Cave of Wonders

Image Critiques Weekly Challenge
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Cave of Wonders
Cave of Wonders2867×1912 2.55 MB

This shot was taken at Presque Isle Park in Marquette, Michigan. The park is popular for a section known as Blackrocks, which our most famous microbrewery takes its name from. The rocks themselves are metamorphosed igneous peridotite, which is always fun to type, and are about 1.7 billion years old and look it. This shot is from earlier this month in a small cave right next the Blackrocks area. It’s a spot you wouldn’t know about if you hadn’t visited multiple times. It’s just big enough to shove inside of. The Great Lakes are experiencing record low levels of ice so I have been searching high and low to find any and all that I can photograph and was glad to catch this spot as the sun came up.

Specific Feedback and Self-Critique

This was shot handheld while crunched in this cave. I took a number of shots and I’ll post some variations in the comments.

Technical Details

Sony a7ii 1/125 f6 ISO320 17mm processed in lightroom

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Original

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Alternate portrait crop.

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Hi Cameron,

Yeah, the name of the rock is fun when trying to pronounce it the first time as well (for me anyway) :laughing:

The two perspectives are very interesting to me, the landscape version from the low angle make the cave seem larger, or maybe it’s more like being just inside the entrance to the cave.
The higher perspective portrait version makes me feel like I’m much farther into the cave compared to the landscape version.
To me, the portrait version is a little more appealing simply because it has more of a “deep cave” feel to it.

Having said that, I like both versions. I like the way the sun was placed at the edge of the jut out where the trees are, the trees add to the overall interest as an almost silhouetted BG element and the clouds are great.
The glow in the ice is really nice (the hanging ice cycles top and left side as well as the solid ice on the right).

You done a great job at capturing the mood of cold even though the colors are warm as a result of the late evening sunlight.

From a personal preference point of view, I feel like the brightness and saturation in the top image is a little overdone, the highlights are somewhat distracting for me, and the results seems to take away from the feeling that it’s a cave (which are typically darker to be more mysterious) but again, that’s just my personal take on it. (And…who says that we have to follow the rules of “Typical”? :smiley: )

This is one of those images where you could play around with the exposure in many ways, you could try masking the ice in the cave and increase the exposure there to add more presence to the ice but leave the sun and clouds pretty much as they are (using the original as the starting point, and BTW, thanks for posting the original!).
In the end, its all a matter of personal taste. :slight_smile:

A big thumbs up from me for the planning and insight in getting this set of images! Well done!! :smiley:

I hesitated posting the edit below because it’s a fairly radical change from your top image but I hope you posted the portrait version so you could get ideas from other member’s different points of view.

The edit below highlights or showcases the ice cycles but still shows the color of the light coming through from the late evening sunlight and yet, still has that dark cave feel to it (IMHO).
I cropped a little off the top and the left to bring a little more presence to the ice and the BG.

Original Portrait Version:

091CB0E7-0D0C-4256-88F8-656C771370C9
091CB0E7-0D0C-4256-88F8-656C771370C92000×3000 924 KB

Edit Version with highlights on ice (below)

091CB0E7-0D0C-4256-88F8-656C771370C9 Cameron Wilcox
091CB0E7-0D0C-4256-88F8-656C771370C9 Cameron Wilcox1792×2708 978 KB

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What a wonderful view from in there!

Both compositions are intriguing. I would love the portrait composition more if there was just a tiny bit more canvas on the right, as the lovely rim-lit highlights are too crowded against the frame for my taste. You might get away with adding canvas there if the original is that tightly framed. Or they might be darkened or cloned to remove them above the point of the large rock.

For my taste, the original feels a bit too heavy in contrast and saturation inside the cave, but kudos for straightening the horizon. The shallow DOF had emphasized the highlights on the right and in the LR and I think they could be brought down a bit to remove the distraction.

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Hi Cameron,

I don’t think I was being fair in my first reply, I can only guess that the bright highlights on the right side of the frame in the first landscape orientated image kind of steered me towards the portrait version where those highlights weren’t an issue (for me), I hope that makes sense.

I played around with your top image in Ps just a few minutes ago, and with the bright highlights on the right calmed down with an exposure mask just on that area, suddenly the image took on a whole new feel for me.
The rest of the image became much more appealing as presented.
Funny how just one area in an image can have such a drastic effect (in my view anyway).

I’m really curious, I see that you used a 17mm focal length on both orientations but the depth seems very different to me.
Were you standing (or “Crunched” :slight_smile: ) back farther into the cave for the portrait image? Or was the camera in the same spot with one shot from a low angle in the landscape orientation and the other at higher level (with the camera rotated to portrait)?
Was the landscape version cropped in a little tighter?

One thing for sure, this has my curiosity raised as you can tell :slight_smile:

IMHO, the two are dramatically different, yet both have a lot of details and interest, and both were well done.

Thanks, Cameron, and my apologies for not being more attentive to your first image (as I should have done).

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Thank you Merv for your very thoughtful reply. The cave is pretty small I had to crawl inside it. For the portrait vs landscape images I didn’t really reposition too much but I was trying to get the top of the cave in the frame. In some ways I like the portrait orientation better as well, but I don’t like the large black portion on the left. My biggest adjustments to the photo in Lightroom were exposure, shadows and vibrance. It is pretty ‘flashy’ I was thinking of it kind of like a Celine Dion of photos. I like your edit. It does give it more of a cave feeling and cools it off some. I like to put up multiple images on my posts to give a hint of my process and see what people recommend.

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Thanks Diane! I was attempting to capture the full opening of the cave in the portrait shot and didn’t consider the edges as much as I should have which would have maybe made it a more balanced image. I have been experimenting with taking panos lately because Lightroom seems better at putting them together than it was before. I wonder if I would have done three images as portrait pano shots and stitched them how that would have looked?

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Also straightening the horizon in post is kind of an obsession for me. I will jump through all sorts of hoops to make sure it’s straight.:joy:

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Thanks for the quick response, Cameron.

Yeah, I can see where the dark spaces in the portrait version would push you towards the landscape version.

The landscape version does have a nice cave feel to it after the highlights on the right were toned down.
Also, the landscape version gives me an idea of what it might look like from the eyes of a bear or a fox lying down in the cave.
And finally, the landscape version has nice things to look at in all corners and that adds another reason for choosing that version.

I really need to consider using a wide angle lens more often from a low perspective, there are lots of great opportunities like this as a result (as long as I’m willing to risk not being able to get back up from a crunched position, (I am an old guy :slight_smile: )

Edit:

It is pretty ‘flashy’ I was thinking of it kind of like a Celine Dion of photos

I’ll have to try to remember that one :smiley:

Thanks again, Cameron :slight_smile:

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I really like the low angle wide open shots. I’m trying to work more on my hyperfocal distance and I’m going to try practicing some focus stacking because I haven’t done much of that. I think that’s the downside of that low angle is that you have foreground objects that are very close to the lens.

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You’re right, this is one area where no matter what aperture you use for hyperfocal distance, there will be elements in the FG that aren’t in focus.
I’m with you in regards to needing to learn focus stacking, for me it’s the need to get some hands on experience with the software, I know how it works but I need to do it a few times.
I’m realizing that focus stacking isn’t just for macro. :slight_smile:

You’ll probably get there way before me so I’d love to see what your results look like, and maybe you can throw a few tips our way :slight_smile:

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Hi Cameron, you’ve caught a beautiful scene here, with rich colors and interesting details. I do prefer the original post and like the foreground rocks leading out to the entrance. Would like the reflection on the right to be more subdued, as it pulls my eyes from the whole scene. Kudos on recognizing the opportunity here, and accessing it at the right time.