This was shot on a recent workshop in southern Utah. As we were set up, two deer made an unexpected appearance on the field in front of the trees.
All feedback welcome
Nikon Z7ii, Nikkor 70-200mm @ 200mm, f/11, 1/2 sec, ISO 1600. Processed in PS.
Patrick
Thanks for submitting your image to the guest critique. I’m glad you’re participating in this.
I’m enjoying the various textures in this scene. You have a nice mix of warm and cool tones within the trees and the foliage against the cool earth tones of the badlands. The deer in the field is a nice addition to the scene giving the cottonwoods and badlands a sense of scale. The scraggly tree in the middle of the frame adds a lot of interest to the scene.
I am torn here with the composition. I like the deer in the field as I said before, as it adds nice scale to the scene. But for some reason I feel the deer and the downed cottonwood tree are competing with the cool scraggly cottonwood in the center of the frame. I know I would definitely clone out the downed cottonwood for sure, as it is not adding anything to the scene.
With the processing, the oversaturated blue hills stands out to me. I would definitely address that. I feel like I would like to see those hills a lot less blue, and more towards a slight bluish grey. I would make those adjustments in either LR or ACR, by warming up JUST the badlands using the white balance, reduce some of the contrast, and use the HSL sliders with the “target adjustment tool”, with the tool hovering over the badlands. Pretty sure it’s going to pick up blues and purples. The scraggly cottonwood is taking on some magenta. Quick fix with a selective color adjustment layer, select magenta, and slide the magenta slider to the left and you’ll see that improvement there. These adjustments can be applied with a grad tool or brush. Remember…this adjustment only applies to the badlands. I could also see the exposure coming down a little bit as well.
If you have any questions about the processing, feel free to reach out to me.
DT
@David_Thompson, thanks for the critique and signing up to do critiques! I’m not sure what you mean by the “downed cottonwood tree.” I did not adjust the saturation on the hills. I just created a mask and decreased the white balance. That said, I can tone it down a little. I was going for a complementary colors between the hills and the trees. Best regards and Happy Holidays!
Patrick
You have the scraggly cottonwood that’s in the center of the frame. There’s an another tree/branch just to the right of the center tree, that looks like it’s fallen. That’s the tree I’m referring to. In regards of having complimentary colors is valid, sure, but the hills are heavily saturated, and is giving you a color cast across the entire image. You can still have complimentary colors and not have just a strong blue cast. Just a thought.
@David_Thompson Got it, thanks!
