Found some great dappled morning light in the forest near my house. I like how the fallen tree leads me to the old footbridge.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Composition. Is the bridge emphasized enough? I intended for it to be the subject, but I think it may not be prominent enough.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
I don’t know if I over-edited this or not. Let me know your thoughts!
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Local dodging and burning, curve adjustments, and a slight orton effect.
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What a beautiful scene Matt. The spotlighting on the fern in the foreground is really attractive. I like your compositional concept here of having the leading lines of the fallen log lead toward the bridge. Yet, my eye is drawn to the further spotlit elements in the scene including the log in the mid ground proximal to the bridge, and the spotlit foliage in the background. For me, the scene is beautiful, but the lighting as demonstrated does not emphasize the bridge as I wish it did-I think your instincts and how you phrased the question actually gives you your answer. Still a very relaxing and pleasing scene to enjoy.
Matt, shooting in dappled light like this in a forest like this can present a lot of challenges with exposure and contrast. I think your processing has has done reasonably well given the challenges. Maybe the black point is a little too deep, and the ferns at the end of the log are too hot. I really like the concept and composition of this image, the use of the log and ferns to lead into the bridge and forest is a sound one. If this is someplace near where you live, I would try going back here on an overcast day and try to replicate the comp in that type of light.
If you wanted to try to get more out of this scene as presented, the best that I could recommend is more local dodging on the bridge to make it brighter, and cloning to eliminate various other hot spots in the top half of the image, they tend to compete with the bridge. This is what I mean direction-ally
Maybe the issue here is that there are two competing compositions. One is the composition of objects, the other one is being formed by the dappled light itself, a most challenging kind of light, often avoided. The other maybe consideration is that the best parts of the image are the ferns, but they only occupy half or less of the image.
TY for post
Matt, this is a lovely forest scene with the spotlight on those lovely ferns. I think you’ve presented it well with the bridge as a minor element adding interest in the background. I do think that some burning-in of the bright log section and ferns next to it (in the middle ground) and a lot of burning-in on the bright spot behind the bridge would be good.
I think you have a great scene, Matt. On the technical side, shots like this, underneath the trees with sunlight breaking through, can be very tough to capture due to the high dynamic range. Nonetheless, you did it very well with great detail, sharpness, color, and exposure. On the composition side, the fern is a wonderful foreground object, and the log is a great leading line to the bridge. The bridge is not all that prominent, however, but I think it is a function of its size rather than your composition. The bridge is simply too small! In any case, I love shots like this. It reminds me of my childhood when my friends and I would explore the woods around our neighborhood.
Thank you all for your critiques. I really appreciate it! I agree that there are some distracting elements due to the light in certain areas, but then again, I like how it hits in some of the other spots. I think an adjustment of the composition would have helped to accentuate the bridge as it was the piece of the scene that brought me in to the spot in the first place. I am goign to return and see if I can get something else I like better soon.
