Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Woke up at 3 and got to sunrise by 430 to photograph the tree that was in my first post. After shooting sunrise, which gave very little color, was heading back up the road to move on. As i looked in my rear view mirror, I saw some wonderful lighting happening. I stopped and got out to shoot. The sun just broke thru the clouds for a tiny bit and illuminated the base of Steptoe Butte. I found it magical. And just like that…it was done.
Specific Feedback
Too dark in foreground and left side?
Technical Details
1 Like
Hi Judi, this is a great image and really well composed!
The texture and light in this image is terrific, as well as how you have composed the different contours in the landscape to lead towards the sunbeams.
I do think that the foreground being dark works, as it balances out the tones in the image, however, the leftmost hill in the image is quite dark and I find myself being distracted by it. I feel that the image would greatly benefit if you lifted the shadows slightly for the hills in the left of the image. Other than this, it is a really nice image and a great find of a scene!
Thanks! I shall give it a try in the morning! Thank you again for your input.
1 Like
Hi Judi,
I love the composition. I do agree with Keenan, my eyes gravitate to the foreground. Maybe bracketing 3 or 5 shots might give you a favorable result. Happy shooting in an incredible place for photography.
This is a very pleasing image Judi and I especially like the wonderful backlight on the hills that really highlights their wonderful forms. I do however find the wide dynamic range too much for me and I might be inclined to experiment with brightening up the dark areas a bit as well as darkening those really bright areas. I think this would make the image a little bit more cohesive.
Hi Judi,
congrats to this great image! I absolutely love the vastness of the valley and the light situation. I agree with my previous writers, though: You could lift some of the shadows in the edges.
Also, some of the cloud borders seems to be burned out. In those situations I try blurring (Gaussian blur) a bit, or put some more haze on it, so that the blatantly obvious contours get softened.
Anyway, very nice!!!
Markus
Yes, a beautiful composition, indeed. I agree with earlier comments about working to enhance the contrast across the foreground and midground, perhaps by brightening the foreground considerably will holding the shadowed areas as somewhat darker. I’ll bet you have enough information int he shadows of your image to make this work.
Hi Judi, this is well-spotted and really amazing light. I love how the sun seems to “kiss” the hills very gently. I also like the darker area in the foreground with the white dots from blossoms I assume. What I could imagine is cropping the image to a square, because I don’t think you’d necessarily need the left bit. The dark area in the foreground should do nicely. Just my two cent 
Otherwise great work.
Thank you. I have lightened it some but didn’t repost it. I shall try a crop as well. Thanks!
