First time breaking out the camera in 2023 and I think I am satisfied with the result. I went out to our coast and my wife pointed out the subtle change in the color of the rocks and I composed this image. I liked the drying rocks with the cracks and pebbles wedged into the divide.
Self Critique (click to reveal)
I am wondering if the image is interesting enough. I like the detail and texture, but I worry it is a bit boring. Also, this feels like it is in-between delicately balanced and not quite there.
Good eye for both of you! I like the concept here and have tried similar things myself. Given the heavy visual weight of the two edge rocks, I wonder if there are two photos here instead of one. If there was more of a connection between those two rocks in the form of a twig, leaf or another rock, I’d say leave it as one. But with relatively little visual interest in the very center of the photo, I think breaking it into two compositions might give you more satisfaction.
The focus stack looks good to me and I really love the light. You have resisted the temptation to amp up clarity and saturation - woo hoo! If you decide to rework this, another thing you could try is to do some dodging and burning to accentuate the shapes and shadows/highlights. I find it an effective tool to bring out modeling in scenes like this that are so rich with texture and contour. Usually I use a luminosity mask to isolate my adjustments as well - mostly with the TK8 panel in Photoshop, but there is the ability to do this to some extent in Lightroom as well. You don’t say which software you use, but I thought I’d throw that out there.
Terrific beginnings here! If you have re-worked images, feel free to edit your original post and add them so we can see your changes in the viewer with your first photo. And keep 'em coming!
I really like the composition and the way all the rocks are put together like a puzzle, it’s almost like a rock mason had carefully carved each rock and put them together to form a rock wall.
What I find, and it’s just my personal opinion, is that it seems slightly overexposed and it’s somewhat two dimensional.
I feel it needs to have more definition between the rocks and lowering the exposure in the lines between the rocks as well as the wet areas would help (Using the brush in a mask with fairly wide feathering).
Also, reducing the exposure with a brush in a mask in the shaded areas from the sunlight would help with depth as well.
Bumping up the saturation of individual colors like blue, red, orange and yellow in the HSL/Color panel would also help with depth.
The edit shows the dried sand better and there’s more separation between the wet sand an the rock, it stands out more IMHO.
Adding depth with color, shading and highlights in my opinion helps to transform it from 2 dimensional to 3 dimensional overall.
For me, I often see a scene that has depth and definition in all three dimensions but a camera doesn’t really have the ability to record what I viewed with my eyes, so, it often requires fairly strong edits to convey what I saw.
I provided an example edit for you to view and I may have gone too far in some areas but it’s just an example, if you do decide to edit in the way I’m suggesting, edit to the level that you prefer.
Anyway, I hope this helps.
BTW, I don’t feel that it’s unbalanced, it feels right to me.
What an interesting scene. The colors are wonderful, as are the textures. It’s certainly interesting enough for me!
As far as balance, I’d say it is balanced, but to me that’s not the whole story. It has an interesting contrast between the overall “calm” framing (landscape orientation split into to +/- equal halves) and the “tense” positioning of the two rounded blue cobbles towards the edges of the frame. Those cobbles are so prominent (both in their color and shape), that their locations near the frame edge gives this scene visual tension for me - makes this feel dis-harmonious.
You indicated you wanted a conceptual critique, so I’m wondering what your concept was. You used the word wedged in your description, which seems quite apt for those central rocks. Are you trying to convey the wedge-iness of those rocks? Are they trapped? That is what I see. In light of that interpretation, I could see darkening the upper and lower outcrop rock to make them feel menacing.
But I suspect this wasn’t your intent. If you want a more calming effect, perhaps cropping off that right-hand cobble? You lose that nice line of the wedge, though. Do you have another frame with more space on the right?
By conceptual I guess it is the way that I tend to just make images. I frame things naturally tight and that leaves some of my images feeling tense. The darker processing feels grungy to me and not how I see the image.
I see it as I experienced it though. It was after a few hours of the sun being out during a rainy weekend on the coast. The two blue pebbles towards the edges of the image are edged in to separate the subtle difference in rock tones. They do leave a void in the middle though only filled by sand (and one rock partially visible underneath.
Kyle, I think this is a cool intimate landscape. You’ll get as many different thoughts on the image as there are photographers on this site.
From an aesthetic perspective, I think @Merv’s suggestion of toning down the highlights gives the image a lot more texture. As for Composition, this is truly my personal view–I think the bottom set of rocks doesn’t hold as much interest as the top do. I would love to see a version where the bottom rocks are cropped down by half and the top rock shapes are complete. My eye wants to see those rocks in their entirety.
Again, there’s nothing wrong with the image as presented. It Telles a story of geological evolution and in that it works quite nicely.
I have to agree that the darker image helps to pull more out of especially the bottom half of the image. The orange rocks are not as interesting, but splitting the image was a compositional decision at the time I wish I would have worked a bit more.
Always looking for ways others see images and that way I can apply the advice when I am out in the field the next time and not just fixing things in the editing bay.
