Driving through Ecola State Park on a foggy morning on my way to the coast where I was planning to shoot the waves and the sea stacks, I came across this scene.
Any critique appreciated
Nikon D850 f/16, 2.5 sec, iso 100 , 62 mm. Processed in LR and Ps
Nice looking scene! My only feedback is that the road is pretty dominating and takes up a lot of real estate on the bottom third… maybe a crop off the left side could help reduce its overall impact on the image.
I agree with Matt that the road takes up too much of this beautiful scene. I think a crop is in order here. Possibly taking some off the left side and also off the bottom. For the bottom I would crop up to the point where the right side of the road exits the frame and then I would take off about 15% from the left side. I love the glow in the trees. Here is what I mean. Oh, I also cropped a little off the top.
I like David’s crop suggestion. What I find a bit peculiar is that the fog is yellow. Was that something you wanted with the white balance you chose to use?
Thank you for that advice
I think I recall that the sun was just breaking through the mist imparting a golden hue
I like your crop
Hi Richard! This sure is a wonderful scene! I had some thoughts on the color, so I opened the image in photoshop and brought up the middle of the blue curve a bit. This helped to reduce some yellow in the image and brought out some of the subtle blue tones that are otherwise lost among the yellow—especially in the road and in some of the ferns. This helped to provide even more depth by encouraging a warm/cool relationship. When I did this, I also noticed the reds seemed a bit strong, so I took down the middle of the red curve a bit. This made the greens a bit more natural and also helped to add some depth there. I don’t know what the scene actually looked like in person, but by tweaking the blue curve up and the red curve down, it had a wonderful impact on the depth of the image.
Thanks, Ben. I’ll try that
Great advice here and a simple way to produce color separation and remove some color cast.
I reworked this photo with a crop of the road and color balance adjustment in Ps (I find it easier to do fine adjustments than with the curve).
Richard, this one looks great. I am planning to hit Ecola and Cannon Beach tomorrow morning, so this helps me get psyched up. Thanks for sharing.
Richard,
I don’t think it’s been said yet, but my first impression was that this has Travel magazine front cover written all over it. Classic! Room for print over the road, ie. “in this issue…” and enough uniformity of the forest and foggy highlights for title and other text. (I’m not speaking from experience mind you… but was my reaction to this image)
I like your rework very much. And to be honest I like you original as posted. I don’t mind the road at all in the original - hence my thought of a magazine cover.
This is simply a classic redwood scene where one is not on a trail deep in the forest - but a view that visitors would most certainly experience.
I think this is beautifully captured and presented.
Lon
Thank you for the kind words, Lon
