Burnished Pool

Image Critiques Landscape Critiques
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Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

When we visited Jefferson Park last month, @James_Lorentson had to arrive a bit later than @Steve_Kennedy and me. Steve and I did a hike checking out the tarns in the park to scout locations to return to the following morning. The mid-morning light was harsh, but as we passed this tarn I liked the clouds above the mountain and was debating about what a black and white image might look like. Steve encouraged me to give it a whirl, so I stopped and took this image.

The part of the original image I cropped out had a bit of a channel in the grass that led into the image I thought might look good, but back home it’s not that interesting and dominated the rest of the image. If I had it to shoot over again, I would have tilted the camera up and captured more sky instead. That would have had the added benefit of straightening those trees more. (I’ve transformed the perspective a bit to straighten them some, but fully correcting them in this image distorts it in other ways I didn’t like.)

Specific Feedback

I’m still a bit of a neophyte with black and white, so would love your thoughts on the conversion and processing. (I’ll post both the dark and one of the light sidecar jpg images the camera recorded below as a reply so you can see what I was starting with.) Any thoughts and comments are always appreciated.

Technical Details

NIKON Z 7II
NIKKOR Z 14-30 f/4S at 14.0 mm
Five images at 1/100 sec. at f/6.3 and ISO 64 for DOF
One image at 1/800 sec. at f/6.3 and ISO 64 for DR

I usually find I like black and white images toned slightly, and this image has just a touch of coolness added.

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A beautiful scene, well-rendered. I think it is a lovely balance of elements and visual weight. The reflection is gorgeous, as are the clouds. My eye moves from the very interesting near FG across the water to the reflection, trees, mountain and sky with no interruptions.

Aiming a bit higher would have been interesting but things like that are hard to know ahead of time. If you are set up to put the nodal point of the lens above the center of rotation (camera body on a nodal slider) you would have the freedom to shoot a wide pano then crop to the center to include the desired elements and minimize distortion. The wider the lens the more overlap you want. LR does a great job of stitching.

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John,

Gorgeous - what a fabulous job transforming the image from those originals (thanks for including). Great choice going with the toned b&w. I’m really loving this image and scene; the sky and mirrored reflection are wonderful.

I’m also liking the contrast in the reflection - which I suppose is expected. I’m wondering about some micro contrast adjustments in the non-reflected trees and mountain peak? I dunno, maybe not as you certainly wouldn’t want the real and reflected elements to be too close.

Not sure how I feel about the leaning trees that are a result of the 14mm view. Not sure how much you could have corrected before the crop? In the end, not a deal breaker for me.

You sure maximized your take from this trip. Glad you brought us along.

Lon

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Another beautiful image! I love the comp and your B&W conversion. I really like how you have the mountain reflection positioned between the grasses and the cloud reflections highlighting the grasses.