This is a small nature reserve (Zelenci) in winter of Sava river spring in Slovenia, almost at a boarder with Italy shot from a bridge. Its also my first time trying to shot a sunstar in 2016.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Does the exposure blend look natural?
What about tonality, contrast and color?
Is composition working?
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Any suggestions are welcomed.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
Canon 6D, 17-40 f4
f22 for sunstar and sky (darker frame)
f13 for land (normal exposure)
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#ig @gregorjericphoto
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Beautiful colors with the warm and cool tones and real nice grasses. The upper right corner looks a bit too dark to my eye. Maybe try to even it out a bit? Otherwise, looks good.
Thanks @Harley_Goldman, you are right, it does look too dark. Fixing it now… 
The blend looks natural to me, and I like the colors, the stream between the golden vegetation. Although maybe a little bit too saturated for my taste, but that is of course a personal thing.
A beautiful image.
Yellow and blue is always an attention getting color combination. The folds in the dry grass are my favorite part of this image. For my taste this is too saturated but color saturation is both a personal and cultural preference. This looks like a good spot for trout fishing. My parents lived on the Sava but it was much wider there.
Thanks @Han_Schutten, I tried to bring it down a bit through a saturation mask.
Also dodged the sky in the corner to brighten it.
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Thanks for your thoughts @Igor_Doncov. Do you still think its too saturated in the example above?
This part of Sava is just a few hundredths meters from spring 
Gregor, this scene is really nice. The folds in the grass add some wonderful texture in the scene. I also like that you have three layers of leading lines, cattails, river, and grass. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of darkening blue skies too much, whether that be with a polarizer, or thru post-processing. In nature, blue skies are rarely that dark or saturated. I think your rework improves both the luminosity and saturation of the blues.
In terms of the blend, you have done a good job avoiding halos, and the rework balances the luminosity better. You may or may not be aware of this trick, but to avoid the flare you have around the sun, you can try blending in a land exposure where you stick your finger over the sun, this mostly eliminate flare artifacts, and makes the land look more contrasty as well. The sky exposure bracket of course does not have the finger in the scene. I often find this trick works very well.
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Thanks @Ed_McGuirk for your comment! If only all the lines were going to the sunstar I will need to revisit this place in another time to have sun at that point.
Nice to hear that blend looks natural. Actually yes, I did use that trick to blend land exposure with finger on sun. The difference in contrast is huge and I had a giant flare through half of an image. I can show an example of raw if anyone wants to see it.
Gregor,
This is a wonderful landscape image. Fabulous sun star for sure and I think you have a really strong composition.
The laid-down grasses give me a distinct feeling of winter fading where for a season the snow had packed down on the grasses - and this is what is left after the snow melts.
I think your repost nails it and thank you for taking the time and considering the suggestions. Well done!
Lon
Thanks @Lon_Overacker for your kind words and input.
I did some more work on image like lowering saturation a bit and some subtle darkening on edges.
1 Like
Gregor, both the sunstar and your blend look great. I’d say both of your reposts are good improvements, with 2nd repost the best as the sky looks perfect with it’s gradual luminosity change.
Thanks @Mark_Seaver, very glad to hear sky looks nice and natural now!
