The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
A bison herd nibbles its way across the grassy plateaus of Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, evidently unperturbed by the passing thunderstorms. They were far enough away that I could safely step out of my vehicle to compose this shot, however the nearby bolts of lightning didn’t make this the safest experience I’ve ever undertaken. (Almost) anything for the shot, right?
Specific Feedback
I actually exposure bracketed this composition, but the amazing dynamic range of this Sony camera allowed me to create this result just from the middle exposure, albeit with a considerable amount of dodging and burning. The end product looks great to me when I stand back away from it, but if I stare at it too long, I get an uncomfortable sense of HDR overdose despite not using any stacking. What do you think? Is this tastefully representative of reality, or a bit too over the top? In reality, the foreground wasn’t this bright to the naked eye, I’ll admit. Also, what about the bottom right fellow? Is s/he useful to provide a bit of depth to the foreground, or is s/he better cropped out in order to leave the remaining bison on a single visual plane?
Technical Details
100 mm; f/16. 1/640th at ISO 400. No image stacking but lots of dodging and burning. This is a cropped version of the original frame, which included a greater number of bison but some other annoying foreground vegetation.
Hello Jeff, this is an impressive image. I think that you and the Sony have handled the HDR pretty well and it allows the rain to stand-out from the background and give impact to the scene.
I recognise the green tone of the grass as one that often appears when you pull up the exposure from a dark scene, it can sometimes look a little “unreal”, but here I think that it’s useful to add some light to the foreground.
I might consider taking out the bison but leaving most of the grass.
I think that this is quite a nice image and the light play on the stormy clouds is very appealing. I think that the greens are fine and overall the colour palette is pleasing. I also like the inclusion of the bison though I wish there was a bit more detail visible in them.
Hi Jeff,
wow, that looks great. I love the dramatic mood of the incoming storm. I hope you managed to stay dry.
This is often my approach as well. I prefer to take too many shots in the field and then later be amazed at the dynamic range and can delete the unnecessary shots again.
I’m not sure about the bison in the LRC. I’d love to see some more space at the bottom edge.
Wonderful clouds!! The grass glows, but not too much – I think that’s in keeping with the possibilities of storm light. That bison in the LR corner feels too close to the edge and the tension isn’t helping the rest of the image. If you have more canvas at the bottom, I’d include it, and maybe a bit more on the right. Otherwise, I’d “nudge” that one animal out of the frame.
I think this is a very nice image. I don’t really sense too much HDR. One thing I do wonder about: There is a lot of variation in the brightness in the sky, due to the storm, and i really like that. On the other hand the grass is mostly a uniform brightness with just a hint of variation. You could try a little enhancement of the brighter regions of the grass, maybe painting in a bit more exposure with a broad brush, to see how that looks.
I love the moodiness of the sky and its storm light Jeff. I agree with Igor and Will about brightening the grass a little. Other then that, I thing you captured a fine image.
Great photograph! Loving the drama and the fact that the animals don’t seem to care about the weather at all. I can see why you might get the HDR feeling when looking at the image for a while. I get the feeling the saturation of the grass is unreal without having been there. Also, I’ll have to second what Diane and Jens said about the bison on the lower right. Otherwise outstanding work. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you @Ryan_H, @Tom_Nevesely, @Jens_Ober, @Diane_Miller, @Igor_Doncov, @WillR, @Eva_McDermott, and @holgermischke. I appreciate your feedback and think I have a stronger image because of it. I’ve posted a modified version based on your remarks, including cropping the LRC bison out (my original inclination), and doing a bit of spot brightening in the grass. I tried to do this with a modest touch, as there isn’t actually any direct sunlight there, so the shadowed grass is in reality fairly uniform in tone. However, I tried to tie my dodging to areas where the dominat grass species might be a bit different, so that the tonal variation looks like species variation rather than hamhanded post processing. Thanks again to each of you.
