The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I’ve been spending part of this winter digging through my image catalogue, trying to clean things up and get organized. Somewhere along the way I realized I have more than 2,000 photos that I either never really looked at or flagged to edit and then quickly forgot about.
This image is one of those. I shot it four years ago, and it’s been quietly sitting in the catalogue ever since. I finally came across it again a few days ago and decided it was time to give it the attention it deserved.
Specific Feedback
I’m not sure about my post-processing of this image. Sometimes when I look at this I feel that it’s a bit overworked and that maybe I should tone it down and make it a bit more natural. Any thoughts?
Technical Details
Equipment: Canon 5DIV with a 24mm TS-E lens. Tripod. No filters.
Exposure: 1/160 second at f/9, ISO 100
Technique: I tilted the lens to get both the foreground ice and the mountains were in sharp focus. I also exposure blended two frames - one for the snow and ice and the second for the mountains and sky.
A very neat find, Tom. To me, this image is about the crack itself, so I would be inclined to tone down the mountains and sky so they compete less with the crack. If the crack were just a leading line, it would be different, but to me it’s the star of the show and those mountains should know enough to play second fiddle.
Beautiful image. I like it as presented, but another idea is to make it about the mountains and sky and crop to just above where the crack splits into three.
It’s a great composition! It almost feels as if the color temp on the clouds does not match the foreground. Somehow you’ve got to maintain that amazing turquoise but loose the more navy blue tones in the sky. I could see a vignette adding to the drama here too, especially with the already dark clouds across the top and the darker ares of ice at the bottom. You’ve picked the perfect part of the fracture to use for sure! The leading lines from the right and left merging into the larger crack are perfect!
Don’t you just love it when you go back through old files and find treasures like this? I think we all have images that we just didn’t have the time to get to when we first download them and they are quickly forgotten.
So glad that you came across this one and presented it to all of us. This has a great composition with good balance, and interest from front to back. It even looks as though you have some Fall colors in those trees on the right. You have interesting mountains and a very moody and dramatic sky.
As a whole the scene works really well but there is a color balance issue between the foreground and the background. I feel like there is too much magenta/blue in the clouds as well as the snow in the slopes of the mountains. I love the turquoise colors of the foreground ice but I might be tempted to to pull back a bit on the color in the clouds to better balance the image colors. Other than that, I love this scene and I’m certainly glad that you shared this one, Tom.
I’m here mostly to say wow and agree with what’s been said above, Tom. There is an unnatural feeling to the foreground hues relative to the clouds. The suggestion above are what I would try there.
I also considered losing some of the sky altogether, or at least exploring having two totally different pictures here: with cropped as Jim suggests, and another one with just enough sky that the mountains are pinched by the frame. Like below or even a tish more off the top, all dark at the edge.
Dennis - Yes, the mountains were supposed to be less dominant than the crack and I actually tried to de-emphasize them by adding some negative dehaze to them but I don’t think I went far enough. I went back into Photoshop today and I played with this a little more and I’ll be updating my original post with that edit.
While I was at it, I also attempted to harmonize the colours between the sky and the ice as some of you pointed out.
