My plan was to focus blend this image, and I did use two images to combine close and mid-focus. Unfortunately it was breezy, and the image with the distance in focus was just too challenging to blend because of movement in the bulrushes. In the end, I decided that the lack of focus there wasnât critical because the fog made it pretty soft anyway, and elected to go with this. Is the soft background distracting?
I find fog images that white out in the distance to be a bit challenging to know the best place to crop at the top. Does this one look balanced?
Technical Details
NIKON Z 7II
NIKKOR Z 24-200 f/4-6.3 VR at 62.0 mm
1/50 sec. at f/7.1 and ISO 64
Truth in Blending Statement: Two images blended for depth of field
The softness of the distant area doesnât bother me at all. In fact, itâs part of the essence of the image. And speaking of mood, I find the dark bottom to be at odds with the softness of the upper area. So I tried this crop for mood consistency. The level of color saturation is perfect for this mood in my opinion.
Hey John, I really like the concept of this photo. I also think youâve done a really good job pairing a small subject like this litter, water path and also the fog in the background. As a rule of thumb that I follow for leading lines like this one is that they need to lead somewhere so if they donât lead somewhere, you can completely eliminate the sky, and just have a simple scene of a small detail in the landscape rather than a ââ grand landscape.
Lovely! I like David Johnstonâs idea of eliminating the top, down to below the dark bits at the top of those grasses. For me, this is about the curve of that channel. For that reason, I wouldnât crop the bottom as Igor suggested. The S curve of the left-hand side of the channel is so beautiful, as are the reflections of the reeds in the lower left. I wouldnât want to lose that part of the frame.
Hi @John_Williams! The sharpness seems to be just fine for the scene. I donât think our images need to always be sharp from front to back. Ultimately focus is a creative choice If you make conscious decisions about it.
Having said that, my immediate thought after seeing the image and your title was that the thing you were interested in was the path of the water. If you cropped out the fog/sky does it still tell the story you want? Personally, I think itâs fun to leave the viewer with a little mystery and wonderment. In my version of your image I cropped it to 4X5 leaving out the sky. I used some selective masking in photoshop to brighten the backgound and leave the more sharp grasses dark for some contrast and depth. I played with the calibration sliders back in Lightroom too as I thought the image was leaning towards a green cast. Anyway, thanks for asking for feedback and for letting me have a play with your work. Enjoy!
P.S. If I knew how to do better masking in Lightroom I would give the background a slight negative dehaze and leave those foreground reeds alone.
Hi John. That is very painterly. I love how it fades into the fog. I usually like some horizon in a shot but I was just trying out different crops and it actually works alright cut at the top of the âsâ of the stream too.
I really like the mood of this image John. When you have dense fog in the background of an image I donât think you need sharpness front to back. In fact, I would go as far as to say that having less sharpness in a fog filled scene like this one, enhances the mood of the image enormously. I would even take the clarity and dehaze sliders both into negative territory on the background of this to further enhance the fog and also help blend in the sky and the horizon a little bit more. Otherwise, I would crop the sky out. There are two or three reed stalks that are poking out above the horizon so eliminating the sky in this shot would solve that very minor issue. I love the foreground s curve and the shadows of the reeds in the water in the LRC that help fill that void. I very much like @Brie_Stockwell crop which eliminates the sky and the reed distractions while emphasizing the s curve. Like she says, it leaves the viewer with a little mystery and wonderment. I agree!!! I also agree with @Cameron_Wilcox about this being very painterly. I think the textures and the fog go along way towards helping create that affect. A wonderful scene.
Lovely image and lots of great comments. I like the foggy horizon , it adds context and scale. It could be a little more balanced in brightness and maybe cropped by 1/3. Thanks for posting - really like this one
This is wonderful. I love the mood and atmosphere here. In fact, this image brings me right there⌠I feel quite a brisk chill in the air, along with a very, very quiet and isolated mood - with the exception of a bird song somewhereâŚ
Iâm with the others not worried about any softness as you go further in to the image; sharp detail is not what this scene called for. So lucky for you the wind prevented that focus stack!
Iâm really enjoying Igors crop. In fact, I think that mood and atmosphere is even elevated a bit, as well as my impressions of being taken there. Your original is wonderful, no nits or suggestions - but love the square crop too.
This photo has a lot of depth - nice lines and softening fog. I donât mind the whiteness of the fog at the top, I also like everyoneâs cropped versions - which all work because the photo works.
Iâm late here but have to say I love the original! The lines are wonderful and the colors and mix of vegetation are very pleasing. For me, the BG needs to be soft in an image like this and I think this is the perfect mix. I like the reeds breaking the âhorizonâ and the symmetry with which some of them end at the bottom. I like that the water at the bottom along the left edge is about the same scale in the frame as the âemptyâ space at the top. My only very minor nit is the small branch of water that exits the frame on the left â it pulls my eye out of the frame and looks like it could be cloned out.
