First Light

Image Critiques Landscape Critiques
1

A7401716.jpg
A7401716.jpg2048×1366 2.72 MB

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

Last weekend I got up pretty early to hike to one of the peaks of a nearby low mountain range.

There had been a forest fire in this area a few weeks ago. This was my first visit since the area was reopened.
It is sad to see what was destroyed by the fire. It is even sadder that the fire was probably caused by arson.

This picture was taken on the other side of the mountain, which was spared from the fire.

Specific Feedback

To align the sun exactly there I had to change my originally found composition. Does it work? Or should I rather have ignored the sun?

Is there anything that I could improve in post-processing?
As always, any feedback is welcome.

Technical Details

image
I had to underexpose the image to maintain the area around the sun.

  • The image was processed by DXO PureRAW 3
  • basic adjustments in LR
  • local contrast adjustments and some cloning in PS
2

Jens, I think this works quite well. For me, the important parts of a forest scene are structure and clutter. We have to balance providing structure with keeping the scene clean and simple. I would say you have succeded on both of those. The foreground isn’t full of distractions and hte trees provide some nice vertical elements as well as a frame for the sun. You’ve done really well to process this in a natural way. Your treatment of the sun and the area around it is really well done.

You could consider burning the overlapping sticks on the bottom right side (the ones that stick out from the base of the tree) just to try to avoid them pulling your eye. Maybe try the same with the light blueish patch on the left side of the frame behind the left most tree. Overall, really strong!

1 Like
3

@Jens_Ober , very nice! The dreamy quality of the sun and sky really captured my interest. The trees are arranged nicely, simplifying and balancing the scene. I agree with darkening the sticks in the bottom right as suggested by @David_Wallace.

1 Like
4

You’ve managed the remarkable light very well! I might consider adding a vignette.

1 Like
5

@David_Wallace, @Patrick_Campbell, @Ronald_Murphy
Thank you very much for your feedback and your kind comments.

That’s a good point. I’ll take care of that, thanks.

1 Like
6

I think you did really well on this!! You did a fabulous job of controlling the light and the color in that area around the sun!! It’s gorgeous! For me, the left side of the image is stronger than the right side, but I also think having the right side, (which has less color and less happening) helps to balance that bright left side. I think it’s lovely!