Hi everyone. I’d love some critique on this image please.
I drive past this composition fairly regularly and every time I think it would look great with storm clouds. Finally yesterday was that day!
It’s a fairly minimalist scene that speaks for itself. Any comments on comp and PP would be great.
The green looks different when viewed on my iPad so I’ve made some saturation adjustments for the web to try and deepen it. Still not happy so I’ll have another play tomorrow. I’d be interested to hear how it looks on your respective devices.
Chris, Well this was certainly worth the wait for a storm! What a wonderful clean composition and of course those rays of light! Just perfect! The greens look very good to me on my calibrated monitor. They may be a pinch over done but that is subjective and I am fine with them as is.
Chris, this is a cool looking scene, and I think you timed it to your advantage with the storm clouds. In many cases centered comps come across as “static”, but the centered framing works nicely, especially since you had some fine looking atmosphere. I particularly like how the sun beams also radiate out from the middle, which works great to further compliment such a neat grove of trees, also carefully centered. An aweful lot to like here and very engaging concept.
Nice shot, plenty of drama. The greens look good, the clouds look gray, and for me that’s more important. The signature, wrong size and place, a distraction. It’s all opinion.
TY for post
A grand stand of trees and wonderful field - all waiting for the right conditions. Kudos for recognizing the potential and then nailing the opportunity. I’d be willing to be this could be worked on a seasonal approach as well given you have frequent access to this scene.
Wow, and what a great set of clouds with the drama of the light beams. A lot to be conjured here.
I think the processing looks good. The very middle greens could be backed off, but very minor.
One thought that immediately comes to mind for me is the thought that the sky is almost completely monochromatic. There’s almost a disconnect between the color elements and the sky (although the drama overrides this…) I only say because I’m wondering if you’ve considered taking this all the way to b&w? While I do like the greens of the trees, I think there’s sufficient contrast, color separation, graphics and shapes to maybe consider. But then again, it may not be your vision at all. Just a thought.
Chris, patience is a virtue that you were amply rewarded with by waiting for these conditions. I agree with @Bill_Leggett, some folks might think a centered subject like this is too static. But in this case the strong radial pattern of the clouds and light rays creates a very dynamic feeling in the image. I think you did a great job balancing the proportions of field, tree grove and sky, it feels just right to me.
To my taste the trees are right on the edge of being too green, and too saturated, you haven’t fully gone to the Emerald City, but its getting close. I would shift the hue of theh green trees slightly more to yellow, and slightly reduce green saturation in the trees (but not the field). I would also shift the yellows in the field to more yellow for a little more color separation too. If you don’t mind here is a rework doing that.
Wow thanks everyone. I was expecting a barrage of ‘arrrrggh that green is awful’. It still doesn’t look right on my phone. I think I’ll have to bite the bullet and invest in a screen calibration kit.
@Ed_McGuirk that looks better I’ll try that. The colours look fine on my macbook in the original edit.
The storm adds some nice drama to this scene. The minimalist composition works for me. The landscape adds some nice color to the scene while there is some really nice drama in the clouds. You really brought out all of the tonality and texture in the clouds. There seem to be some light beams that radiate from the center of the trees in the large image. I’m not sure if these were naturally occurring or something you brought out in processing, but I think that it works well.
I love the concept of this image. In fact I have been looking for a composition just like this during my travels, so I was glad to come across this.
I, too, came to this conclusion. But for me the disconnect is that the tree and field look like a pleasant day and the sky indicates something the opposite. I would process them go match the sky. Having said that, sometimes it’s effective to promote this disconnect. Bring it to the viewers attention to wonder why. But in this case I think it’s not intentional.
