Evening all, this image was taken a few weeks ago at sunset. I’d been unlucky for quite some time but the light was amazing this evening.
Again, processed in the dark and moody style due to the fact that I’m completely obsessed with the style of Erin Babnik and Enrico Fossati of late.
Any suggestions on processing? I’ve dodged the rock a little bit but unsure if it needs more…
My wife kindly pointed out that the rock looks like a dead horse! 
I’ve cloned out the bits that looked like eyes, nose and mouth but any feedback on this very specific point would also be appreciated as I can still see it.
Thanks in advance
Chris
Chris - Your wife was right. I’m definitely seeing dead horse and can’t unsee it now 
In terms of the processing it’s way too dark to my eye and I like a ‘dark and moody’ image. I would certainly bring up the shadows in this and see how it looks. A lot of detail is lost in the darks/shadows especially as you get towards the mid-back ground. The difficulty you are going to have is that if you bring up the foreground too much it may look unnaturally bright. I like what you were getting at with the processing style, and even with the rock leading up to the mountains, but I am not sure if these elements work well in combination in this instance. I feel that if the foreground was a river/lake/waterbody you would have picked up the illumination from the sky. I say this, not to have a go a your creativity, but because I have had the same issues with my own images in the past. I have found it very difficult to make rocky foregrounds in backlit mountain scenes look ‘right’.
When you look at Erin and Enrico’s work I generally see elements of the foreground that pick up any latent light: flowers, rivers, etc. There is a really good example of this on Erin’s instagram from the Dolomites that sort of shows what I’m trying to say. Alternatively if you look at Enrico’s ‘Peak of Forgotten Memories’, while still being quite dark and moody, there is some lighting/glow in the foreground., In this instance the sun has not quite dipped behind the peak and is coming from more of an angle (side on). Both these images balance out the lighting well.
I really hope my explanation helps and you can see what I am getting at. I have found it quite tricky to explain so please accept my apologies if any of it seems harsh. It was not intended that way.
Cheers,
Eugene
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Hey Eugene I don’t come here for people to just give me a thumbs up I’d much rather receive proper critique whether it be good or bad. I appreciate you offering such a detailed response.
It does look very dark now I’m viewing on my phone, it looked OK on the laptop but I will definitely lighten it up.
I know what you mean. The rock by nature isn’t going to reflect or catch any light but I was hoping the mossy stuff on it would. Maybe not!
I’ll pull up the shadows and see how it looks.
Thanks again
Chris
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Hello Chris,
This is a nice (and a difficult) one to play with. For me, the image is not too dark (viewed on a calibrated desktop monitor), but the FG lacks contrast. I think that the darkest parts are not really black; the lightest parts in the FG are about grey level 90. Low contrast is of course common with backlit scenes.
I increased the contrast in the FG, but this might be something far away from your intentions. I’m not familiar with the work that you refer to, so this can be very different. Just an attempt 
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Thanks Han. I like the lighter foreground. It isn’t too much that it looks unnatural.
Chris, I definitely see the dead horse, too. The land looks quite desolate to me and I think it is in tune with the horse theme. I am wondering if you would consider going full B&W here. I think the sort of desaturated color here has put it the image sort of in between color and B&W but not quite each which makes me feel a little bit uneasy. Very nice composition though, so this is definitely to be worked on more carefully.
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Sorry for the late reply. I’m glad - I’m the same. I generally want mine ripped to shreds. That’s no problem at all. Hope it helped a bit.
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