The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
If you ever have a chance to visit the Big Island of Hawaii, the Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historic Park is worth a visit. On a very recent return trip to the Big Island, we went back to this park with some family who had never been there before. Our visit was in the middle of the day, in harsh mid-day light, and not at all geared towards photography. I saw this scene of smooth pahoehoe lava with a backdrop of palm trees and decided to take a few photos. On initial inspection, the RAW image (image #2) did not look to have much promise, but I decided to work on it and see what I could come up with.
Specific Feedback
All feedback appreciated
Technical Details
Nikon Z7ii, Nikkor Z 14-24mm @14mm, 1/320, f/14, ISO 200. Intentionally underexposed to avoid blowing out the highlights. Processed in ACR and PS. The main processing step was to use ACR to create a mask for the sky, and another for the FG. I increased the texture and clarity in the FG to bring out the details in the lava.
For being in the middle of the day this turned out really well, Patrick. The clouds were certainly a bonus and I love the details and textures in the FG lava field. My only suggestion would be a crop from the left and right sides to tighten up the scene just a little. I hope you do not mind, but here is a rework with what I was thinking. Beautiful image.
I would say picture-perfect-postcard! And that’s a compliment. It’s like an oasis… but for sure a great nature story as well that those palms didn’t get swallowed up by the molten lava.
I like Ed’s crop as that balances the sky out. Perhaps an alternate way to get the same balance would be add more to the top. And after comparing (thanks for the RAW posting) it looks like you cropped a little off the top. My thought would be to have a relative balanced space of the sky around the palm trees left, top, right. Pretty minor point though.
Great job with the colors and luminosity, bringing all that out from the RAW file. The only minor suggestion I have would be to burn down (or paint color and low-opacity layer) that little area along the bottom right edge. The lava is a little lighter there and pulls the eye just a bit. Another minor observation.
Nice job of managing the clouds and bringing up the shadows. I think I like it with the original room on the top, but @Ed_Lowe has a good idea with cropping from the sides. It really makes the lovely trees stand out.
There is quite a bit of lens distortion – a fact of life with wide angles. The horizon should be flat if the camera is aimed level – i.e. the horizon cuts through the center point and the body is level. Strangely you are pretty close to that, and it actually looks a little less pronounced in the raw file. It took going to +16 with the distortion slider in Lens Correction to get the bow out of the horizon, then a rotation of about 1 deg CCW. Tricky here because the hills rise on the left side so I was mostly eyeballing the right horizon.
Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions!
@Ed_Lowe, thank you for the suggestion. I am undecided if I like it better. I was trying to emphasize the patterns of the lava in my version, so I went with the 16 x 10 aspect ratio.
The only minor suggestion I have would be to burn down (or paint color and low-opacity layer) that little area along the bottom right edge. The lava is a little lighter there and pulls the eye just a bit. Another minor observation.
@Lon_Overacker Thanks for the suggestion, I will try this.
There is quite a bit of lens distortion – a fact of life with wide angles. The horizon should be flat if the camera is aimed level – i.e. the horizon cuts through the center point and the body is level. Strangely you are pretty close to that, and it actually looks a little less pronounced in the raw file. It took going to +16 with the distortion slider in Lens Correction to get the bow out of the horizon, then a rotation of about 1 deg CCW. Tricky here because the hills rise on the left side so I was mostly eyeballing the right horizon.
@Diane_Miller Thanks for the input. Yes, there is a lot of distortion when shooting at 14mm focal length. I applied the lens correction built into ACR and also compared that with DxO Prime Raw 2. Similar, but not as much correction as you applied. Both corrected for vignetting. I’m OK with the minimal distortion that the software applied. As far as the leveling, it’s a tricky because the hills in the BG are not straight and there are not very many verticals or horizontals to use in the FG. The sand and a few of the trees were what I used for reference. I also used the virtual horizon when I shot this. I think the original is level.
