Detail from a granite rock seen in a local preserve.
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.
Emotional: Feedback on the emotional impact and artistic value of the image.
Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
I hoped to portray what I imagined as a birds-eye view of a river flowing through a canyon. I also liked the subtle brownish-grey hues in the rock, contrasted with the green and black fungi growth.
Technical Details
Fujifilm X-H2, Fujinon XF 16-80 @29mm (35mm equiv), ISO 320, f/11, 1/26s, AWB, hand held. Post processing included a small crop to reinforce the theme, exposure adjustments for highlights and shadows.
This is very cool. I think you certainly captured the look you were after. This indeed does look like a flowing river, and an aerial view at that.
For me at least, the light green lichen and darker growth in the UL area don’t really add to that sense of flow. You might consider desaturating the light greens and even darkening them slightly. And then conversely lighten the darker pieces. The thinking also is that area draws the eye away from the main subject
I also really like the textures and details of the rock above and below the “river.”
When I first saw this as a large thumbnail while scrolling through new images posted, I thought it “was” a waterflow scene of some sort but obviously that changed when I opened it up in the large view.
I like everything about it including the angle of the waterflow and the placement of the canyon walls.
I couldn’t help it, I had to explore the possibilities with dodging and burning as well as some color highlights to emphasize the canyon walls/waterflow, and to add some separation between the waterflow and the canyon walls…
What I did is a little on the radical side so I’ll ask first if it’s OK to post the example edit I came up with.
“Is it OK to post the example edit I came up with”?
Thank you @Lon_Overacker and @Merv for your encouragement and helpful analysis. Although I don’t like to spend a lot of time in post processing, I recognize that improvements can be had with a little more effort, so I will try your suggestions Lon. Merv, feel free to post your enhancements and I look forward to viewing them.
Thanks, Jim, I just read your comment about not liking to spend much time in post processing and that is very understandable.
The example edit below does take a few minutes to do, so if your interested in actually doing any of it, I’d be happy to share the details (along with a snippet showing the layers in Ps). Most of the time spent was studying the last thing I did and deciding whether or not it worked, the editing itself was pretty short.
It may take a minute or so to let it soak in if you still have the original burned into memory.
Most of the edit was standard dodging and burning with some blurring of the masks (not the image). The rest was gradient masks with a touch of color and saturation added to the canyon walls.
Anyway, it was a lot fun to explore, and thanks for allowing me to share the results.
Interesting edits @Merv and comparing them side by side I can see the differences. I do like some of the results but there seems to be a lot more brown in the canyon walls, which were mostly gray in the RAW files (as granite usually is), and I do like to retain the original hues as much as possible. Thank you for your time spent on enhancing my image.
I figured that was the case and that’s why I said it was a radical edit.
That was also why I felt I should ask for permission first.
I completely agree that my edit was too far away from your original in terms of color.
Granite is rarely seen with those kinds of brown hues unless they were next to veins of iron that stained the rock (from rust), it does happen but it’s fairly rare.
I used to live next to a granite quarry near Salisbury, NC, I was able to see that rust color once in a while during walks into the quarry on weekends.
It was just fun to see what could be done rather than what should be done.
Thanks again, Jim and I hope you have a great afternoon!
Hi Jim, thanks for posting this fascinating abstract image. A flowing river did not immediately come to mind but I can see it now. Wonderful textures and natural tones. I like the extra contrast that Merv presented in his edited version especially in the “river” section. But I do understand your point about the more pronounced brown tones.
