Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
I arrived at the entrance to Sparks Lane and waited for the gate to open and parked off the road. The early morning light and the valley fog was striking and the Dog Wood tree caught my attention.
Not sure this vision is ever ones cup of tea so feel free to comment
Canon Eos ID MII 70 mm 1 sec F16
I like it. Good composition and processing, the black and white suits it very well. Nicely done.
Wow, what a beautifully composed landscape. The sweep of the trees and the mystery of the fog is quite enticing. I like that you lined up the top of the wire fence on the left with the horizon. The B&W treatment is quite contrasty for this kind of scene and that jumps out at me a bit more than I like. Also the lack of a natural fall off from very sharp and crisp to shrouded and misty. I think that should be more gradual than it is here. Just my opinions, but boy the bones of this image have a lot of potential. Really terrific scene.
Yes, a lovely place and lovely light! The fog down the lane is truly magic, and the trees and fence frame things so nicely. But I agree with @Kris_Smith about the contrast, and it shows sharpening artifacts, most obviously around the fence posts. I would go for a soft look, both in detail and contrast. If it were mine (wish it was!) I would try to lower contrast on the BG trees on the left, to obscure the light coming through them as much as possible. That area is busy enough to draw attention away from the subject, and the lonely subject here deserves it all!
My concern also, thanks for the comment
Kristin, spot on with the contrast issue . I’m not sure I understand the - “natural fall off” is the a processing issue? Thank you for the in depth critique.
Sorry if that was too vague, James. What I mean is that human vision has so much particularity in terms of how much we see - it isn’t this sharply defined when you look at a landscape. The things very close to you will be sharpest and that gradually recedes as things get farther away. In this photo, we have very sharp and very blurry right next to each other without anything in between. For example, I would expect the road and grasses from the front to about the 5th post on the left to be sharpest and from there get less sharp. That doesn’t happen here - we have an even amount of crunchy from front to the trees and then -bam- it gets misty. Our eyes just don’t work that way although a camera can and so it looks odd when we see it. Does that make more sense?
James, this is a beautifully composed image! The leading lines of the road and fence perfectly draw the viewer’s eye to the (gorgeous!) foreground trees. And, yes, they and the road appear oversharpened while the fence posts appear undefined, soft. You might reduce the sharpening on the trees and road, and work on those fence posts. Otherwise, I love the image! It reminds me of a spot in the Smokies.
Ok, I see what you were referring to. However, i’m not sure i could correct this since the heavy layer of ground fog - along the stream produced a visual “wall”. Thanks again for your critique and time.
It looks like you have done some sharpening. It would be interesting to see the scene without it.
This is an excellent photograph. The fog and the leading lines are well represented. The photograph seems a bit over-sharpened. As an option, you might want to see if cropping out some of the areas on the left and the top to better focus on the road leading to the dogwoods. Also, if possible, it might be helpful to brighten up the dogwood trees to add to the elements drawing us into the photo. I cropped the image a bit as an example. The image is attached.
Thanks for sharing.
