I made this on a recent afternoon walk while considering photographic chaos. The backlit grape leaves were quite beautiful from within an absolute jungle of bare branches. I thought the string of red leaves gave this chaotic scene a bit of order. This feels a bit joyful to me, even though it’s so dark, or maybe that’s the memory of that afternoon walk in the warm fall sun.
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Does this convey joy? I darkened it down considerably, except for the backlit leaves throughout, because I shot it wide open and there were lots of OOF branches in the foreground. Darkening the branches down made that less visible (and annoying). So, is it too dark to convey joy or are the colorful leaves enough for that?
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
a7r3, 105mm, f/4, 1/800s, ISO 400.
My (subjective) reaction is a sense of joy or hopefulness emerging from a period of sadness or difficulty. The strong contrast between the dark and light parts of the image conveys that to me. I like it.
I think the image works well. I do not know if it convey joy to me, but I like the image a lot. Your post-processing is great. The yellow BG is very good, but there are two yellow spots in the ULC that draw at least my attention away from the red leaves. These spots could be toned down.
I think you masterfully created order out of chaos through your use of color and luminosity. I would add that I think the subtle yellows in the background serve a similar role as the red grape leaves, but in a secondary, more subtle way (which adds value to the image for me). The isolated color and luminosity of the leaves are so powerful visually, that my brain tunes out the chaos of the dark branches.
I’m not sure this conveys joy, because that is not typically an emotion that I associate with autumn. I know it’s autumn from your story, and red says autumn to me too. Being biased by knowing its autumn, I would associate this with “last hurrah”, resilience or holding out against change. That is still a positive emotion to me, but I’m not sure I’d go as far as joy (to me joy is more of a spring emotion, rebirth and all that).
Independent of which emotion I personally associate with image, I think it does convey a positive vibe that prevents the darks from creating a somber mood, and more importantly it has a lot of impact.
@Igor_Doncov, you were right - the image wasn’t clickable to enlarge. I reloaded it and it should work now. Usually I check that but I must not have done so this time.
I would agree with you Ed that perhaps joy isn’t the right descriptor. Maybe hope is a better word. Although I do find autumn joyful, myself. It always comes as a respite from the blazing sun and heat of summer around here.
This is just a theory. If you upload an image during a post and don’t wait to the point where the little hand appears on the image the upload will abort and you get a post without the full blown image.
You images tend to be dark or have a lot of black in them. So this is consistent with much of your work. I don’t find this to be somber. I think people are different in this respect and respond different emotionally from one another. I see this image as hope in the midst of conflict. Had there been no bright leaves within the darkness I would agree that this is a somber image. However, their bright colorful presence provides a different message entirely. So it’s a light at the end of the tunnel message. You can concentrate on the light and say it’s positive or the tunnel and say it’s negative. I think most people would agree that it’s a positive message.
The yellow leaves in the back were a source of interest for me. Do they help convey your intent or interfere with it. Perhaps darkening them ad just having the bright reds would be better. In the end I feel that they definitely help. They make the light at the end of the tunnel bigger and brighter.
This is just my opinion and I hope it helps in some way.
You’re right - I know to wait until the little hand appears. Must not have waited long enough.
As Ed mentioned, the yellow leaves also serve to convey hope/joy/whatever your warm feeling is. That was my intent, although I hadn’t mentioned it. I think without the yellow background this might become more of a cry for help than something hopeful. Thanks for your input, @Igor_Doncov.
Where I live, autumn is more about it the being last good thing before 5 or 6 months of cold and snow set in. It’s a sign that you know whats coming, so enjoy autumn while it lasts. Still a positive emotion though…
I don’t think the shallow DOF usage is that effective here due to the overall darkness of the image. The sharp branches really don’t stand out from the darker out of focus branches. I’m not sure this composition is that solid overall. I like the idea behind this image but I’m not so sure about it’s implementation. On the other hand I do like all those crisscrossing mostly up and down lines …
