Another oldie, from 2012, in a location where a heavy winter rain will flood a drainage for a few days. It it clears off overnight while the water is high and there is no wind, a lovely transient ground fog can form at sunrise. This started off to be so-so and then magic happened.
Specific Feedback Requested
All comments welcome! I’m posting two crops and can’t decide which I like best.
Technical Details
Lens was the Canon 70-200 f/2.8.
Some global tonal tweaks in LR, then to PS for denoise and minor cloning of 2 small spots. And now I see another sensor spot I missed – consider it gone. Minor cloning in the LR in the second version to remove the small snag and the unnaturally sharp end of the reflection. Full frame with a slight bit of added canvas at the top. No more tonal tweaks.
I think this is superb and full of emotion and motive. I like the second crop even better with the single stick in the water gone and actually a corresponding crop off the top of the image to re-balance the weighting. I do feel the colours are a little sulphuric in the sky and a corresponding cooler cast to the mist would lift the image even more. I hope you don’t mind me tinkering a little I really love the image and I very rarely “interfere” but for the love of it here’s my softer version.
Excellent image, Diane. Great light, scene and mood. I like Ian’s crop, but I prefer the color in the original. Hard to go wrong however you do it. Great stuff!
Oooh fog. Nice. And a bit of sun showing through. Amazing how we can look directly at it under these conditions. I especially like the bit of shoreline on the left. It makes me wonder if I could stand there and what creatures I would meet. I like your second crop and think that’s the way to go rather than clone out the stick. Something is a bit off in the color though. Did the sky have a touch of green in it? Sometimes it does, but I don’t think Ian’s rework is the way to go. I prefer your color of the two.
Hi Diane, I really like this image. Conditions are awesome and the fog is beautiful. I can’t quite decide how I feel about the main stump. It dominates the image for me. On the one hand it’s intriguing and unusual on the other it draws away from the rest of the shot.
I rather like the first crop, with that little bit of stick at the bottom, but I’m having a hard time saying why. That crop feels more balanced, perhaps. The little stick has more visual weight than its size would suggest because it’s out there all by itself, so it forms the bottom of a triangle with the darker trees on the left and right. Much like the sun forms the opposite triangle with those trees. And even though the “horizon” looks to be in the middle of the frame, the little stick gives the bottom more weight, which feels pleasing. Without the stick, Ian’s crop works, taking some off the top, too.
The color is sulfurous, but believable - it looks like a smoky sunrise.
And count me in for your crop version too. I like your sky colors. They seem to draw my eye in more than the lighter version. This is a wonderful photo. I would have loved to be there to have experienced it.
Thanks @Ian_Cameron, @Harley_Goldman, @Kris_Smith, @Mark_Muller, @Cameron_Wilcox, @Matt_Payne, @Bonnie_Lampley, @David_Bostock and @Donna_Callais! I think I went too far with colors here. A few frames later I had done a pano and I assembled it and restrained myself to just moderate Shadows and Highlights sliders in LR. I set the WB to Daylight, which I’m always on (I never use Auto) but I had messed with the WB sliders and threw things off, then made it worse with Vibrance.
On this one I removed the stick and had to remove a bit of junk on the L edge. Also couldn’t resist lightening the fog right on the water just a bit. It wasn’t as dense here as it can be.
Mark, you are right, you’ve seen aother from here before – thanks for remembering!!
Oh, geez, Diane. This rework is absolutely fantastic! You need to edit your original post and put this version at the top so it’s the thumbnail Absolutely wonderful composition, color, and luminosity. Wow!
HAH!! Batwoman! You made my day!! And I just might – time to change out some prints, and the guest bedroom could use the older ones. This one will stand up to a decent size.
Very late on this one Diane. I much prefer the one at the top. I like the colors better in that version and the addition of the trees on both sides adds great balance to the scene. It also removes the stick in the bottom of the frame. This is wonderfully atmospheric. Print this baby large.
I know it’s a different shot of the same subject, but I think I prefer this one a bit. The tone of the stump is closer to the tree to its left, balances better for me. Must have been a memorable morning.
Beautiful image Diane! I love how you have the stump pointing to the sun. The latest version is outstanding! The colors look just right and the comp and processing look perfect to me. Well done!
