The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I’ve photographed this rock wall countless times. I stop here without fail every time I’m either driving to, or returning from Yosemite. But this the first time I’ve been able to include a flower so nicely placed. I had to work it. In order to get the 17-35mm in close enough position required to turn the column on the tripod upside down; the camera nearly on top of a large block of cement (which is the base for the “Welcome to Sierra National Forest” sign.) Once in position I could then work on a multi-image focus stack.
My guess is a goldenrod, as the leaves look like the right family, but I really have no idea what the plant is.
Specific Feedback
Any and all comments and feedback welcome. Of course processing, colors, saturation, etc.
This is a classic near/far composition with a wide angle; nothing creative here at all, rather standard. I’m hoping the subject matter and the imposing rock wall make this image appealing.
Thank you!
Technical Details
Nikon D800E, Tamron 17-35mm @17mm, f/6.3 1/8th iso 400. A 7-image focus stack in Helicon.
Beautiful composition. How much distance is there between the flowering plant (also not sure what it is) and the rock wall in the background? The sweep of the foreground and midground rocks makes it look like there is a good amount of distance.
I am also fascinated by the texture and colors of the rocks on the ground and in the rock wall itself. It’s a very pleasing photo to look at. In this case, I can see how a focus stack really did nail the sharpness throughout the entire image. Great work.
Hi Lon,
the setup you describe here sounds like real tripod yoga
But it was totally worth it. There are so many beautiful textures and details in your image. And I love your composition. You placed the flower perfectly where the rocks converge. Everything in the foreground is leading to the yellow blossoms.
And the rock wall in the background is amazing too. That area looks like a real playground for a photographer. Seems like I could spend hours there.
Are you satisfied with Helicon? I have often heard about it, but never tried it myself. I often end up blending the focus areas manually in PS. But this is sometimes very tedious.
For sure appealing. Just the textures alone would be worth exploring, but I’m always attracted to plants in precarious positions. How they cling and survive in what we think of as hostile environments is always fascinating. I like the flowers position - in the core of the fallen slabs - it’s fitting and makes this more three-dimensional than if you placed them against the flatter cliff.
Stupid tripod tricks are stock in trade for me so it’s nice to hear someone else going the extra mile! One of my tripods has no center column and can get very low to the ground. The big Manfrotto’s center column can go 90 degrees and that lends itself to tripod yoga quite well. Any shots of your bizarre set up? I try to remember to take one when I do something weird. Always good for a laugh.
This is truly very nice, Lon. The flower is no doubt the real plus to the scene. Not sure why but when I saw the thumbnail I thought old NPNer John Benway was back. He must have had a similar post years ago that gave me a Deja Vu here.
Reading about the gyration you had to go thru with 3301 Feisol provided the understanding as to why you could not get the base of the plant in. With that all said the only minor experiment I might try is the 81B warming filter at a very low % as there is a tiny bit of cyan kicking around that might look better warmed up.
Congrats on the fine image and the excellent maneuver with the old tripod. That might have been slightly tougher to pull off with the 4x5…
This image really caught my eye. It’s so humble - just a flower and some rocks, yet so beautifully composed and structured.
The combination of the structure of the rocks with the fine patterns and tones on them is stunning.
The composition leads the eye beautifully through all the elements in the frame. From the bottom, through the flower, to the background cliff and to the top of the frame. And then there’s the flower - standing out with its different colors and textures, providing that additional color and interest, and still leading the eye so beautifully in that same direction of the rocks.
If I had to find something to check, I think clarity / structure on the background might be a tad too strong to my taste, but it’s really a matter of personal taste on a very fine scale.
Congrats on a really beautiful, strongly composed image.
Totally worth that effort you made with the setup and stacking.
The rock formations alone are quite interesting but the addition of the flower really makes this image for me. I like how the yellow color of the flower is also in the background rock, helping connect those two elements.
The colors are wonderful in this image. I also like the idea of the composition. The only small reservation I have is that it would be preferable if the entire plant was included rather than have it partly cut. I don’t know if that is a valid composition issue because it’s quite common and often it works. Well, it would have been preferable but is excellent the way it is. That wall is fascinating. Even the large slabs are interesting in their own right. Yeah, it’s well done.
I am a sucker for a flower “up against the wall” scenes. The contrast between verdant flower and hard, textured stone is interesting. The work you did for this photograph paid off big-time.
I am struck by the subdued, cool, indirect lighting that you used to capture a ton of detail and tonality in the shale slabs and wall. The crop gives a lot of prominence to the wall, which is a favorite for you. Cropping a bit (25% +/-) off the top emphasizes the plant and the fallen shale a bit more; to some that might be a more balanced composition.
BTW, the plant is in the mustard family, now called Brassicaceae, but formerly called Cruciferae (bearing a cross); the 4 opposing petals is the giveaway. Mustard family leaves are edible, sometimes very zippy, sometimes medicinal. Specifically, it is probably Western wallflower (named by the Europeans because it grows on rock walls, like your site).
Wow! Thank you so much for the great comments, observations and info! Wasn’t expecting so much from such a classic (or unoriginal) composition. But for sure, the backdrop isn’t so common…
Good questions Youssef. I’ll try and remember to post a broader view for reference. But , but the wall directly perpendicular is probably about 10-12 ft from the flower. Diagonally to the UL corner is probably a good 20-25ft away (rough guess). The entire “wall” is probably some 50ft high and some 200ft wide.
Jens, thank you for the kind words. Yes, very happy with Helicon. Photoshop works too, but one of the advantages I find useful in Helicon is the ability to “touchup”/clone when reviewing. In other words, especially in shots like my recent dogwood, you can move through the image and find where the sw didn’t blend right (due to moving leaves from the wind, etc.) and then paint in from any of the available images in the stack - ie. find one where the leaf wasn’t moving and blend it in with a brush. There are also 3 different blending methods, each with their own settings. So yeah, I would say I’m happy with the tool. There are others of course.
Paul - can’t believe you remember my tripode - and the model #! i can’t recall when I got that, but it’s gotta be going on 20 years? Man, that things lasting like it was a Gitzo! As far as the cyan, I know there’s blue/cyan in the dark rock reflecting the sky, but I’ll have to take a look at any further color tweaks. This wall is tough - and it’s not quite as colorful in person…
Tom, I wanted to thank you so much for your kind words and comments. It’s so great to see a new member jump right in and make such a valuable contribution! It’s greatly appreciated, and oh, BTW, Welcome to NPN!!! You’re off to a great start and I thank you!
Also, I appreciate your comment on the structure/clarity. In recent months I’ve altered my workflow with includes both new/additional work in ACR (I don’t use LR), which includes the Texture/Clarity/Dehaze sliders - but on top of that I use Topaz AI DeNoise which further adds/complicates the sharpening/structure type look. So I think I need to evaluate, if anything mask off areas that can get over cooked. I appreciate the observation!
Thanks Igor. Yeah, it was pretty impossible to include the entire plant and I actually can’t even recall observing the bottom… The wall is indeed quite fascinating and I’ll be sharing one such image perhaps on my next post. Stay tuned!
Dick, thanks so much for your comments. I like your idea of a crop, in fact it would fall in line with my fall-back format in a 4x5 ratio. I’ll definitely look at that .
I want to give you a BIG THANK YOU for not just your comment and kind words, but for your information about the flower, and your knowledge of the wall by introducing the shale reference. Great commennt and contribution.
Lon, yep I’d say 20 years now as I recall. You bought your 3301 about 2 months before me from Kerry Thalmann the distributor for Feisol. I think it was The Really Big Camera outlet?..The only difference in our two units was mine had the non-rotating legs and steel sleeved twist locks. It was only by the delay I got the later unit with the upgrades at that time. The darn Feisol’s are bullet proof. I use mine once a week with either the Mamiya RB67 ProSD or Wista DXIII 4x5. “Works fine lasts a long time.”
Super image, Lon. Not only may it be a trick to get the tripod in place; for me, getting my body down that low would be the real challenge. Iridescence and lines are super here as is the repeated squares in the rocks. And, the flower just tops it off. You have a true art piece here. Wow!
@Lon_Overacker , Lon, This image took me some time to understand. An image with so much in it.
My first thought when seeing it , was that the flower shouldn’t be there. It was rather distracting to me. I was making a rework without it. To express the why in words didn’t work for me.
Then after reading all those comments . I realized I was completely wrong. My feeling also didn’t work.
Now I see that my rework gave a wrong idea about the image. And the flower was meant to be there by you.
Again learned a lot, Lon. Thank you !!
A gorgeous capture, Lon. I love a slightly darker image with a bright flower, and this is a great example. The flower is the first thing that caught my eye and really drew me in, but as I began to look around the different colors in the FG rocks really jumped out and I’m in love with that. It’s hard for me to take my eyes off of that to look around further. The BG rocks are magnificent as well, but not to the degree of the FG rocks. I also love exploring around in the scrabble of “stuff” in the LRC. To me, for whatever reason, the rubble in these types of images are often what I consider to be “the cherry on top” within the image. I always love @Paul_Breitkreuz’s image because of this too. His Alabama Hills images always have so much interesting natural rubble and I find it to be fascinating. Anyway, back to this one, your composition here is very nice. I see Igor’s point on the bottom of the flower, but I don’t find it bothersome at all because I can’t really tell if it’s cut off because of the composition or because of the rocks positioning. All in all, BEAUTIFUL capture!
