The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This image was taken on the last day of a three day hike in the North Cascades Park. It was just a week or so ago and the larches were beginning to really show their stuff.
Specific Feedback
I would appreciate any constructive ideas but the area that I have been struggling with is that I am leaning a bit towards processing my images too dark. Yet when I look at this image, taken early in the morning, it seems about right to me. But I would appreciate any assistance.
Technical Details
I took this image with my A7RV, 100-400, at 180mm, F8, hand held at ISO 800.
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Vision and Purpose:
Conceptual:
Emotional Impact and Mood:
Composition:
Balance and Visual Weight:
Depth and Dimension:
Color:
Lighting:
Processing:
Technical:
Pat: Frame filling fantastic. North Cascades is on my bucket list so this has nudged it a bit higher. Marvelous lighting and a fine comp. Most excellent. >=))>
Bill, thanks for your comments. The North Cascades are sometimes referred to as The NW version of the Alps. It’s been many years since I’ve been in the Alps. So I really can’t compare, but the North Cascades are simply breathtaking. I have been back for a week but ready to go soon for some early snow.
I love the light in this shot, and the composition works well for me. I also wonder about maybe opening up the shadows, and it feels a bit over saturated to me (possibly overall saturation, but definitely the green saturation - the greens at the bottom just behind the foreground ridge are particularly funky to my eye, though the foreground cliff also feels just a tad “zesty” to me as well).
This shot is making me miss one of my favorite larch stashes in the Cascades, which is unfortunately close to the perimeter of the Labor Mountain Fire - hopefully I can reach it in a year and see how it fared…
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. I’ll take a look at the saturation. It does appear that the foreground shadows do need to be lifted a bit. I don’t see a green color cast….maybe some monitor differences, but I would appreciate any other viewers to chime in.
Pat - it’s not that I’m seeing a “green cast” to the image - it’s that the green areas in the image, particularly those trees at bottom about a third in from the right as well to some extent to the evergreen trees to the right of there (but the area that’s particularly kind of breaking the sense of reality a little for me are those trees at the bottom of the drainage ), seem just a bit “zesty” to me (as Jack Dykinga was apt to put it in image reviews during workshops). I just wonder what cranking down either overall saturation or perhaps just the green saturation (or even a little of both - just a bit - would do to/for the image.
Pat - I just opened this on my two calibrated monitors, and while if it were my photo I would still at least play a bit with saturation to see what I thought as I did so, I think the bigger issue I’m having with the trees at bottom “in the creek draw” area may be at least as much if not more so that the shadoe areas there are so much brighter than my eye is expecting (and compared to other nearby shadows among the sun-struck evergreens elsewhere on that sunny hillside).
Pat, the light on the Larches has set them aglow nicely. Overall, I think this is about right, but you might try a slight lift of the tone curve. I could see some dodging of the trees along the ridge on the left. I do see some haze, adding some blue in the lower right corner and in the distant ridges. While the haze in the distance adds depth, it’s probably worth reducing the blue in the lower right, since I don’t know your software, I won’t make software specific suggestions.
Thanks for the clarification…I am going to play around and go back to the original image as downloaded and to the other alternative images of the scene that I took at the same time. Thanks again for your input.
Mark, I use Lightroom primarily. Let me dig into the image…more to follow.
Pat - I should add that I find this scene to be a refreshing view of larch trees - I see SO may of the same old Cascades larch scenes popping up on Facebook, even from some decent landscape photographers. This is a novel-to-me view, and I like how the larch is more sprinkled on the landscape like some tasty spice rather than the dominant element.
The larches are wonderful Pat, but for me they are the icing on the cake of a wonderful anyway photo. I love the rugged diagonals, there’s a lot of amazing texture here. The flow from the lrc to the urc is really eye pleasing.
I do like the suggestion to open the shadows just a tad. I banged this around in Photoshop to make a run at that, and also tweaked a couple of other things just for fun. I moved this slightly away from green toward magenta, cut some of the haze in that ulc, and tried to reduce the brighter cyan/blue spots just above the trees in the ulc. All nits on a wonderful image.
