I took this Saturday. It was foggy in the mountains with made for some exciting woodland photography. This scene isn’t normally all that exciting, but the fog created an ethereal, abstract environment that I really enjoyed.
This was basically B&W off the camera, so I converted it to B&W. I’ve recently been shooting with my EVF in B&W to see if helps with composition. So far, I think it does.
I’m pretty happy with the overall look and feel of this. I took a horizontal and a closer vertical, but I didn’t like them as much as this one. I feel the negative space around the tree helps the image feel more peaceful.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Anything , but I’m mainly after artistic feedback.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
This is what I’m going for! How does it make you feel? I’m going for peaceful and pleasant. I remember reacting to how vast the fog was as it surrounded the tree. It was tranquil.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
Single Raw image, LR only, handheld, a7riii, Canon 17-40L, 17mm, f-4.0, ISO 100, 1/400 Second, no filters.
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
Bradley, this is such an enjoyable minimalist image. The fog has created a very nice depth to the “distant” trees. What’s coming next is not exactly a critique of this image but something that could be taken into consideration in the future. I do wish that the tree has more “characters” to it, perhaps a unique branch configuration, interesting leaf formations, etc.
Nicely dark and moody. I would be tempted to crop off 15%-20% of the foreground, giving more dominance to the tree. This is an enjoyably unusual image.
The underexposure makes the image look ominous to me rather than peaceful. The darker area has some truly beautiful detail that has been largely lost, hence the suggestion for cropping. This is how I would have processed this.
Harley, I examined your cropping suggestion, but I feel the current crop better represents the scene and how I reacted to it. I took 2 other comps of this. One was closer to the tree, but I didn’t like it as much. A little more room at the bottom feels more balanced and easier to enjoy the scene as a whole.
Igor, Thanks for the edit and suggestions. I’ve been revisiting your edit and letting it marinate for a couple of days to see what I think. My original edit had less detail than the one I posted. I actually really liked it that way. I increased the foreground detail just enough to engage the viewer’s imagination through recall. The imagination has to fill in the negative space.
I suppose peaceful is an individual thing with any image. I once read that the connection between artist and viewer is like searching for soul mates, and I think it makes sense in a way. While this is moody and perhaps ominous, it is peaceful / calming to me when I look at it.
Adding detail in the foreground draws attention away from the distant trees in the fog IMO.
