Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.
Questions to guide your feedback
This is about infinity, about the imaginary.
Other Information
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Image Description
I’ve made several compositions of this area and this comes closest to how I feel about it. I like it’s ambiguity. Some things you barely see. Others don’t make sense. This is a place of great tranquility but it’s when the sand bars appear at low tide that your sense go on alert.
Technical Details
GFX50R, 32-64mm, f/11
Specific Feedback
I had several decisions to make and I’m open to critiques on those choices.
Are the colors too unsaturated?
Would you have made it with greater contrast?
Should the sand bar not be as dark as it is?
Should the sand bar have more color (there is actual sunlight on it)?
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
There is a companion piece to the above image which will probably never be shown at NPN because of their similarity. Therefore I am posting it as a comment. Please let me know what you think of it as well.
Initial reaction was one of intrigue. I could not figure out what the dark strip was, land, a reflection, a wave.
The understated colors are lovely. It goes against the trend of highly saturated high contrast imagery of our digital era but gives the sense of calm and tranquility.
The companion photo is just as nice and the reflection of the clouds is perfect. The way the sweep in from the left is wonderful.
You’re right. It’s hard to find but it’s worth the effort. I can tell you that I feel different when I’m there. Except for the heat, it’s a wondrous place.
Igor,
Both images have your signature ; at least IMO; understated processing which I find very inviting. They have this light airy mood for the viewer to immerse themselves in. The first image has this vastness while the second is a little more intimate.
I could see the first image with a crop of about 1/2 of the water making the scene more of a pano. I love the clouds and their reflection in the second one. The first one has an air of mystery to it while the second is more traditional.
FWIW I slightly prefer the second one because it showcases that beautiful soft light a bit better.
The first one speaks to me of stillness and calm centered-ness. The dark bit of land anchors the scene to give that sense.
The second one has more energy because of the angles made by the clouds and their reflections with the land. That pop of yellow vegetation that the clouds/reflections point to adds to the energy. That being said, it’s a calm energy (if that is such a thing). Both are lovely.
Your questions:
Colors aren’t too unsaturated for me and the contrast is perfect for your intent. More saturated colors and contrast would be at odds with tranquility, IMO.
Maybe the sand bar could be a bit lighter, if you want to emphasize infinity. For me, it’s a barrier (albeit a small one) to the infinite horizon.
More color for the sand bar would depend on the color, I think. If it was tonally similar to those hills on frame left, ok. If it was brighter/more saturated, that might not work in this context.
(P.S. I see a couple probable sensor spots towards the bottom of the 2nd one.)
I don’t see them. Could please be more specific. That’s worrisome. Are we looking for brighter or darker spots? I oversharpened that image so that may be the cause.
BTW. Thanks for reading my comments after the post. I think few people read Initial Reaction posts. That seems to be a flaw in the system.
That was my first thought as well. I actually edited it that way and planned to post it. Two days later I had a second look at the raw file and realized that my initial reaction was towards the tonal gradient that went from dark to oblivion. I decided that was important but I didn’t want to start with a very dark base. So there was quite a bit of back and forth and I settled on this. However, this morning it looked bland somehow, rather than spiritual. It might not be settled until I make a print. Hell, it might look better in b&w.
Thanks. I think I see a corresponding one in the upper image as well. This beach is loaded with small bits of broken white shells. Could be that as well. Hope it’s not the sensor. I suppose I could always clone out that pixel.
Oh wait, you’re talking about the dark areas? That’s with mounds on the bottom or aberrations in the reflections. The water is moving and you’re freezing changing reflections. Or maybe it’s bad processing. Will look at the raw. I’ve had issues like this in the past that turned out to be sloppy mask erasure.
I like the first image very much. In the case of both of them, your choice for reduced saturation works very well in creating an ethereal mood. While the second image is quite beautiful it doesn’t evoke a mood that stirs me in the same way the first one does. I think your choice not to crop the bottom of the frame in the first one makes perfect sense to me. I think cropping from the bottom would undermine your intention for the image - a sort of ethereal expansiveness which is, indeed, very meditative. But also the darkness at the bottom of the frame slowly transforming to the high key at the top of the frame is almost mesmerizing - this is a subtle image. The sand bar: I’m not sure how I feel about it. Cloning it out would completely change the picture and not for the better, in my opinion. I wonder, though about @Bonnie_Lampley’s suggestion to lighten it perhaps in accordance with the horizon. I agree with her that as it is it seems to block my way rather than draw me in.
Bonnie I have looked at the raw file and it’s there as well. When I look at other images in the same locality I don’t see the darkness. It does look artificial but I don’t know the cause. So far.
I’ve made some changes and posted the new version side by side with the old. What do you think?
Changes made:
Lightened up the sand bar.
Small crop off the bottom.
Warmed it ever so slightly.
Added saturation.
Shifted the blues and cyans towards the cold and saturated those 2 colors more.
My initial impression was of emptiness. In pondering the image more that rapidly gives way to an impression of subtle, not empty, and I find that very beautiful.
There’s the anchor points in the distant mountains; the fact that they are minimized is important to me here, but they are essential. That surprising bit of land poking up really focuses the eye, and emphasizes the expanse around it by being a small but central part. The gentle water textures and wonderful use of blue and cyan variation are the not so obvious treasures here.
You have won me over with your repost Igor. I have changed my mind about the pano; at least for today; as I particularly like the gradations of dark to light in the scene. Your small tweaks with the color look spot on to me as well.
The sand bar was not meant to be a barrier to the vision but an enigma. It’s meant to be incongruent with the rest of the image. Just as the rule is recommended to create visual tension the sandbar is meant to create conceptual tension. It’s meant to disrupt harmony. I hope that helps.
as I particularly like the gradations of dark to light in the scene. Your small tweaks with the color look spot on to me as well.