Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.
Questions to guide your feedback
What mood or emotion does this image project for you?
Other Information
Please leave your feedback before viewing the blurred information below, once you have replied, click to reveal the text and see if your assessment aligns with the photographer. Remember, this if for their benefit to learn what your unbiased reaction is.
Image Description
My wife and I spent 3 months in the UK this past summer. Morning walks are a ritual for us. Living in AZ where the air is super dry I found the misty, foggy morning scenes in the woodlands fascinating. For me it set a calm, peaceful mood that carried into the remainder of the day.
Technical Details
Shot with a Leica D-Lux typ 109 (compact camera)
35mm (equivalent) f3.2 @ 1/60 iso 6400
Processed in Lightroom Mobil
Specific Feedback
Concept
Emotional
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
My first impression is being drawn into the scene (and beyond) by the skilled use of fog and luminosity control. Also enjoying the fine textures in contrast to the substantial trees.
Beautifully seen and composed. The angled branch in the upper right is nicely balanced by similar vegetation emerging from the left side.
My eye is drawn a bit to the lower left corner – to the element resembling an egg carton and the bright grass immediately to its right. Maybe those could be burned a bit.
Bill, You have captured the fog well. You have created a nice sense of depth with the lighter background trees in fog in contrast to the foreground trees. I agree about the distraction in the lower left corner. I even think that the ferns in the foreground can go as well. This is all an easy remove wth the remove tool in PS.
My main question is what is the subject of the image? Aside from the fog, and trees, what do you want me to see and to react to in or about the image?
For me, this scene is all about the mood that the fog brings to this scene. There is a stillness, a calm that makes me want to sit and ponder. I think the black and white treatment looks great here but I’m also wondering about what this would look like in color. Is it Fall?
The fog reduces the depth of the scene which is good as it makes those foreground trees stand out against that busy background. There is an inner circle at the base of the foreground trees that is brighter than the surrounding ferns making it appear like a stage or a meeting place with the big tree in the center being the bouncer, the guy that let’s people in or out. There is nothing menacing about this image. I find it welcoming. I might title this, “Welcome to the inner circle.” There is a lot of noise in the image so maybe a round of denoise would help but in a way, it almost fits the scene.
OK, I just saw what your ISO was. WOW, 6400 with a compact camera. I say well done.
One last thing…I find the Upper Left Corner pretty bright. It’s not any brighter than the rest of the sky but it feels empty up there and because of that my eye is pulled to that part of the image. My eye is also pulled to the right side of the image where that dark tree branch enters the scene. I like that it mimics the angle of several other branches on other tress but I think it might be too dark. I would dodge it just a little bit.
Dear Bill Green,
Thanks for posting this image. I like the way you have processed the global contrast of the image; the tonalities fall within Zone 3-7, if I am not mistaken, and these midtones support the atmospheric and soft feeling of the scene. To me, the most important part of the image is the leaning tree in the middle of the scene. The contrast of luminosity behind this tree and the depth behind it is also fascinating, whereas the foliage on the right and left side contributes less, at least to me. The trunks of the trees in the middle make up a pattern of interesting vertical lines. Just a suggestion: How would the image turn out if you cropped it into a vertical image, retaining its present height but cutting off the sides with the foliage? Possibly including more of the ferns in the lower part?
I really like this image. Great soft dreamy bnw. But my inital though is how much better would it be cropped square? I think the light from the back and the tree trunks are the main thing in this image and that the foliage on the side is a bit distracting.
Fog adds such mystery, and that’s my initial mood viewing this image. I too find it inviting, not intimidating. It asks for exploration.
I’m really enjoying this pretty much as is, but I agree with @David_Haynes about that upper left corner and I’d love to see just a bit more of those ferns on the bottom (probably not an option?).
