Yesterday morning I woke up at 3:30 and my body said you are done sleeping. I could not get back to sleep, so I got out of bed and decided to drive 45 minutes away to the Foothills Parkway. This is a scenic drive managed by the Smokey Mountain National Park. The picture was taken at a pull off where I frequently set up my telescope.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
What can be improved?
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Do the colors work? Is the composition balanced or pleasing?
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Taken with Fuji X-T30, 10-24mm lens at 16mm, ISO 160, 1/8 ss, F/8. Single exposure processed in Capture One.
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Well these conditions must have been pretty spectacular to witness in person. If you can’t sleep, this is a pretty good consolation prize. The processing overall looks pretty good, the sky and clouds are especially well handled. I might suggest dodging the lighter tones in the landscape in the lower right corner (LRC), to help bring up the fog a little, and reveal a bit more detail there.
My initial reaction was that the composition feels very left-heavy. Some of this is the shape of the cloud, but how can you not include the cloud? I think dodging the LRC would slightly help restore some balance. I think a slight crop from the right might also help restore some balance. But upon further reflection, I think the comp really feels left heavy because the tree along the left edge has a huge amount of visual weight, your eye gets pulled there, instead of towards the fog in the valley below. I might even consider cloning that tree away using Content Aware Fill. Here is a rework reflecting all of my comments.
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The other option, of course, is to promote the tree. I have done that by extending the canvas to the left, thus moving the tree inwards. I did so because it reminded me of a scene in Sergeant York. In it Gary Cooper retreats to hist favorite outlook in Appalachia to decide whether it’s right to defend one’s country or follow the commandment from the Bible.
The clone job is clumsy but you get the idea.
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Getting up that early gave you this beautiful morning vista. The color seem just fine for me, I might remove the touch of yellow/orange in the highlights to keep the whole image within the greens, blues and pinks (connected on the colorwheel). I agree with Ed and Igor about the tree near the edge. Looking at their quick reworks my vote goes to Igor’s moving of the tree into the frame a bit more.
I might be more than a little jealous that you only have a 45 minute drive to the foothills parkway. I live in Nashville so it’s closer to 3.5 hours for me.
The lighting is beautiful and your processing looks great to my eye. I also like the fog interspersed among the hills. To my eye the composition feels a little heavy on the left hand side, but I do like that tree about halfway up on the left edge so I’m not sure what I would have done differently.
Good for you to capture and convey to us such a scene! Fine exposure and treatment of the clouds.
I agree that the bottom left tree area is a heavy balance away from the more spectacular areas. Maybe burn its brighter areas and bring out more color in the right side distant mountains and clouds to balance.
Spectacular photo! Well worth some insomnia. It is a bit heavy on the left side, but it’s not a deal breaker for me. That being said, I think both Ed’s and Igor’s redo are an improvement.
Thanks for the feedback everyone. Yes it is a little left heavy. I like Igor’s suggestion on how to deal with this. It is an easy post processing fix. It was a lot of fun capturing this image. The light only lasted for a couple of minutes.
