The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This is an older (2017) image. At the time, I was experimenting a lot with ICM, mostly to no avail. I always liked this one, though. Previous processing attempts left me cold, however, mainly because I couldn’t get the color/tone right. I came back to it and warmed it up some, and slightly adjusted tonalities and now I find it more pleasing.
I’m posting it now because I just listened to @Matt_Payne 's latest F-Stop Collaborate & Listen podcast with Kaisa Siren, a Finnish photographer specializing in ICM. I’ll put a link to it in the comments. @Lon_Overacker, you might find this interesting since you’ve been doing a lot of ICM lately.
So, now I’m fired up to keep trying more ICM.
Specific Feedback
Technical/aesthetic comments welcome - colors? contrast? I fiddled with those a lot to get a balance of pleasing color with enough, but not too much. contrast. How’s that for wishy-washy - ha ha.
Interesting image. I think this ICM was created with in mind that the subject remained clearly recognizable. I’m wondering what a square crop of the left would look where all the curving lines are consistently going left to right, rather than some up and down. Just an idea.
I love the tension between the horizontal and vertical lines. The strong trunks avoid it being, as you say, wishy-washy. I’m curious why you used spot metering here.
I love this image, Bonnie. When I first looked at it I Thought you’d done a lot of layering to get this look. Interesting that you were able to get it with ICM. I think the contrast and brightness work beautifully.
Awesome - This is quite a fascinating and unique ICM. The tree/branch structure give us just a hint of the image source… but the tree impression ends there!
I feel a conflict here. I see the brighter, more cheery yellows and bright greens are conflicting with the darker browns and branch structure. If I mentally remove the bright and cheery thought from my mind, I see something more sinister, dark and mysterious. The branches reaching out from the main trunk right to left, appear like tentacles reaching out - in a dark and maybe even dangerous way.
To that end, I tried my best in PS to replace colors or edit this in such a way to make the image more dark and sinister… but I couldn’t do it. I’m sure it’s not meant to be anything other than what is presented. Again, I see something dark and sinister… but the bright, airy and cheery colors keep me from going there. Not sure how to explain it.
Thank you so much for the link Bonnie! Have’t watched it yet but have it queued up. Looking forward to it.
That could work, although I liked that you can tell it’s a forest scene. I wasn’t going for totally abstract.
I always have the camera on spot metering - never change it. I mostly expose using the histogram, but with the spot metering on I can check specific areas to see how much over/under exposed they might be (in my Sony there’s a little bar at the bottom that shows how many stops + or - the exposure is from mid-gray).
Interesting point, Lon. I can see how you’d get that idea, although it didn’t occur to me. The original wasn’t as “cheery”. Perhaps I should try for that look as an alternative.
I just looked at the repost, Bonnie. I don’t get dark and foreboding out of it at all. I think that would be difficult with this image because it’s usually the spaces between that create the hidden menace and you’ve pretty much filled the frame with vegetation. If you really want to go there, you might get somewhere with B&W, but personally, I don’t think it needs to go in that direction.
I quite like the alternate version. Thank you for taking the time and consideration. I think I like this version better because I think the branch structure (those menacing tenacles…) stand out more and the darks remain ominous.
I’m wondering now though if this isn’t as dark, sinister or as dangerous as I first imagined. This version does take it closer to that, but I think Dennis may be right, that this image doesn’t need to go in that direction (b&w or otherwise).
Indeed, at least for me, it was those dark spaces around the branches that were taking me there - like a big black abyss behind the branches - forboding, maybe not, but I think at least mystery.
And for sure, this image is thought provoking and engaging. thanks again Bonnie!
Interesting thought, Dennis. And “The Spaces Between” is a good idea for a project! This particular image may not work as menacing because of the relatively graceful sweep of the branches, even though they are reaching out. Now that I think about it, that’s probably what I was feeling - a sense of gracefulness.
Yes, the darks behind/around the branches were more prominent in the original file. I worked hard to lighten them up, though, because I was seeing gracefulness, not so much mystery. This has been an interesting discussion for me - thank you, gentlemen.
Didn’t have time to post this, but after mentioning doing it in B&W, I had to give it a try. This is very cursory, just a light’s 3 luminosity mask, but I can see potential for making this more foreboding if you’re in the Halloween mood.
What I find most interesting in reading the discussions here is how we all interpret an image slightly different. Each one of the proposed alternate version tells a different story and conveys different moods. Kudos Bonnie for submitting an engaging image to review and discuss.
I am happy to see you experiment more with ICM. It’s such a fun endeavor to practice. ICM helps animate and provide energy to a static scene. I get the impression of gracefulness in your original version. I too enjoyed Kaisa’s talk with Matt on his show. She is a wonderful artist for sure.
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