The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This was taken at Curber Edge in Derbyshire, England. It is an area that means a lot to me and whenever I am able to spend time back in England I always try to make time to visit (I live in the USA now) I arrived late in the afternoon and was really excited about the weather, it was typically English - very windy with fast moving clouds and changeable light as the sun lit up portions of the landscape. I was doing a happy dance when I saw the suns rays at the horizon - just wish there had been a bit of illumination on the late season heather in the foreground.
Specific Feedback
My issue is that I seem to have hit a wall in terms of style - Part of the problem is that I go down rabbit holes when editing an image and find it hard to know when to stop!
This image has been edited in both Lightroom and photoshop - some global adjustments as well as more localized changes. Also I’ve been guilty in the past of over saturating images and am now consciously trying to dial things back by working only on specific colors.
I’m deliberately keeping details of what I’ve done to a minimum and would be very keen for comments on the overall appearance - are my adjustments noticeable / are they over the top / are they unrealistic?
Technical Details
Nikon D750
iso 400
20mm
f11
1/100th sec
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Vision and Purpose:
Conceptual:
Emotional Impact and Mood:
Composition:
Balance and Visual Weight:
Depth and Dimension:
Color:
Lighting:
Processing:
Technical:
Welcome back, Jane. Not having been there, I don’t know how accurate your colors are, but they don’t look oversaturated or desaturated to my eye. Maybe the magenta in the heather is a tad strong, but don’t know. The only processing I question is the blue in the rocks and buildings. Nice overall image.
Thank you Michael, I realize its difficult to comment like this but you have picked out one of the doubts that I had - It was end of heather season so one of the colors I saturated was magenta, and whilst heather can look magnificent and saturated during its peak season at the end of season it becomes quite drab and brown.
the blue in the rocks also was another issue introduced by my editing .. I think you’ve picked up on some of my reservations, maybe inadvertently, but maybe I need to learn a little more about color editing - I’ve gone from one extreme, vibrance and maybe over saturation, towards another
I particularly like how the clouds radiate out from the same central point as the sun rays radiate downward. The subtle blur in the clouds gives this a very dynamic feel. Colors look good to me, but not ever having been there can’t really comment on the saturation levels.
Great to see you posting again, Jane. You have a very dynamic and dramatic sky. I can see why you were doing the happy dance when you saw the clouds forming. The light beams are amazing. As far as the processing, it all looks pretty natural to my eye. Over processing jumps out at me usually and this doesn’t do that.
I like that you have the foreground slightly above the background although I may have gotten down a little bit lower so that there isn’t any tension between the foreground and the background. The rock in the lower right corner is a bit of a distraction and interrupts the flow just a tiny bit but it can be cropped out or removed if you’re not apposed to that sort of thing. You might want to crop slightly off the left side as well. There is a little something down in the very left bottom corner and also a quarter circle about half way on the left side of the frame. These are very, very small nits for sure. You have a beautiful image, Jane and your processing is not noticeable.
I can see why you enjoy this location. The foreground heather adds interest to the scene while the curve of the bluff leads the eye to the sunset. I don’t think that the color / saturation is over cooked. To my eye, it does look like maybe the upper right hand corner looks a little to dark and contrasty.
