The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
We don’t get a lot of cold, icy days here so when we do I like to get out early to take advantage of the opportunity to shoot something different. This was taken at a local reservoir that is drained in the winter leaving mud behind. When it freezes, there can be lacy ice crystals formed in the mud.
What an amazing image! The patterns are truly unique and I’ve never seen anything like them. At first glance, I thought of coral before realizing it was ice and mud.
I don’t have many critiques, but one suggestion is to darken the upper left corner of the background. It’s a bit brighter than the rest, revealing some lighter mud. Darkening it would enhance the overall mystery of the scene.
Here’s a quick draft I created for my suggestion. It’s a subtle change, but I believe it can have a significant impact. It was also want to mention that I excluded the ice pattern by using a luminosity mask for just the darks.
This is really nice, Chris. I love the cool dendritic patterns formed by the ice with the clumps of mud laced in. I like the adjustment Trevor made. When I look at this, the brighter mud clumps almost look like gold nuggets and you might shift the tonality a bit to accent that illusion, if you’re so inclined.
Agree with Dennis and Trevor on the proposed refinements. Really cool image Chris! Way to fill the frame with excellent patterns. The image reminded me of coral as well.
This is wonderful! And even after knowing what this is, it’s still hard to figure out… a fabulous abstract.
I love the silver and gold crystals. My thought was this reminds me of some fine jewelry or artwork. Fascinating indeed!
I like Trevors suggestion and edit. I think you could take that even further and accomplish similar by actually just cropping the top. Further still, the alternative could see about a 15% crop off the top, 10% off the left and 5% off the bottom - of course to taste, but the idea to mitigate the larger open, dark areas. But for sure you could crop down from the top rather than just altering the brightness.
Now matter how you cut, this is wonderful! Great eye spying this one.
Terrific abstract, Chris! Like @Lon_Overacker, even though I know what it is it is still hard to figure out. I love that about this image! I also like the gold/silver effect. It’s a very unusual and successful image in my opinion!
