@asliceofbrie2020
My first time to WA state. Spent some time with friends in June doing lots of outdoor activities including hiking Mt. Spokane. We headed back down just before sunset and I’m a sucker for rays of light streaming through clouds. I’m still learning about composition and post processing and am looking for some general cc including color, crop, etc. My gut is telling me to crop the top of the sky out but not sure. Thanks In advance for the feedback!
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Hi Brie, I really like the lines coming down from the left and up from the lower left . Sso much of processing is based on what feelings you have about the experience. In this case you were struck by the rays. By increasing saturation and contrast, you can emphasize those. I also cropped.some left to delete some bright earth but you could.burn or clone also.
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Brie, this is a really nice image with interesting light. And I like your composition, with the diagonal line of the trees. I definitely would not crop anything away from the top, the light and clouds are what makes this image sing. If anything I wish you had a tiny bit more breathing room above the tops of the clouds.
I would offer a few suggestions to enhance the light rays in the distance (which to me are the star of the show here). First, I would burn down the bright tree trunks in the lower right corner, they are hot spots that pull your eye away from the rest of the image. I would slightly burn down the mid-ground. Sometimes the best way to emphasize something lighter like the light rays, is to darken the area around it. Then I think you could add some contrast in the sky and light rays themselves. You want to keep elements in the distance lighter and softer than things in the foreground, so be careful with not burning the mid-ground too much. Here is a rework reflecting my suggested tweaks.
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Thank you! I’ll play around with more contrast and see how it looks to me. Since I’m new to post-processing, I’m trying to keep a light hand But sometimes I go a little too light. Thanks again for your feedback.
Thank you Ed! I did do some dodging and burning in the middle ground over those trees so maybe I will just dial it back a little bit. It looks like I need to add a little bit more contrast up in that sky for sure. Also, I may have cropped out the sky a little so I’m going to check my file to see if I can recover more of it. I appreciate the feedback and will see what I can do with some slight tweaks!
In this era of such incredible post processing software availability, one task of becoming a good photographer is to realize that post processing cannot make up for uninteresting light. Yes, it can improve a photo, but well processed uninteresting light will almost never match interesting light. Your photo does have some interesting clouds with a touch of color and sun rays, but to my eye overall the light is not that interesting. Kudos to you for wanting to learn more about post processing! But an important lesson to learn is that to get really beautiful photos, you have to learn when the light is good at that place (usually around sunrise and sunset) and when you have found a location and composition that you like you have to keep going back over and over again until you find some beautiful light. Even at the most photogenic locations, good light can be hard to fine.
This is a grand view for sure, Brie. The rays of light on the BG mountains are the star of the show for me also and the diagonal FG tree line adds some additional visual interest. I think @Ed_McGuirk’s couple of tweaks have elevated this lovely image another notch. BTW, I would definitely not crop the sky. If you can ever get back to this location I would bring a headlamp and stick around for sunset.
I agree with Ed’s processing. I like the scene and the composition. I also agree with the comments about light this could have been really great with the sun lower on the horizon.
Thank you for you honest feedback Tony. As a new photographer, I’m finding my “good” images are few and far between and also not as “good” as I would like them to be. I would have absolutely loved to have stayed around about an hour longer to catch actual sunset but when hiking with non-photog friends, that’s sometimes hard to do! I’m filing this location into my “visit again” travel folder. I’m eager to get back to the PNW and see so much more! Also, I’m finding it difficult to rationalize my positive emotions about the experience vs the actual image. I’ll keep working on it!
Thanks Richard! I would have loved to stay longer for that sun! I was hiking with friends and they had been so patient with me already. It was a trek back down the mountain and we didn’t want to leave too late. I’ll be waiting next time for sure!!!
I understand. My wife waits very patiently and sometimes not so patiently waiting for the light to get right. Just keep shooting and posting. I have been a member of NPN for a few years and the critiques have helped me alot. Both the critiques of my images and critiquing other images. When I critique other images it forces me to look carefully at them and decide why they attract me or why they don’t attract me.
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I’ll do that! I recently decided that I would post 1 image a week and then comment on 3. Even though I’m new-ish, I agree with you that looking critically at other images will help me hone my craft.
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“Good” for Instagram and Facebook is one thing, and “Good” for NPN is quite another. If you are here, it demonstrates that you are serious about improving your skills.
I’m glad to hear this. Forcing yourself to verbalize what you like / dislike about another persons image can be valuable to growing your own skills, especially if you really try to analyze why you feel that way about an image.
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I definitely wouldn’t crop the sky. It’s beautiful. If you use Lightroom I would use the Dehaze filter over the sky and hazy area so you can get more detail there and reduce the haziness since it’s not a particularly pleasing color. Haze can be nice sometimes though so a subjective call. You could also pull a bit more midtone out of the edges of the trees where the light is hitting then perhaps pull some detail out of the blacks though not too much. Nice composition overall.
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Thanks Richard! I’ll look into those edits for sure. I appreciate the feedback!
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I don’t feel qualified to critique the technical or artistic aspects of the photo, but I like it very much. It’s easy to take photos of spectacular landscapes, it’s much harder to express in the photo what you felt when you pressed the shutter button. Very nice; I like it a lot.
Thanks Terry! I am pretty new to pressing that shutter button so I don’t necessarily feel qualified to critique these things either. BUT, I do try to check out other’s images and decide what I like or don’t like about them. So, I appreciate your feedback!!
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