I’m slowly working through my images from Iceland. It is so hard to decide what to share for critique. My apologies if I needed another month of editing to whittle these down to a few.
My main feedback request is, as always, whether this holds your interest. I’m increasingly drawn to abstract representations, but I know that’s a matter of taste, so I’m sharing one with a human reference points for scale, etc. Let me know what you think, feel free to offer suggestions, and as always, don’t hesitate to say “meh” if any of these inspire no more than a fit of boredom.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
All are single images cropped and processed in LR for contrast.
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#1
#2
#3
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
I really like #2 with the ant size people in the LRC. Just the fact that they are so far in the corner emphasizes the immensity of the land, the unimportance of the humans. The scale makes the whole scene. I like that you haven’t included the sky, the diagonals all point to the people, and the colors are wonderful.
I like the second image the best. The repeated diagonal lines add a nice rhythm to the composition. I also like the inclusion of the river below. I also like the inclusion of the hikers for a sense of scale. There is also a sense of mystery about how high the mountains are since you haven’t included all of the mountain.
Another vote for #2. I don’t like the featureless sky in #1. Number 3 looks like a good idea but the green in the lower left breaks down the composition (Would like to see it all in browns and yellows). I just noticed the people in #2. They do provide a wonderful scale to the tremendous slopes. I hope others can find them. I don’t know how to make them more prominent other than cropping the image. The red shirts do help a lot.
Marylynne, I like all 3 images, but # 2 is the definate standout here. Love it for the reasone the others have stated.
Thanks everyone. I am slowly developing more appreciation for the human element in a scene 
I tried a crop off the left side of #2 to make the people more apparent sooner, and I think it’s an improvement. Let me know if the people make a smaller impact now because they are more obvious.
ML
Definitely # 2 for me, Marylynne, but with some changes. The countryside is beautiful indeed, but my interest was immediately drawn to the far right side with the wonderful variety of rust colored dirt/rocks. When I saw that, I pretty much lost interest in the left side. I would love to see any images that were aimed more in that direction if you have them. I downloaded it and cropped it rather drastically. Actually, I played with it quite a bit as it seemed to be a perfect test candidate for Topaz Denoise AI because of the extreme texture in the dirt/rocks. I ran Topaz Denoise AI on it with the “Auto” setting, which usually does a very nice job, but it failed in a big way with this image. I kept playing with it and finally found a setting I liked but it really didn’t make a significant change in the image at all. Like I said, I was just playing anyway.
I love abstracts so I cloned out the human elements so as to lose the scale of scale, thereby making it more abstract, at least in my twisted mind, although I did enjoy knowing the scale provided by them in your shot.
To summarize this novelette, I love # 2, but primarily love the color variety on the right side. Beautiful image!
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Marylynne, The second image for me all the way. It’s quite an amazing scene and what the people add to the look and scale is quite impressive. I like the original post of #2 better than any of the repost of that version. Really nice!
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Marylynne,
I’ll make it a consensus and say that #2 is easily my favorite; crop or not, people or not, the scale and immensity of the landscape are well presented. Great job isolating these semi-abstracts (both 2 & 3) with what I assume is a longer focal length. Honestly, I didn’t even notice the people until they were mentioned and I had to look for “human element.”
IMHO, the first is an excellent landscape image. As others have noted the blank, cloud/sky is neither helping nor hurting, but for me makes this more of a conventional landscape and doesn’t carry the impact of #'s 2 &3.
The crop of #2 didn’t really change things much for me; the people are less consequential in either.
Lon
