The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
One of the particular feature of the old town of Matera, in southern Italy, are the houses narrow, piled up together and even on top of each other. This, and the constructions with rectangular tuff blocks, are often the causes of images composed of many closely spaced geometric elements as in this photo. Matera grew for many thousends of years on a hill made of tuff rocks and not an inch of soil could be left unused.
Specific Feedback
I tried to low the color saturation to prevent the colors from distracting attention from the geometric figures. What do you think about the saturation?
Technical Details
Z 7ii, Nikkor 28-75mm at 70mm - f/11, ISO 200, 1/1000s handheld
Critique Template
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The saturation looks reasonable to me, Giuseppe, but I wouldn’t mind seeing the original color to see which I’d prefer. This certainly brings out the geometrical shapes. This must be a nightmare to try to frame without having distracting elements intruding at the edges or cutting off something interesting. I think you did a very good job in that respect though there’s a corner just touching the upper edge on the right that I’d like to see with a touch of breathing room-however, that would probably just introduce another issue.
Dennis here is the photo how it appears in the raw. Then I composed it, cleaned some small disturbing elements, lowered the saturation specially in the sky too blue.
Hi Giuseppe. I certainly understand bringing down the blue, but I personally prefer the tones of the tuff blocks in the original. A slight curves adjustment might bring out the edges to accent the geometry without messing much with the colors. Given the complexity of the shapes, I can’t think of a better crop than the one you used.
Wonderful scene, but it looks like you brought down the highlights with the Whites slider, and lost contrast. I would think bringing them down with the Highlights slider would retain detail more – but i don’t know what processing you have used.
Thanks @Dennis_Plank, @Diane_Miller and @SandyR-B for your attention and the helpfull comments. My idea was to lower not only the colors but also the contrast for enhancing the shapes of the geometric figures but you made me understand that was a bad idea. Now I am posting the revised image hoping to read your opinions.
I think the new version is a big improvement! I can understand the idea to emphasize the dark shapes, but in the OP the lighter areas had gone too low in contrast, with the gray look we get by pulling Highlights or Whites down too far. In other words, less contrast could be OK but not with that much gray hiding the textures in those large areas. And the textures are so wonderful! You might be able to do a B/W and incorporate the original idea. There is something about the lower saturation that makes it less successful.
This is a wonderful composition and could work with different treatments!
This is quite striking, Giuseppe. I rather like the colors (and textures) in your RAW file. The one thing that catches my eye, though, is that bit of sky. Even lowering the saturation, it still is distracting for me. Since you mention your attraction to the geometric shapes, did you consider cropping out the sky altogether? That would really emphasize the geometries. Here’s my thought:
I really like the repost, Giuseppe. The bit of sky doesn’t really bother me and now the shadows and the black horizontal lines of the roof edges do a fine job of emphasizing the geometry.
@Diane_Miller I am glad that you like the new version. About the too lowered highlights there were strong reflexions of light in some spots and the maximum that I can do without clipping lights is +10 in Highlights or White or 0,10 in Exposure. I have done this but without solving the problem. Have you another advise?
Thanks Diane you are always ready to help.
@Bonnie_Lampley thanks for your comment and help. I will work on your idea, I also don’t like that piece of sky. @Dennis_Plank I am happy to read that you like the new version, thanks for your answer.
I try to be careful with exposure as dark shadows are easier to save than blown highlights – now, with the NR tools we have. Shooting an HDR of several exposures over and under can help a lot. In LR they will go together nicely. A tripod helps but if the camera will shoot them automatically very fast you can sometimes handhold.
Working with a single exposure with whites too bright, I will first pull Highlights down (Lightroom) then Shadows up and see if I can get a good balance. Maybe add some Clarity or Texture for midtone detail. Or try a linear profile, which will have much less contrast to start with.
