I am kind of a beginner and this is actually my first post to get feedback! I would love some feedback on coloring, composition and editing. This image has zero sharpening because I I’m creating a collection to print eventually.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn) I took multiple exposures of this composition and was happy to find that I could get everything in one shot without having to blend. I use Photoshop but I’m not heavy-handed. I did some basic corrections in a Lightroom then moved to Photoshop for some cropping, distraction removal, dodging, and did a slight Orton effect.
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First of all welcome to NPN, hope you enjoy this comunity and can’t way to see more of your images.
Second, good first post. I think the you did a great job framing that little plant as a main subject. The composition and those curve lines of the rock macking a great path from the plant to that colourfull sky. It seams to be corretly exposed, and indeed i dont think blending is needed.
The image is a byproduct of who you are and this image reflects your choices and tastes, so to adress some changes i would make, i post processed some things i would like to see on this image, of course it’s just my opinion:
1 - I created a levels mask to pull up the bright areas of those rocks,
2 - Then i added a luminosity mask to the sky to pull down those highlights and make the sky get atention not for being a white spot, but for having beautifull colours,
3 - Added a faint vignette to center the attention on the main subject,
4 - Lastly i dodge that main plant a bit and cropped a bit (not a huge fan of tall verticals, but again its my vision).
As for color, my eye goes to the sky and the rays of light. You could darken the sky and saturate the color, confirming the eyes’ attraction t the upper part of the scene. Then my eyes wander toward the rock shapes and the water, and the plant in the lower center all draw attention, too, which leads to the complexity of the composition. I need something to pop in the plant area. You have a competition going on between near and far. You could experiment with some severe crops to find two or three compositions in this scene, or you could try to bring them together with tone and color. You could try to raise and lower shadows to increase the modeling of the shapes, and the feeling of depth, to unify the near and far of the land with the sky action. The lines of the water and the rays of light could be adjusted to bring the composition together, but then there might be adjustment than you want to do…Also, not sure the Orton Effect is doing much more than softening the textures without strong direct light highlights. Joao’s edit just appeared in my feed and it illustrates what I was thinking!
Welcome aboard and this one does not look like a beginner image. Real nice first post. I do like where @João_Ferrão has gone with it in the processing, but I quite like the composition and the leading lines of the water. Nicely done. Looking forward to seeing more of your work and your participation around here.
Thank you! I thought about cropping shorter as well and it looks good. I did do some dodging on the rocks and plant and I may be too hesitant to do too much. I’ll look at those adjustments and check out how to do those. Looking forward to posting more.
Thank you! I have a huge goal to have an exhibition in my home next spring with my 10 best images so I’m definitely going to need some helpful feedback. Just got serious about it last December and am learning so much!!
What kind of dodging did you use? I’ve only done it on a couple of images and used a smart object with adjustments and sometimes a luminosity mask. I know there are a few different techniques. Thanks!
It depends on the situation. On this case I used a 50% gray layer on soft light and then instead of using a white brush to dodge I sample the green on the leafs, edit the colour to the most brighter I can and desaturated a bit. Then painted with that green. Also when editing the green I pulled it a bit to the yellow to add a warmth feeling.
If you want I can remake that part (didnt save the ps file) and send you.
Ah! Ok, I think I understand that. I think that’s what I wanted to do but got frustrated. I definitely thought that the plant needed something more but was having a hard time figuring out what exactly to do with it. It’s just going to take time and practice on my part. Let me see if I can figure that out and, if not I will definitely message you.
Brie, welcome to the community. I hope you find it as enriching as I have. Certainly we are enriched by your first image. I look forward to the next 9. To me, the major elements of the composition are the sky, the stream, and the plant. The rocks and vegetation are supporting cast. So, what is the story or melody or poem weaving those together in your mind? Tome, I saw the plant not satisfied wit drinking the water but also desiring to drink the splendors of the sky … corny maybe… but a composition as fine as this does that to me. So I warmed and burned quite a few of the areas, especially the rocks. … their brightness made them too important. Also dodged the dark trees on the left, as that dark mass drew my eye a bit.
I only have my tablet to ght, so this was with Snapseed, so rough in places.
Thank you! I appreciate the input. Love the warm tones you infused. I’m finding it especially interesting how various photographers/artists choose to edit an image. I’ll sit on these ideas for a bit and come back to my image after my mind has had a chance to process it all. I’m looking forward to posting more!
