The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This sunrise shower represents the benign leading edge of a more serious line of storms riding northwest across the never-ending prairies of southern Saskatchewan. Once the sun cleared the horizon, there was maybe 3-4 minutes of direct light before the storm swallowed the sun and left us with a day of cloud, rain, and fog. I just can’t get enough of the expansiveness of the North American prairies, and while flat horizons and dramatic skies are a bit of a trope in this little corner of landscape photography, I would argue that the sky is a more integral park of this landscape than any other on Earth.
Specific Feedback
Two issues for your consideration:
1: Overall color of the image. I stayed pretty true to the color of the raw, though cooled the scene from the 6500 as-shot to 5500K and did a bit of work to reduce the yellow colorcast in the blue sky area on the left. I also shifted the tone of the backlit rain slightly towards the peach side of the orange continuum. Would you do something different?
2: The shadowed foreground area. My original inclination was to leave that quite dark to emphasize the bit of land that is catching direct sunlight, but then decided that the “story” of the prairie landscape was better told by letting the texture of the shadowed area come though. Agree or disagree?
Jeff, I think this is a beautiful image. The sky should certainly be the subject. I like that you didn’t do much processing to the sky. I prefer keeping skies as close to reality as I can. I also like what you did to the foreground although I’m not seeing the darker version so I may like that one too . For me, the lighter land is not a distraction. I think it adds to the image. It allows me to know a little more about where this grand lighting show is taking place. Others may see something I’m not, but I think it probably represents very close to what you saw. Nicely done.
Gorgeous – I love the incredible clouds and rain shower with the sunrise color. I think you gave the land the right treatment – I can see enough features to give me a sense of the location, with the distant trees a reward for a close look. It would be interesting to compare a version with the sky areas on the two sides a little closer in color. The yellow on the right feels a little unnatural.
Jeff
this is a great image. It really gives a sense of wide open spaces.
I think the foreground brightness is fine.
I’m not too bothered by the yellow on the RHS, though it would be interesting to see a version with it a little toned down.
I do wonder if you might crop in a bit from the LHS. You need some of the blueish sky to form an edge on the storm, but the color contrast there is strong compared with all the warm tones. I’m not really sure cropping would be a good idea, but it would be worth looking at
