I’m open to all feedback, but am particularly interested in advice regarding color (overall saturation and the hue of highlight vs. shadow snow, as well as overall color harmony ideas).
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
The fisheye lens I used bends the trees so they kind of hug the distant mountain peak. While bent trees aren’t realistic, I tried straightening them out and don’t like it as much. Thoughts? Also, interested in people’s thoughts on overall contrast. Thanks guys.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
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12mm f/11 exposure blend for sky, dark tree areas and land
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This turned out rather well. Glad you added the part about preferring the distortion, so that gets it off the critique table. It works pretty well here, too. Normally, I would like to see a lot less blue in the snow, but given the distortion and the more abstract nature of the presentation, I find it works here. I might back off a little on the blue, but I like the overall effect. I would think about cloning out the branch coming in from top left. Not a killer at all, but without it, I think it would balance nicely to the right top.
I also like the distortion. However, I find the blue very distracting and I think it takes away a lot of the viewing experience for me. Also, maybe a sliver more at the bottom?
Evan, I like your idea of using a fish eye lens on trees like this, and agree with @Harley_Goldman that the distortion creates some interesting abstract effects. The composition of the the trees and mountains feels nicely balanced to me, and theyh work well with the bowing effect of the distortion… I think the small scraggly tree in the LLC is a minor distraction since it is too close to the frame edge, but suspect even Content Aware Fill would have a hard time getting rid of it. I would not crop it away, since it would then place the left larch too close as well.
This is a subjective assessment on my part, but I think there are portions of this image where the contrast and saturation feels a bit too much to me. I would suggest reducing saturation in the blues and cyans overall. The blue saturation in the snow is more of an issue for me than the sky, but I would consider adding luminosity and reducing saturation in the blue sky in the ULC (center sky looks okay). The blue contrast and saturation in the shadowed snow feels to heavy to me throughout the image. The shadowed snow is too cyan for my taste, especially where it starts to transition to sunlit snow from shadow. The LLC and LRC also feels like there is a heavy handed vignette, i would back off that a little too.
I like the abundance of blue. It’s not very realistic but this is an artsy image so reality can be bent (roll eyes). I do agree with @Harley_Goldman about the branches coming in from the left that cross the fir trees
Thanks everybody for the prompt and helpful feedback. I’m going to give cloning out the trees in the ulc a go and may have a go at the one in the llc as I agree they are distracting elements. Seems like there mixed responses on the blueness of the snow. I’m not totally satisfied with it, so I’m gonna try some of @Ed_McGuirk 's color notes. To clarify when you say the shadow snow is too cyan, are we talking about a solution that moves it closer to blue, reduces cyan’s saturation or both. I’ll post the re-edit when I’ve made these changes.
I like the effect the fisheye give to the composition. In general is a pretty balacend composition. Regarding the blue, the blue in the sky seems fine to me, the issue is the blue in the snow. I’m assuming you did split tonight with the shadows being blue? Maybe tone down the blue saturation there. Also, noticed some weird halo in the yellow branches, maybe is the split toning too?
Yes, shadows in snow less cyan and shift more to blue. Reduce cyan/blue saturation in the snow shadows as well. My other point was that the cyan looked oddest right in the transition zone as the shadows led out to the sunlit snow.
