I originally stumbled upon this composition last year and came away with a few photos that I thought were decent but they felt like they were missing something. Upon returning this year, I was greeted with frost and I knew I had to take another crack at it.
Specific Feedback Requested
Any feedback is appreciated. I was drawn to this scene originally because of the natural frame occurring with the two outermost trees however, after spending some time editing and just looking at the image, I am unsure if it works overall. Let me know your thoughts and ways to improve upon this. Thanks!
Woah, that is stunning, Scott. Really stunning. It is a picture postcard for the holidays. Wow. I think the comp works just fine. I like how the path leads you into the background. Even almost centered it has some nice dynamics.
I have two minor feedback points…first is that the two white flower/dandelion heads in the lower right area are a bit distracting. I think I would clone them out.
Second, I feel that the overall color balance is fine, but the frost appears a bit blue/magenta. Maybe a gradient mask and whiten up the frost would help. The trees and everything else look great from a white balance perspective.
Again, those are minor tweaks to an awesome image. Well done!
Spectacular image Scott! Composition and colors of the trees look great to me. I agree with David about whitening the frost a bit and maybe removing the dandelions. Really nice work!
Scott, a nice mixed forest with some wonderful hardwood colors and forms and I very much like the prominence of the middle evergreen. However the tree on the left side is a bit of an outlier for me. It looks like it is in the scene to add balance and framing as you mention, but I don’t think it adds sufficiently to the image. It uses a lot of space and its presence interferes with the other forest colors behind it. The tilt of the trunk and scraggly crown is an awkward contrast to the other evergreens in the shot. For this scene it might be better to show only half of it similar to the one on the right. I think there might be too much frosty foreground, a crop to just below the trunk of the tree on the right might be stronger. I keep learning that often times “less can be more” and not every landscape scene needs strong structural framing elements.
I like the contrast of the cool colors in the foreground with the warm colors of some of the trees. The color variety of the trees helps make them distinct and provide interest. You might consider @Stephen_Stanton’s suggestion and crop in from the left. This would also eliminate the bright ULC that might pull the eye out of the frame.
Hi Scott! I really like this image. And the frost really makes it complete! I do agree with what others say about just a little bit of cropping which also in my opinion would make the trees that the field leads to not quite so centered. And then you wouldn’t have to clone anything at the bottom either! A very beautiful scene worth shooting.
Hi David, thank you for the feedback. I greatly appreciate it. After giving my eyes a break and coming back to this today, I agree. I was going for some color contrast between the cool frost and warm autumn colors but I think I over did it a bit with the frost. I also somehow did not even notice the dandelions. I’m going to post a revision shortly. Thanks again!
Hi @Stephen_Stanton , thank you for the feedback! After giving my eyes a break and coming back to this today, I agree with you. What was originally intended to act as a frame actually turned out to be a distraction. I’ve taken your advice and cropped in a bit on the left. Addition by subtraction is a principle that I have to remind myself to be conscious of. I will post a revision shortly. Thanks again!
@DeanRoyer Thank you for the feedback! My original intent was to add some “coolness” to the frost to help with depth and color contrast but it appears I may have pushed it a tad too far. I have also decided to crop in as suggested and I belief that it greatly benefits the image.
Hi @Vanessa_Hill , thank you for the insight! I have decided to crop in a bit from the left and rather like the results. I will post a revision shortly.
Here is my revision based on the feedback that I have received from everyone. I warmed up the frost a bit, removed the dandelions in the foreground and cropped in from the left. Thank you all for the suggestions! Let me know what you think of the changes.
Spectacular rework, Scott. Well done. The crop works well and I like the warming up of the frost. Well done.
If you want, you can edit your original post and insert the rework at the top, title it rework or something like that. It will then become the thumbnail for your post. I do that all the time when I get suggestions from the community and rework my images…
