Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.
Questions to guide your feedback
What two words come to mind with this image?
What do the contrasts communicate to you?
Other Information
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Image Description
I was struck by the contrast between the thin layer of ice on the lake and the greens of the surrounds trees and vegetation. I was also mesmerized by the zig zag of ice and the linear, vertical reflections of tree trunks.
Technical Details
Canon 5d3 with 100-400mmL at 227mm
ISO 125, f/22, 1/20sec: no idea why, except that I didn’t want to focus stack ice texture
Contrast, texture, clarity, and vibrance
Specific Feedback
I hoped to evoke a kind of ambivalence (warm and cool, vertical and angular) that comes with transitions between seasons, spaces, etc.
I’m taking David DuChemin’s “Shoot What It Feels Like” class, and I wanted this to be both abstract and compelling in its contrasts.
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
The strong diagonals lead the eye through the scene nicely. The vertical lines in the main triangle of water also serve as a great element that grabs the eye and holds it, so there is a sort of contrast between moving through the scene and stalling in the water. The light brown refection in the URC is somewhat distracting and kind of upsets the flow. I might consider cropping off the top to eliminate it and have an image that results in just three triangles, two of ice and one of water.
Hi Marylynne,
I like the S-Curve you’ve captured in your image. This helps guide the eye from foreground through background in a very natural flowing way. The contrast of the two colors also reinforce and complement this image… well done!
Marylynne, the two words are chilly and inviting. The ice is chilly while the rippled reflections are nicely inviting. I like the big sideways V. While part of me wonders about the additional angle at the top, the warmth of the reflected color up there is an important addition.
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the feedback. I kept that urc for that very reason: the warmth. I think it adds complexity, but I can’t decide whether complexity is desirable in this one.
ML
The contrast between the ice and the reflections speaks to me of cold stillness vs. warm energy. The warmest color up there in the URC does catch my eye, but it’s counterbalanced by the strong pattern of in the reflections. I thought perhaps cropping so the ends of the points are cut off might be interesting and more abstract. I kept the 16:9 ratio. Cool photo!
