As I waited for the sun to approach the horizon, I saw the potential in conveying warmth and tranquility. I felt excitement as I was taking this photo, seeing how the light so subtly caressed the surface of the rock.
Your thoughts on use of light, the contrast between shadows and highlights. And of course whatever you would like to add.
Hi Gary, I am new here, and this is my first response to a post. So I guess what that means is that I had an immediate response to your photo. I love the lines created by the puddles, and I love the color contrast of blue/white and goldy earth tones. When I saw it, I wanted to linger. I must say, that my eye wanted to see more of where those puddles were leading to the right. I was wishing for more on the right, like a completion of this vision, or something. But then maybe thatās an intentional tension of this crop? Lovely.
Wow Gary, this is pretty striking, I do love this type of image and have taken. few myselfā¦
I love the treatment of the puddle and the cloud/sky reflection, that looks idyllic and very calming.
Question for you: What are the attributes of warmth and tranquility?
What role do the large area of deep, deep blacks play in this image?
Ignore photo words like framing, or vignetting. The role of all the shadows in this image is to create heaviness and impassability. Blocked barriers.
I think they not only donāt add to the scene, they actively dilute your intention.
I hate cropping other peopleās work, but sometimes it is necessary to make a point:
This crop expresses warmth and tranquility, but even then I would open the blacks along the top edge, they are too dark, and once again dilute the metaphor and meaning.
It is a hard transition to make between making photographs for impact or as a product of processing to making them to express a specific emotion of feeling.
There is an absolute consequence to every single pixel, every line, every interaction in the frame. Every pixel counts. Consider the role of blacks win this image and rationalise their impact on warm and tranquil.
Hope you donāt mind my open critique, but these seem to be pretty important points of consideration. I appreciate you and love parts of the imageā¦
Alister!
Thank you so so much for this feedback. I really appreciate the time and effort you put into breaking down the elements of the image and sharing your thoughts. So educational! I couldnāt have asked for more.
To try to answer your question. I guess for me the main attributes of tranquility is calmness and peacefulness. Thatās kind of what I saw & tried to convey. Regarding warmth, an attribute for me would be comfort.
In an effort to direct more focus on what I felt conveyed those feelings (e.g. the puddle, reflection, light on the rock) I purposely darkened the areas around to sort of lead into that part.
That being said and considering your feedback & recropping (which I do not mind), I need go back and "re-feel"
. What I kind of interpret is that my image can feel more moody than tranquil.
Your statement of, āIt is a hard transition to make between making photographs for impact or as a product of processing to making them to express a specific emotion of feeling.ā, so something Iām going to give a lot more thought.
Once again, thank you. I hope we can do this again some day.
Hi Connie!
Well, Iām new here too and Iām just started to get the hang of things.
Thanks for your feedback. I appreciate how you kind of saw what I saw, how you wanted to linger. Interesting what you say about wanting to see more of where the puddles lead. How do you feel about me leaving that to your imagination? See you aroundš
Welcome, Gary! What a gorgeous image! I love the depth of that cloud reflection ā Iām looking into a mysterious hole and seeing the sky. And the kiss of light on the rock is wonderful!! I do like Alisterās crop, as it puts me much more into the scene. Iām looking forward to seeing more of your work.
Hi Gary - subsequent to the first comment and also from my own reaction, which was to have my eye lead to the right and I found the bottom third of the image a block because of the line across and the crunched blacks, I did a little post processing.
Firstly to darken the right edge of the image to stop your eye being lead over there
Second to extend the warmth just a little bit, enhanced some of the warmth already there, to draw your eye down instead.
Finally to reduce contrast in the horizontal line and to āmake upā some content in the dead blacks using the clone tool (I presume there was probably something left in there from your raw file).
I cropped a little bit from the bottom just because it was going to deep black - I might not have done if there were some detail
I hoped to see the light dripping down into the darks as it was that colour and tone contrast that engaged so wellā¦
Lovely image!
Hi Diane!
Yes, itās great ot be part of this community, so thanks. And thanks for the feedback on the image. Undoubtedly so, Alisterās feedback does add more to the image what I was aiming for.
Hi Tim!
Itās just so great to get a different take and perspective on an image. Your changes definitely bring out more of the feeling I was aiming for (and retaining the original composition). Thanks for your great input!
BTW, Tim Parkinā¦ On Landscapeā¦?
Thatās the one! Iām trying to be less of a recluse!
Thanks Gary, I am happy the feedback was useful to you. I appreciate your kind wordsā¦
