The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Taken this past Fall in the southern swamps. I have always been fascinated with cypress trees from the south and I am particularly enamored with them when they turn colors in the Fall. I love the intricacies of the their leaves, the gracefulness of their limbs, and the eeriness of the Spanish moss that hangs off of them and everything else in the area. My trip coincided with a hurricane that was in the area and although it missed us, it brought torrential rain and very high winds the evening of the day I arrived. I say this only because I saw on that first day what could have been had the winds not stripped the orange and red leaves from a lot of the trees. Nevertheless, the trip was fun and I got to witness first hand the beauty of the cypress, the laid back nature of folks in the south and life at a completely different pace that I live it. I’ll be returning, no doubt, in the coming years.
Specific Feedback
I tried to capture the essence of these trees by zooming into the structure of the tree to expose the gracefulness of their limbs, their striking leaves, and of course, the Spanish moss. Did I capture that essence?
Is the image well balanced?
Do the colors appeal to you?
After posting this I see in the small thumbnail 3 things that stand out that could be improved. What are they?
Technical Details
Z8, 100-400 @130mm, ISO 1000, f/6.3, 1/60th, hand held from boat
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Cool, I get to be the first to comment. OMG, Wow, this is absolutely gorgeous! Right up my alley. This is just outstanding!
So hard to be even a little bit critical… but this qualifies as one of those images that I’d do whatever to “make the image the best it can be.”
balanced? Yes, beautifully
colors? processing is wonderful; colors right on - not too saturated, but vibrant and very natural looking
3 things? Hmmmm.. the ONLY thing I was going to point out is the limey-green leaves in the ULC. Too much to think about cloning/cropping. I’ll post a suggested rework.
I really can’t think of anything else, although in my rework, I cloned out a number of very small, white specs scattered about. Minor. So, I can’t think of 3 things. 1 and 1/2 maybe.
Love this image David! Here’s an example edit. I cropped slightly from the left to remove the dark spot, UL (which also helped reduce the limey-green leaves.) Also shaved a little off the right for balance. The mitigate those limey-greens (lack of a better description), I created a mask for that area/colors and then reduced the yellow/greens saturation and luminosity; trying to balance with overall luminosity of the image. I think this reduces that distraction significantly.
I cloned a half dozen or so very small white specs - just because I could.
Oh, also added a little vignetting.
This is a stunning image David. My favorite I think since popping back in here. Congrats!
Just simply beautiful, David. I really love the colors and the water color painterly look to this image. Would look great on a satin or especially premium matte paper. 3 things? I dunno. Maybe the green leaves in ULC and the dark spot there. Maybe the empty spot on the right where the branches don’t touch or exit the frame like the rest of the image. Certainly nothing that would prevent me from printing it large.
Hi David,
This is flat out gorgeous and you most certainly captured the essence of the cypress trees! I think the subdued orange and green colors of the cypress needles and the Spanish moss are quite lovely as well as inviting. As far as finding three things that could be improved I am only finding two. The already mentioned area in the ULC and an area on the right edge about 2/3rds of the way up where a grouping of limbs almost look like a ladder. Those are very small nits. I took one last look and maybe the third is the limb close to the bottom edge. I hope you do not mind, but here is a rework with what I was thinking; a little crop on three sides and using the remove tool to get rid of the last bit of green leaves in the ULC. These may not be the three things you had in mind, so take this with a grain of salt. I hope you make a large print of this and find some wall space for it. Hopefully you have some more from your trip to share with us.
David: Frame filling fantastic! Not much to add to the previous comments from @Lon_Overacker and @Ed_Lowe but a large print of this would invite many moments of inspection and contemplation. Superbly crafted image.>=))>
Beautiful work, David. Yes, those lime green colors do stand out quite a bit. You could play with the saturation and make the color cooler. One thing you could do is make the entire image cooler. We had a member who made amazing images from this area (David Chauvin?). He always rendered them cool. Perhaps I’m unfairly comparing to him.
The main thing I noted from the thumbnail was that I was in Washington and not there with you. There’s no way you can fix that now, but it would be good to keep in mind if you ever come across scenes like this again; I recommend you work on that in the future.
I love the way the image is so stacked with vegetation you can’t see through it; it’s almost like the way that fog will remove the distant background. The color mix is a treat, I’m a sucker for sphagnum and the tapestry it can add to a scene. Yes, essence captured and balancee with appealing colors.
Sounds like some good small things to play with noted above, but really this is just wonderful.
David, this is a beauty! You’ve filled the frame with a fine mix of subtle colors and shapes. I too think that desaturating the bright greens in the upper left corner would be good and possibly dodging the limb near the bottom center.
