Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
On my walk on Driftwood Beach I saw this shot and made a few images. With the trails in the sky and Tone in the tree I tried to focus on capturing what I saw. I feel like I got my vision in this image.
Specific Feedback
Yes the horizon is not perfect straight but I may lose some of the tree if I change that. I can live with this slight framing issue… I also could remove the tree on the left but the image did not look right by removing it. I left the imperfections in this image … I like the water. the sky and the texture and shape of the tree.
Technical Details
ISO 500 Shutter 500 f14 edited in photoshop.
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:
Decided to try and improve my image after a second thought. Always learning and always trying !!!
I can definitely see the improvement in the second version, Gill. I think the horizon could use just a hair of straightening. Also, you have a lot of fine border lines around some of the branches from the adjustments you made like the part I copied here:
If you want them, that’s fine. If you don’t, there are ways to avoid them dependent on the software you’re using. They result from the way the selection tools work and making fairly large adjustments to the brightness of one part of the image with respect to another. In photoshop’s top menu bar, there’s a heading called “Select” If you go quite a ways down the menu, there’s a “Modify” and under it you can expand, contract and feather your selection. A little experimentation and you can figure out how to avoid this. There are also simple ways of cleaning it up that I can never seem to remember.
The graphic quality of this image and the impact when I opened it is superb.
Thanks. I’ll try that. Conditions were light wood and dark shadows. So I decided to takes lots of images at different settings and see what happens.
Thanks again.
Another VEERY cool capture! Avoiding the fine halos would be good. The horizon could bear straightening, to me. The image is so strongly and wonderfully graphic, there is (to my thinking) an advantage in minimizing imperfections. This one really grabs me – it is very 3D. Even the contrails, which I would normally not care for, are enhancements, I think. And the sky gradient is wonderful!
The horizon can be straightened without sacrificing edge material like you would if you just rotate. It looks curved which makes it more of a challenge. Do Ctrl_R to turn on rulers on the top and left borders and pull down a line from the top border to mark a level horizon to use as a guide. The first thing I would try is to make a copy top layer and do Edit > Transform > Distort and push up the LR corner until the horizon is straight. Hold Shift to push the corner straight up. Turn off the layers(s) below and you will see a white area there. Clone in the water to fill it in – or select the white area (Magic Wand tool) and do Select > Modify > Expand to expand the selection a pixel or two and then use content-aware fill (Edit > Fill > Content Aware Fill) or Edit > Generative Fill. Do this early in the process so you are less limited by any final crop.
To get rid of the horizon line (which won’t print or export), View > Guides > Clear Guides.
If it is still curved, try Edit > Transform > Warp. I tried it on this one and it didn’t need any warping.
It still looks a little leaning to the right, so I would overcorrect slightly until the optical illusion looks right.
Oh My Goodness. I’m not that Photoshop smart. I’ll probably start over and not edit so much. But I’m glad you like the image. Hard to photograph.
But I gave it a go. I’ll work on it tomorrow and look at your techniques and see what I can do.
Thanks again.
Gill, your current speed bump may be getting comfortable with layers?? I don’t know where you are with that but a quick summary – the “easy” (and worst) way is to make adjustments – things like lightening, darkening, colors etc, directly on the BG layer that you see when you bring an image into PS. But backing off of things accumulates damage. Make sure you have the Layers panel showing (at the top menu: Window > Workspace > Photography. Instead of doing Image > Adjustments, at the bottom of the Layers panel click the half-circle and choose an adjustment layer. It will pop up above the BG layer and will be completely editable forever without damage. (A few things aren’t available here and will need to be done with Image > Adjustments, but do layers when possible.
Go to my website and in the lower right are some tutorials. The one on layers might be helpful.
Thanks. I know nothing about layers. Tried to understand but failed. I treat photoshop like a darkroom. Lots of burning and dodging and Levels adjustments. I’ll learn as I go and visit your website.
Thanks so much for taking interest and the time in my images and how to be a better photographer and editor. 
Hi Gill. there are lots of tutorials on layers available, but you might want to take a look at your local community college(s) extension education. Many have an introductory class on Photoshop and it can be a real blessing, especially if you’ve been playing with it long enough to get frustrated (and they’re usually pretty inexpensive).
Thanks My introduction to Photoshop was Bill Guerrant and Cole Thompson. I need to learn more techniques as I challenge myself in producing images.
I’ll look at any and everything I can to move forward. Images and Music ( all original) is the goal.
Thanks so much for showing interest.
