The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Freezing fog flows on the whim of the wind as the rising Sun pours liquid light into the frigid Gallatin Valley. The light was warm, the air was not. With snow covering the ground radiated back any semblance of heat, and a remnant of an Arctic Air mass trapped in the lowlands, the temperature plummeted. My spirits soared though as I absorbed the beauty of the sunrise and the start of another amazing day.
Specific Feedback
This is another in the series of sunrise shots from Feb 12, which happens to have been my birthday. My gift to myself was to get up at 5 am when it was well below zero out! My perspective was on a fairly high spot in the rolling hills to the west of Bozeman. I chose this spot when, in the increasing light of dawn, I began to notice the fog up there. I shot mostly toward the sun, but occasionally this composition off to the northeast drew my attention. It’s not an abstract, but I did reduce clarity, texture and sharpness a bit and decreased contrast and the dehaze tool in an effort to try to bring out a little more magic. I also shot at my widest aperture with this lens to hone in on the trees, but at this distance, nothing was that far out of focus. Does this work together well? I
Technical Details
Nikon D850
Nikkor 70-300 f/4.5-5.6
ISO 64, f/5.6, 1/320th, 300mm
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
The past couple of weeks have been too busy, and although I’ve enjoyed your prior two images I haven’t caught up enough to comment on them. In some ways that may not be the end of the world, because this one is the sweet spot for me. In the others, the sun was almost a distraction to the soft beauty of the rest of the scene, and in this one the softness gets to stand on it’s own; I find it beautiful.
This is really fine as is Paul, but if I was tweaking it to personal taste I’d crop a touch off the right and top, drop the saturation a notch, and increase the contrast at the bottom a little.
Well said @John_Williams. I agree. This is all about the soft light and the slightly lower saturation adds a softening effect that I am really enjoying. I also agree with John, that this one hits the sweet spot and is the best of the three so far. The crop from the right in John’s version removes the bright orange section of the sky and pulls those trees closer together making for a better composition and I just love the foreground grasses being a little more visible in his rework as well. I love the bare branches of those trees showing their structure and the soft outline of the mountains in the background. There is tremendous mood imparted in this image. By far my favorite of the three. Well done Paul.
Thanks so much @David_Haynes and @John_Williams . I made a few changes at your suggestions, I agree that it improves the image. I had a lot of fun with this shot and processed it in a lot of different ways. The b&w was the next image in the roll, but the sky worked a bit better. The last one has a lot of the texture, clarity and sharpness removed in an attempt to create a bit of an abstract image. I think I worked about 10 different versions of this over the last week! I’ll also add the reworked version of this to the top
This is spectacular, @Paul_Holdorf. My favorite version is the more subtle, pastel colored version at the very top of the thread. If I never saw this in color, I’d really be into the black and white but now that I’ve seen the color, I just can’t get behind the black and white. That’s not a knock in any way, but the color is just so pretty that I find it a shame not to have it be the star of the show. I’ve got no critique, just accolades!
So good!! Each version is unique and good in its own way. My least favorite is the negative clarity, but I find the B/W pretty compelling, much as I love the soft colors. What makes it for me is the way the darker cloud repeats the darkness at the bottom of the frame. It’s like another version is posted right above!! And the “shadows” of the trees show more. This one is a keeper, for sure!
I have thouroughly enjoyed the images you witnessed and captured this morning. Just gorgeous!
This one just may be my favorite. I love the softeness of the fog/environment contrasted with the details of the trees. The colors, soft and beautiful. I think I also prefer your top post here as it combines the best of the features and balance of colors, softness.
I don’t think this has been mentioned, but the one aspect that catches and draws my eye is the small grouping of trees on the left. Not sure why, but that small pine is an eye magnet for me. Perhaps because it’s more dense (thus darker) than all the other barren trees. Add to that, the closeness to the left edge creates a little tension.
I personally have become more liberal when it comes to this amount of editing, so I understand that many wouldn’t do it, but you might consider cloning out that small cluster near the left edge. But to each our own.
All the other versions work well on their own, but again, the top one works best for me!
Thanks Lon! I agree about that dark tree but left it in for realism’s sake. I did remove it and the one behind the left cottonwood tree in the more abstract version in the replies. Lightroom’s AI removal tool does a really good job on things like that. It puts branches back in but removes the shape behind them!
Hi Paul, just love love love your original more understated version its just beautiful, with for me, everything singing in perfectly harmonious hues, contrast, and as previously mentioned, understated clarity. Very well done, will make a lovely luminous large print, that is soothing and yet compelling to gaze at often and at length.
How did I miss this? Just gorgeous. So ethereal. Nice contrast between the silhouetted trees and the soft, pastel sky and foreground. I love pink, so this really appeals to me in the colored version at the top. I do find the little bit of tree on the left distracting and would remove it if it were my image, but not a deal breaker
Wow Paul love the soft pastel treatment of the top image. I’ve really got nothing to add that these veteran photo analyst’s haven’t already touched on. I agree with Ian this would make a fantastic print. The BW is simply great although the smaller, dark tree at the left that John mentioned is a bit more distracting. The mountains in the bg are more prominent in the BW which just adds another beautiful piece of a really nice image. Superb artistic vision…
@Bruce_King@Chris_Baird@Ian_Cameron@Lon_Overacker Thanks for all the kind words. I actually processed this version several weeks ago and forgot to come back here! I used the new AI removal tool to remove the Fir Trees behind the Cottonwoods. It’s a pretty spectacular tool. I tend to be an opponent of AI, but I’ll admit this iteration is valuable! I added to newest image to the top of the post.
