The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Early morning fog in November in the Buffalo National River area.
Specific Feedback
Thoughts on the overall composition and post processing. A simple composition, I tried to capture the early morning light streaming in on the upper RH corner.
Technical Details
Shot at 44mm, f11, 1/20 sec, ISO 64. Post processed in Adobe LRC and PS.
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
What lovely colors, @steven8! I think you succeeded in capturing the light coming in from the right corner and illuminating the yellow leaves. There is a nice warm/cool contrast going on here, too. The composition feels unfinished, though. I keep wanting to see more of the trees at the bottom as this appears to be just the tops, and it feels cut off to my eye. I’d love to explore this area in these conditions some time!
Steven, I love the muted autumn colors and the mood you’ve captured here. Processing is good to my eyes. But I feel there is just too much featureless fog. It takes up almost half the image. Perhaps a vertical crop?
I think you’re on to something here. The processing looks pretty good to me.
The colors are not over saturated and there is just enough light hitting those trees on the far wall to make this soft and subdued. The light coming out of the top right corner is nice and so is the moodiness of the fog. However, there are a couple things that seem like they need just a little bit of work. The image seems unbalanced because of the very bright foreground shrubs which is not really the star of the show but because of the brightness, they really stand out and that’s what you see. There are also two large dark portions along that bottom area that helps to create that unbalanced feeling I get. The very left bottom corner and the very right bottom corner are really dark. I think if you can add some exposure to those two areas and then bring down the brightest portion of those yellow shrubs to even out the light and crop some of them out and maybe crop some off the left side, it won’t pull the eye so much. Here is what I mean…
You’ve received some excellent feedback that I can only piggy-back on. I do think you’ve done a great job capturing and depicting the foggy conditions; and especially how the fog is interacting with the landscape.
For me, I would agree with other comments that perhaps you tried to include too much and the fog dominates the scene. What I’m really interested in is the interaction between that fog and the tree-covered mountainside. The wider view isn’t allowing me to see that interaction as well if you tried to isolate that more, like the crop suggestions from Micheal and David.
Of course it’s all subjective as to what you are trying to say, but I would also vote for some cropping. If only just to bring out more of that interaction between the fog and mountainside. There are some great colors in there, but of course mostly obscured by the foggy atmosphere.
I just took notice of this comment and what drew you to this scene. I think this goes to the point that I think that goal got lost a llttle by trying to include so much.
You didn’t ask, but I will also include a suggested edit. I like both of the other crops, but just to add another option, I cropped square. But in terms of processing, all I’ve done here is some dodging and burning to bring out and emphasize what I think you were trying to capture and also to bring out a little bit of the autumn color and feel of the scene. Just some targeting dodging/painting, including emphasizing the path of light streaming in from the URC.
This may not fit your vision, but as others have eluded, I think there is potential to showcase what you may have experienced. Hope this helps.
