This image was made on a cold and drizzly morning in Orford, New Hampshire. A brook that ran down a mountain to a pond below created plumes of fog that wafted up the hillside. I was attracted to how the fog drifted through the trees.
What do people think of the colors and saturation level?
What do you think about the composition, especially the placement of the trees?
Any other critique/comment is welcome
I really like the feel of the setting here Ed. It feels a little heavy on the left to me, but that could be due to the slight lean of the dominant trees on the left side. Maybe a slight clockwise rotation would help it feel a little more balanced? With or without a nice image.
This is really nice, Ed. I love the mood created by the foggy, nice and dreamy. I might burn down or desaturate the yellow bottom center. I think that would make it a little easier for my attention to flow through the image. Pretty minor though. Nice work.
Ed, a really nice NE scene! I think the colors are spot on for my taste. My initial thought is the far left side seems a little heavy, however the more I study it I think it works. The center and right side of the scene are the eye candy and the left side serves as a good balance.
I’m pretty happy with the color and saturation here Ed, and the comp works well for me in the way the trees frame the fog. I think adding a subtle bit of vignette would help focus the eye on the fog a bit, and on these moody images I find a touch of glow “softens” the sharpening nicely. Below is an example of both; I’m still learning the protocols of this new site, so if you’d prefer I not post an edited version I am happy to remove it.
The glowing fog and fall colors set a great atmosphere, Ed. The mix of fall color and evergreens works well also. I find this a bit tight with that evergreen near the top.
I think the color, light and saturation level are spot on here. Not sure if the camera is level since most of the big green trees look significantly tilted?
Thanks Richard. The spruce trees in the upper left are tilted in real life, but the trees at the bottom appear level to me. The tilt in the spruces was part of what i like about this scene.
John, thank you for taking the time to comment on my image. And I am perfectly fine with anyone downloading my image to rework it, sometimes that’s the most effective way to provide critique. I agree that the vignette helps. I’m usually not a big fan of Orton/Glow, I think some people overuse it, or apply it to images that don’t need it. But in your rework, it’s pretty subtle and i like the effect you achieved, it helps add some mood. John did the Orton lighten the image, or did you do that via an exposure adjustment?
Thanks Mark, i agree about the top being tight, could probably add some canvas and content aware fill here to address this issue.
Ed, wonderful autumn scene. The fog of course sets the mood, but for me, I find the pines to be so very expressive; the appear wind-blown, or maybe even like the “trees” in the “Lord of the Rings.” That may be a stretch…
I really like John’s edit. I think the pines were a little dark/heavy and with the slight changes even the fog has been enhanced. You’ve got a beautiful image to work with.
Lon
This is beautiful, Ed. The color and saturation look great to my eye. I like the composition - in particular the way that the fall color at the bottom of the frame and the trees at the top of the frame tend to form a “C” as they curve around the fog in the center of the frame.
Lovely scene! Maybe a bit of vig to keep the eye in that middle goodness. NIce stuff!
aF
I almost always lighten the glow layer with a curves layer attached to it, and that’s what I did here.
This is sublime, Ed. The colors and saturation look fine to me as do the placement of the trees. The light fog sets up the scene for me as it adds just a bit of mystery to the image. I think John’s repost works well also; just a personal preference as which you like better.
Got it. Beautiful piece.
Hey @Ed_McGuirk! Super lovely image! I am okay with the colors and saturation levels. The composition is awesome and it has a ying-yang type design to it. I can agree with the comments of adding a slight vignette and also a CW rotation though unless you do some warping and the like you risk moving the top of the tree closer to the edge of the frame… where I feel it would be close enough to cause tension.
The thing that caught my eye was the softness and low contrast of the photo on the right hand side, but the contrasty…er (is that a word?) and more sharp left hand side. I took it into PS and brushed in some negative dehaze on the left and did a darken edges/brighten middle vignette. Here’s a link to the .tiff if you care to see the layers: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nsdvhb1keitue3g/Foggyhillside.tif?dl=0
@Lon_Overacker, @Ed_Lowe, @Aaron_Feinberg, @Brian_Schrayer, thank you very much for your comments, and taking the time to critique my image.
@TJ_Thorne, thank you very much for your insightful comments and taking the time to rework my image. I did download the TIFF and reviewed what you did. I think the differential contrast & sharpness left/right is due to varying thickness of the fog in the original post, but I agree that addressing that in processing improves the image. I will make similar changes to the image, and might even add some canvas at the top, do Content Aware Fill, and get some more breathing room above the spruce trees too.
The vignette edges / lighten center makes a huge difference. It’s ironic because I posted this image late Sunday morning, then on Sunday afternoon I went to an exhibit of Hudson River School landscape paintings by artists such as Thomas Cole, Asher Durand, and Albert Bierstadt at the Worcester Art Museum. As I was studying some of their paintings, I noticed their use of shadow and light, edge vignetting, glowing highlights, etc. and I thought to myself that some of those techniques could apply to this image. Then I wake up on Monday morning, saw your repost, and said “TJ beat me to it !!”
Ed - beautiful! Really nice moody image. I like the placement of the tree and agree with others that a rotation might help. My other suggestion is to try cropping into more of a pano using the bottom of the image. The colored foliage at the bottom creates a nice framework to highlight the dominant tree. Colors are just right, muted and not overpowering the landscape is the right choice.
