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.
Wow, You guys nailed three issues straight away.
Lon, your 1 1/2 was actually two issues. The very dark spot nestled in amongst that bright limey-green section of leaves in the ULC corner. Your rework is just perfect. Thanks for taking the time to show the way and for being the first to comment on this one and for your very kind words. Much appreciated!!
Michael, I missed the branch on the right you mention. Thanks for that. And thanks for your kind words. I may actually print this one on matte paper just to see how it turns out. Thanks for your thoughts.
Ben, thanks so much for your comment and enthusiasm. I appreciate it.
Guy, I’m glad you liked this one. Thanks very much.
Paul, I appreciate your thoughts on this one. Thanks for stopping by.
Ed, you nailed it. That branch along the bottom portion of the image draws the eye in the smaller thumbnail that I didn’t notice when viewing large. It’s funny how I notice things that draw the eye when I zoom way out and make the image small. Those dark and bright spots just pop when you do that. I’m also glad you guys noticed the ladder like limbs that are poking out the side of the right portion of the frame. I didn’t count those but they are definitely noticeable. Your rework is awesome! Thanks for your thoughts and your eagle eye for catching that branch.
Igor, I will rework a cooler version and post it here for comparison. Thanks for those thoughts. I went to David Chauvin’s website and didn’t notice any cool toned images from the swamp and he has a lot of swamp images. I wanted to try and get inspired by it but I just didn’t see any. In fact, most of his were about the same temperature as this one I posted which is quite natural. In fact I cooled it about 300 points in LR. I’m very interested to see what cooler will look like. Thanks for the thought on that.
John, I actually texted you a cell phone image when I arrived at my campsite. Do you remember? You were there in my thoughts and I immediately thought you would like this area. I’ll work on keeping you in mind next time I go searching for new locations. :))) Yeah, the area is dense with foliage and so there is very little light coming through from the background which works great but makes it super challenging to compose images that are not cluttered. I found the area difficult to photograph and very challenging but I think I learned a lot and will apply it next time I visit. So, is Spanish moss called sphagnum? Good to know. I love that stuff. Anyway, sorry you couldn’t be there to shoot but maybe we can make this one of our trips in the future. I actually reached out to @Kris_Smith about joining me but she was on a workshop in the mountains of Tennessee if I remember correctly. It would be fun to get some members to have a meet up in the area.
Mark, Thanks for catching that branch along the bottom. That was my third nit. I’m glad you enjoyed this one.
This area is hard to explore. It has to be from a boat and because of that, you are always moving. You can’t really use a tripod so you have to jack up the ISO and try and nail the shot while you are moving, even if it’s just a little bit. The leaves are actually made up of several rows of needles which I find quite interesting and beautiful. Try as I may, I never got a good image of the knees of these trees. They make great intimate scenes but again, hard to compose in a boat. Speaking of boats, you have to either bring your own kayak, rent a kayak or take a boat tour. The boat tours are sold out months in advance and I wasn’t able to get on one while there so I had to navigate the waters on my own. You can easily get lost if you are not with a guide because everything looks the same. It’s a little bit scary. It was a great trip, I learned a lot, and will definitely be back for more with better knowledge of how to actually shoot these trees.
Hmmm… Now the upper left is less of a problem. Some of the previous vitality can be regained by saturating the yellows in the center right to make it a focal point. I worked on the oranges globally as well but couldn’t decide whether there was any improvement.
My gear actually did get wet. There is very little room in a kayak for extra stuff and so my gear was laid out in front of me exposed. It rained quite a bit on my trip so my gear got wet from both rain and the constant dripping from the paddles. There was about an inch or two of standing water in the bottom of the kayak each day. I also rented a canoe but found it far more tippy than a kayak and also they give you a paddle that only has one end for the water so I was constantly crossing the paddle across the boat to the other side. Next time I will use waterproof bags for my gear both from the elements and in case I tip over. One of the hardest parts is getting in the kayak and getting out of it without dumping everything in the water.
What did you think of the cooler version?
Yeah, I think I like it. There seems to be a greater variety of colors. There’s a couple of orange saturated spots above a branch on the left that catches the eye.
I tried to desaturate the yellows and greens and make it just those red magenta leaves on a blue image but I didn’t like how it turned out. It made sense but didn’t come out so good.
There isn’t a whole lot more that I can add that hasn’t already been said, @David_Haynes. Of all the various versions my favorite is @Lon_Overacker as it seems to balance a warm/cool contrast the best and the colors also have a bit more pop. As a very large print, this would be stunning and the type of image that I’d stand there and study/appreciate for a loooong time.
Thanks Bret. I appreciate your input. I’ve sat on this image for abut 5 months now but I think I like where it’s going. A couple of tweaks and I’ll probably print it on Matte paper like @Michael_Lowe suggested.
