The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I had planned this shot for months since I lived nearby, scouting the perfect location and timing. Returning several times where I woke up before dawn, I would hike to the salt flats with my view camera. This day, I set it up and waited patiently for the magic moment. When the sun fully lit up the mountains and reached the salt flat, I made the image. The reflection of the peak on the standing water was stunning. I felt a surge of joy and awe.
Specific Feedback
Any feedback welcome.
Technical Details
Ektachrome 64, Schneider 150 ApoSymmar, f/16, 3 seconds. Normal e6 process, scanned on Creo Eversmart Pro2.
I can see why you had joy and awe, the light on those hills is eye-grabbing. I also love the way that the water fills the mid-ground and flows to the distance. In fact, I like that top half well enough it makes me wonder if it was possible to move closer to the edge so that the foreground was less dominant? I’d love to see the salt flat take up more of the image.
Welcome Bill! Much respect for you for still shooting film … unless this was rescued from your film drawer. All my film images are in a drawer which is why I said that
Like John mentioned in his post, there are so many great eye-grabbing aspects of your image … but I don’t think the foreground is doing you any favors. As well, I would love to see you move forward to get all of the playa and Telescope Peak.
Guess when I was there I was so impressed with the salt grass that the other aspects were just to give it context. But you must be willing to “kill your babies” (as they say in Hollywood)…
This is not in the direction of Telescope Peak so that would not be possible…
Welcome to NPN! Glad to see a film shooter not only still shooting, but joining us here at NPN. Your experience should bring welcome value with the members. I succombed and sold all my 4x5 gear back in 2015 after 25 years enjoying the LF process. Glad to know there are still some out there hanging on…
To your image, what a wonderful moment in time. I can relate to your experience of the moment and even the greater joy knowing you had to wait days or weeks to find out if you nailed it! Kudos for recognizing the potential of this scene, composition and moment. The reflection on the waterways is wonderful and the centerpiece.
I would agree the foreground is a bit dominant, but understand the circumstances. I do think the horizontal crop is an improvement. I don’t know your stance on this, but you might consider cloning or mitigating the bright rock on the bottom left edge of your cropped version.
The only other comment relates to probably the scan or processing. Hard to tell at this small size, the sky appears a little noisy. Again at this size and not knowing the process, but an observation on your image post.
Thank you for sharing and we look forward to your images and engagement with the community!
Truth be told, I shoot very little film these days. Shot view camera’s since the late 1960’s: 8x10, 4x5, 2x3. I eased into digital gradually, first with t a Betterlight scan back on 4x5… then a quadstitch back with a PhaseOne P40… currently Cambo Actus on Fuji GFX100s (still a view camera!!!)
Yes the sky is a bit noisy in the scan but it prints well enough. I could of course blur it or apply a noise reduction software. The image is pushed pretty hard due to the dynamic range being limited on Ektachrome.
the crop was casual to illustrate what I thought was being said and, yes, I would clone away that rock at the lower left
thanks for looking and the suggestions. I’ll likely post a few more soon
Hello Bill and welcome to NPN! I love the light and the warm and cool colours here and the line of the stream/water really make the shot for me. The foreground is nice too but I also like the cropped version with less of the foreground.
The Cambo with the GFX must be a real treat to shoot with. I’d love to have and shoot with that combo as well.
