Autumn 2020 photo project, taken 9/29/20 at Mt. Moosilauke New Hampshire
I’m posting my autumn 2020 images in chronological order. I hope folks are not tired of these yet because I’m still only on my third day of shooting from this fall. There’s a lot more to come, since day trip shooting was all I could do this pandemic year. This is taken from the side of Mt. Moosilauke. The rain and fog persisted on this day, but there were periods when the swirling fog and mist cleared enough to partially reveal the mountainside. I liked how the downhill flowing row of spruce trees was surrounded by the fall color.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Any critique or comments are welcome, bring it on !!!
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
Canon 5D MKIV, Canon 70-200mm f4 lens, at 173mm, ISO 400, 0.3 sec at f16
Rework with de-hazing of fog, better balance in saturation foreground vs. background, and a slight crop from the bottom. In the de-hazing I increased Whites slightly to offset.
Ed, I for one am definitely not tired of this series, and I have a bunch more to come from my fall travels as well. This just says New Hampshire fall to me. The mix of evergreen and deciduous trees, and the fog against a background of peak fall color is what it’s all about. The yellows and oranges do a great job of framing the evergreens.
I’m wondering if that red-orange tree just behind the evergreens needs to be desaturated just a bit. It may be because the saturated reds and the red/green contrast creates an eye magnet for me.
Ed,
I do like the downhill left to right
flow of this scene. Normally I think your colors are spot on. In this case I have to agree with @Craig_Moreau on the red-orange tree. Not because it is over saturated, it just carries a lot of weight, maybe that is your intention. For me the colors in the distant mountain side peaking out of the fog are a perfect backdrop for drawing the viewer through the scene. I appreciate images where their is just enough detail in the distance to allow exploration.
Great mix of color and beautiful scene. I like the red/orange tree as is. It is a focal point in the image and the evergreen pocket nicely takes me there, but my attention is not stuck at that tree. The image quite works for me as is.
Count me in for liking it just the way it’s presented. I love the fog in the background that mutes all the brilliant colors trying to poke through making the foreground trees stand out. The framing is just about right.
Ed, When I saw this as a thumbnail, I couldn’t quite make out what the cloudy part was and didn’t like the contrast between the brightly colored foreground trees and the misty background clouds and trees. However, when I see it larger, I no longer feel such strong objection. To my tastes, the contrast in vibrancy is still a bit too great so I wonder if that could be rectified through a slight desaturation of the foreground or an elevated saturation or dehaze of the background or some combination of the two.
I also wonder if a crop off the top and bottom into a pano aspect would look good.
BTW - keep these coming! I like seeing the fall color of NE. Never been so this is great!
The saturation and processing suits my tastes just fine, Ed. I like the bold colors of autumn up front and center with just a hint of more in the partially obscured BG. I do not think this would work as well without the fog as it would be just another pretty fall scene. For me the fog adds an air of mystery that kicks this image up another notch. You certainly had a productive trip and captured some lovely peak autumn color. I am looking forward to seeing what else you came up with.
I think maybe dehazing a bit of the BG to make the colors a bit more prominent would look good.
The main FG orange tree is a bit too large for me in the photo. I wish there was something to break it up,
You’ve received a lot of good suggestions here although some contradict others. Normally when there is fog the colors aren’t that rich. Perhaps this is the way it looked but it doesn’t look natural to me.
Thanks for all the comments everyone, I welcome the input. My primary takeaways here are to de-haze the background, balance the saturation better between foreground and background, and for some, de-saturate the red tree in the ULC. I have done a rework incorporating all of these comments, plus a slight crop from the bottom. The rework is posted back up top for easier comparison to the original.
Igor I think you are right about fog de-saturating colors in real life, but after doing the rework I agree with you that it looks more natural when the saturation is more balanced foreground vs. background.
