Good day everybody. I registered here today because I have a genuine interest in nature photography and hope to find constructive criticism and suggestions here. This is my first picture that I upload here and I am looking forward to your opinion. I recorded it on the slopes of the Moselle river in Germany. It was a beautiful foggy morning and the sun shone through very weakly. I would have liked to put the two trees on the left apart a bit, which unfortunately was not possible. Still the composition works I think. With such beautiful soft light and this atmosphere, I often have the feeling that even a simple composition leads to a great picture. I look forward to your criticism. Have a nice day everyone.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
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Welcome to NPN! I hope you enjoy being a part of the community here.
Nice first image. I really enjoy the mood. Iāve like the composition and interaction of the four trees in the foreground. I certainly think these four characters have a story to tell. I think the two intertwined trees balance against the larger tree on the right. Iām seeing something like two siblings sparring over the object of their attention at the center while their parent rushes in from the right to break them up.
As for items for improvement, I think you could increase the contrast through those four main subject trees to draw the eye to them more. Maybe dodge up the highlights on those trees a bit. Conversely, I found my eye getting drawn out of the frame to the upper left. The fog does a great job of diffusing the sky to avoid drawing too much attention. But a slight vignette to the frame might focus the attention of you can avoid darkening down the character trees too much.
Welcome to NPN,Martin. You did yourself a favor by register here. I myself did learn a lot by the comments of other members. I am not so strong in giving good comments. But in my view this image says a lot about the mood in this place assisted by the fog. In a fine composition.
Welcome to NPN Martin, this is an excellent first post. If you are looking for constructive critique, then you have come to the right place in NPN. I think you will find a lot of good advice and input here. You can also learn a lot by reading the comments on other peoples images, and by making comments on those images yourself.
I love shooting foggy landscapes, and I enjoy it so much that I recently wrote an article for NPN about the subject, you may find it interesting.
āWith such beautiful soft light and this atmosphere, I often have the feeling that even a simple composition leads to a great pictureā. I couldnāt have said it better myself, and your image is a great illustration of this. This scene has such a soft, delicate mood to it. Your processing of the fog is excellent, bright and slightly cool, just perfect.
In terms of suggestions for improvement, I would agree with @Adam_Bolyard about the brightness of the Upper Left Corner (ULC) being a minor distraction. Our eyes get pulled there rather than to all the goodness in the center of the image. If you donāt mind,I did a rework where I cropped slightly from the left, and then used a TK luminosity Lights mask to burn down the brightness in the ULC.
Good morning Martin and welcome. After trying a couple of other forums with little to no constructive comments, NPN has been a refreshing change. Youāll enjoy it for both the comments and the beautiful inspiration from otherās images.
I love the wonderful ethereal feel of your image - well done on capture and processing. Like the others, I would tone down the highlights in the upper left to get a little better balance across the scene.
Hey Adam.thanks for this great interpretation. I saw it right away and understood what you meant. It is amazing how quickly an image changes as a result. Thank you and best regards.
Hi Ed. First of all, thank you very much for this great review and the nice words. In fact, I have already read your report and found it extremely informative and successful. I know the feeling you describe at the beginning very well. For me, fog is one of the most fascinating components of nature photography right after light. Perfect when both occur at the same time. I have only been taking photos since last year and I think that is the reason for my strong fascination with light and atmosphere because I have only consciously paid attention to it since then. Iāve read so much about it and seen videos in which photographers describe it and when I saw or experienced it for the first time I felt dependent. Nature photography is so much more than just taking pictures as you describe in your article. From conscious planning to observing the weather, assessing certain weather conditions, through to the spiritual experience.
And thank you for the suggestion for improvement. I always try to pay attention to the edge areas of my compositions. In this case I liked the group of three trees in the lower left part. I once read that a good picture, no matter what art form, is characterized by the fact that you can take individual excerpts and these result in a separate picture. I agree that the upper left picture is too bright. Itās great how quickly you understand what bothered you when you get artistic criticism.
Best regards, Martin.
Welcome, Martin! I only joined a few months ago and am delighted to find a place where there is discussion instead of just one-sentence Likes. I have enjoyed your forests on several visits, but this is the most pleasing view I have seen. I love dancing trees and you have captured these very nicely. I think it is perfect that the two on the left are so close together.
My thought would be to not crop from the left (they need room to dance!) but to see if you could make that side match the right side a little, with some lower contrast and slight darkening. Then maybe a brightness boost in the center ā this is an image that could be interpreted several ways, even going toward fantasy.
I like the moody feel of this image. Fog always adds to and image. You also did a very good job of simplifying a scene that could have been very chaotic. Well seen and photographed.
Martin, I really like this one. I think this is probably your best image that I have seen so far. I think @Diane_Miller has made a very good suggestion. I think it gives just a little bit of nudge to make the image shine.
I couldnāt resist playing a bit. The UL is too clumsy but you can see the idea.
Yes, I understand exactly what they mean. I just wanted to be careful and not awaken the impression I would have added to the fog but go far to give the original mood in which this beautiful light came from the upper left corner again. I am so pleased that this picture has so much resonance.
Welcome Martin! This is wonderful to view. The trees have such character, and the fog makes them enchanting. I have no constructive comments to add other than to agree with whatās been mentioned; Dianeās version looks great.
Welcome to NPN, Martin. This is a very good first image. It is a moody image but also one thatās a bit melancholy. We get so many moody fog pictures that itās nice to see this twist to it. The dark in the lower left image gives it that feeling, at least for me.
