A forest is always nice for photography, rain or shine…there is always something to find that looks captivating through the eye of the camera….
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
I used an old lens (Super Takumar) wide open at f/1,4 with extender and the light was such that when shooting through the foliage, keeping the sunlight in the frame and focusing in the distance, I got this effect.
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My main critique here would be the color - it’s a little too warm and green for my taste, but this could also be for effect. If you wanted to take a different approach, I think it would look really good in black and white.
I really like what you’ve got going on in terms of light, texture and colour in the central part of the picture - very dreamy. But, it kind of feels like you’ve also got a second picture going on in the upper part of the frame that competes with the main point of focus. That dark , slightly diagonal band in the upper part of the frame feels too strong and disconnective. I would be tempted to crop from the top and use that dark line in the upper frame as part of the general vignetting, maybe cloning a bit just to extend that darkness to the top of the frame (upper left and right).
Photos made with old, odd lenses are always so interesting. I’d agree with Kerry about the top looking like a different photo. It has much more contrast than the remainder of the frame.
Very creative bit of seeing here, Ingrid. I like the yellow/green colors you used here. The use of the out of focus foliage creates a view to a hidden world, and a mood that is somewhat spooky and mysterious. I do agree with @Kerry_Gordon’s comment about the top of the image being out of place. I think the brightness at the top reduces the mysterious mood of the image, and I would re-crop this to remove the bright areas at the top.
Thanks all for taking the time to give your comments and advice. However for me the top part that you all suggest getting rid of in one way or another was what made this photo special for me. Taking that away would leave me with ‘just a picture’ of the forest with nothing special about it. So, no harm done, I like it the way it is but nobody else does, so be it
@Kerry_Gordon you also mention cloning, that is something I don’t do. I like to see what I can do with the camera and only do minor colour or exposure corrections and sometimes cropping in post processing - or dust spot removal of course. That is just for your info, not a judgement at all about other photographers who do more than that to their photos!
Ingrid, it occurs to me that with this photograph, you are not really looking for a critique. It sounds to me that you feel this image fulfills your vision or, at least, is moving in the direction that is meaningful for you. This, by no means, is meant as a criticism or judgement. On the contrary, more power to you, absolutely. Whether other people like your work or not, is, after all entirely irrelevant as long as you love it. But what I might suggest, is that if what you would like is to share your image but without, what for you would be unnecessary critiquing, you might consider posting in the Showcase section of this site. There you can share your image and folks will respond but not with critique.
@Kerry_Gordon - thanks so much for your honest feedback. I am however, open to critique! I have had some very good and useful suggestions on this forum already and have found I’m absolutely not too old to learn
Again now, I have learned that the purpose I had with this image hasn’t come across here. So that’s good to know! On many fora people just do ‘wows’ and ‘greats’ and those words are hollow and empty if it doesn’t represent the writer’s opinion. I am a straightforward person myself so I DO appreciate your honest critiques
It’s just that I don’t like the photo myself without the top bit
So just all keep doing what you’re doing and know I’m just sometimes a bit stubborn
Ingrid, the other thought that I would add is that it often is helpful if the maker of the image discussed their creative intent, and emotional reaction to their own images when the image is first posted. How did the scene affect you, why did you approach the image in the way you did. This will help the people providing critiques to make more informed comments, because everything has to be taken in the context of the makers intent and vision.
I was one of the people suggesting a crop from the top. In a vacuum, without discussion of creative intent from the maker, all most critiquers can do is approach it from a more general perspective .
This image is different and unusual looking, but that does not necessarily make it a “bad” image. We can all appreciate different visions from image makers here. From a general perspective, a viewer is usually most drawn to areas of brightness and warmth, that’s just the way our brains work. In this image there are 2 primary areas like that, the center, and the upper left corner (ULC). The upper left is the more unusual looking of these two, but that is not the reason I suggested a crop of the top. Rather the luminosity/warmth in the center is much stronger than it is in the ULC, and I think the ULC brightness is secondary and pulls my eye away from the center. As a viewer I assumed the center section was your center of interest, because it is the brightest & warmest.
I think this image is good example of the maker needing to emphasize, via composition (inclusion/exclusion) what is most important to them in the image, ie sometimes less is more. I actually think there are a lot of interesting elements across this image. But there are so many it creates a bit of visual overload for me. This is my my subjective reaction as a viewer, since I generally tend to prefer simplification in images
