Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I’m pretty sure that I shot this iPhone pano from my car window — either at an overlook or along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Parkway offers many beautiful views, especially on cloudy days.
Specific Feedback
Does the image work? Wide-angle landscapes are not my forte!
Technical Details
iPhone pano, f/2.8; I like the 3:1 aspect ratio and use it often.
Susanna, I certainly think the image works. The only way to get the feel of the expanse of the layers of mountains is with as wide an angle as you can get. The B & W sets a mood. Do you have it in color? Even on a cloudy, rainy day, the color would be spectacular.
Thanks, Barbara! Yes, I’m sure I have the color version. I do my processing, and B&W conversions in Photoshop so the PSD file will have the original image. I’ll look at it.
1 Like
Hi Susanna, yes, the pano is a great choice to capture the wide expanse of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and on an overcast day, why not go with the B&W? I’m enjoying all the various shades of blacks and grays in your image, and like how the brighter sky in the distance is framed by the dark clouds overhead and dark mountains below. The dark ridgeline coming from left center makes a fine leading line to draw the viewer’s eye deeper into the scene. My only thought would be to include a foreground of some sort; trees, bushes or even roadside flowers that are closer to you would give the scene more depth.
Jim, thanks! I absolutely agree on a framing device in the foreground. I do have other images with trees and flowers in the foreground. I’ll have to take a look at them and, perhaps, post one. 
Wonderful pairing of hanging dark clouds and dark cloud shadows on the mountains! And excellent detail for an iPhone image! I can appreciate the lack of a FG – it makes me feel I’m falling / flying / being pulled into the landscape rather than contemplating it! I want to go sailing down that valley and ride the thermals out there in the sunlight!
Thanks, Diane! Your thoughts parallel mine, although I see Jim’s point, too. I went through other “wide angle” landscapes and may post a couple. Not my forte, as I said. I just don’t “see” in wide angle, but keep plugging away at it!
Susanna
