalities with a lot of masking - mostly the sky, tree line and ice. Also a crop. Removed some dust bunnies in the sky. Darn if I just couldn’t keep that lens clean! Photoshop to do some dodging and burning with luminosity masking to bring up contour in the ice. Also smoothed out some of the water where the 13-seconds wasn’t smooth enough. Topped it off with a gentle Orton Effect at a low opacity and confined to darker mid-tones with a mask.
This is absolutely gorgeous! My favorite of your trip so far. There is a similarity to your previous “Restless” post - and this is why I say this. Details, texture and great interest up front in the ice-covered rock - and those little icycles… just wonderful! Then you have created/presented great depth to showcase the location and provide context - a fabulous near/far composition.
Not everyone’s cup of tea, but I just love the water treatment with the long exposure. The colors revealed are just beautiful - can’t even describe the colors… other than to say the warm/cool combo with thta striking sky is beautiful.
Try as I might, there’s NOTHING I can see to fix or improve upon. Print it. This is gorgeous.
This is stunning Kris! The near - far composition creates depth and a “stepping stones” path to the island. I think the island is a key element so I would not crop it out. Love the soft pastel colors in the sky and the silky water too.
Thanks @Lon_Overacker and @Eva_McDermott - I’m glad your keen eyes can’t spot any flaws. It’s tough to shoot this lake although its amazing to be on its shores no matter where you are. Whenever I’m there my photographs turn from the water to the shoreline whether the rocks or the ice or both.
Hi Kris,
that’s a beautiful image. I love the frosty foreground and the nice color contrast.
I don’t think so. In my opinion, the background still has a reasonable size.
If I had to criticize something, it would only be a small detail: The reflection in the water in the upper right corner seems a bit too bright to me. It looks a little brighter than the sky.
I really like the effect of the long exposure. At first glance, I thought the water was also frozen.
Thanks @Jens_Ober - in a normal winter that water would be ice, but this year it’s very warm and Lake Superior is calm and all liquid. I’ll take a look at that reflection again before I print, which I might do. I brought it down slightly, but didn’t want to make it muddy over that way.
Kristen,
I think you’ve nailed this one. The composition is great due to the even spacing across the entire photo. It sounds simple, but it’s not always easy to do. The overall exposure is nice. A little too bright in terms of my style, but I do like darker exposures. Solid shot!
Hi Kris, this is a real winner… I love the cool foreground against the warmer sky. No worries on the positioning of the rocks. They seem to compliment the background just fine.
A great tradiotional image, like it a lot. I used the reshape tool in DxO Viewpoint (I think photoshop have something similar) to get a larger distance between the FG elements and the island as you discuss in the introduction (increased tripod length). I also diminished the FG elements and increased a tad the island just for fun to see what effect that give:
Oh that’s a cool technique, Ola. I never play with anything like that in Photoshop, but it is a good thing to have in the back of my mind with images like this. I think the tools are Warp and Transform in Ps and maybe Liquify, too.
Thanks for checking back in @David_Johnston, I think it works.
And thanks to you, too, @Bonnie_Lampley - I value your judgement on this one. You know how it is when you spend a lot of time with one photo, you can’t really see it anymore.
Hi Kris! I really like this. I’m a fan of central compositions and this really works. The line of clouds mirrors that line of rock in the middle and the first rock mirrors the island. I also think the long exposure does nice things to the water.
I think that this is beautiful and I especially like the “layers” of the rocks/islands. I’m on a crappy laptop so I shouldn’t really comment on the colours or the luminosity but it all looks good in my book!
Not at all. It is a strong element but that works in your favor. Perhaps because it mimics the island itself. The diffused dark band around the rocks with the icicles hanging across it is an eye getter in a very positive way. I like the texture of the water contrasted to the detailed snow. If there was one wish I had with this image it would be that the horizon line to the right of the island would match that on the left. Not a biggee though. Especially since no-one else brought it up. A really fine image.
Thanks @Igor_Doncov & @David_Bostock - I wasn’t fast enough to claim the spot on the beach that shows the island as an island with no overlap to the mainland and with good foreground elements. I do have a couple of shots, but the foreground doesn’t work as well as this one so I haven’t processed those. Maybe I will for fun and see what you think.
