What changed: This revision includes a very slight crop off both left and right sides, some minor cloning on the far right to clean up after the crop, and darkening of the bright mist and sky on the upper right corner.
Added after receiving feedback from the community.
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Another from our group trip to Yosemite. This may be my favorite image from the trip. It’s another from the Swinging Bridge area on the last morning at the park.
Specific Feedback
All comments and suggestions welcome.
Technical Details
Z8, 24-200 @ 31mm, f/9, 1/1250 sec, ISO 64, tripod
I am immediately taken with the mood and the color palette. What a gorgeous morning.
I find that I keep looking at the right side of the frame, at that bright fog. And I want to be looking at the trees left and middle, and exploring what is obscured by the fog. Yet my eye keeps jumping to the upper right.
Here’s a take where I tone down that white to a level of bluish gray that more matches the center distance. I also brushed in some detail on some of the trees, including that trunk in the middle, and the one at the right edge of the frame.
Oooh, how ethereal! Beautiful. Sorry I missed the trip (was in Utah with David & Jennifer).
Unlike Gary Hook, my eye is drawn to that leftmost dark vertical tree at mid-frame left. It makes for a strong shape and contrast there. Perhaps a tiny crop from that edge? And maybe another tiny crop from the right edge to cut out that little bit of tree poking in from mid-frame right. Both suggestions are nits, however. Just a stunning photo. I love that you have the full reflection of the cliffs in the water, but cut off at the top of the frame. Just wonderful.
Fantastic, Steve. I like this one a tish better than your previous from the location. Both are wonderful, and for me, this one just has a really sunny, happy feel to it. It’s like happy sun-drenched childhood memory.
Part of what I love about this one is the reflection showing what is missing from the top of rock faces, and the waterfalls, being there but not being the focus of the image. It’s really quite engaging.
I can see what Gary is talking about, but for me, it’s not the brightness of it; it’s that one sapling leaning in. Maybe it’s part of the energy of the image and you retained it intentionally (a little guy trying to become part of a big scene) or perhaps it could be cropped out if you are undecided. Either way, wonderful image.
ML
Well, well, I can see why this might be the favorite take away from either this morning or the entire trip. Just beautiful. The light of course makes the scene and the fog as it changes and dissipates made for glorious opportunities to capture many different scenes and moods - which you managed beautifully this moning.
I love this as presented. The one adjustment Gary provided is getting the UPR corner to shift more towards blue - actually accurately mimicking the blue in the LRC; subtle color and saturation of course. Not sure how he did it, but I also like his little adjustment of detail/contrast to the smaller, central tree upstream.
Any and all of these tweaks would be classified by my own goals of “making an image the best it can be.” And it can be a fine line because I often find myself going too far, when I should quit while I’m ahead. And I’m pretty sure you can take this one as presented, print, frame and hang this one!
I’m so bummed that I missed that last morning in Yosemite. Finally, after 4 days, the light appeared. And you captured it beautifully from the bridge. The low lying fog provides such mood and atmosphere and the colors were just so alive on that trip.
I love being able to see just a hint of upper Yosemite Falls in the background and then being able to see the rest of it in the reflection in the foreground. How cool is that?
Nothing really snags my eye in this except for the branch poking in on the right side of the frame. I would either crop that out or clone it out. That’s it. Print it big and hang it where you can be proud to showcase this one.
It’s curious, the revision shows a slight reduction in overall brightness though I did not make any changes to affect that in Lightroom. Guess I’ll need to make another change.
Steve, I noticed the drop in luminosity too. I’m wondering, when you darkened the mist in the upper right corner - I have to assume that you painted/masked that area off specifically? It almost looks like it eneded up being an unmasked global adjustment. I’m sure you can fix it. For sure, the crop/clone on the right worked out good.
@Lon_Overacker Turns out there was some tone changes reflected in Lightroom prior to the last revision. I can only assume I made changes to another image not knowing I also had this image highlighted. Strange
Another possible explanation: sometimes I think I’m making local tonal adjustments only to find that a radial or linear mask is not activated. When they added all sorts of masking options to LR, they changed how obvious it was to be in a local v global adjustment layer.
I actually used a brush to select the sky in the upper right, then pushed the contrast to 12 and moved the WB Temp to -7. I was intentionally looking [at] that reflected blue to try to match it. I know this change is undoing what the fog does, but it makes more sense to me.
The central tree (and other spots) got hit with a clarity/texture brush. I’ve been using the Rethink toolkit (@David_Kingham) because it’s awesome and makes some things very easy to accomplish. This was a perfect excuse to use it.
Just killer Steve. I like this even more than when I saw it on the back of your camera. I love the tapered triangle from left to right, and the smaller reverse triangle embedded in the bigger one. The trees are just gorgeous on their own, but when you add in the river, with its drop-dead beautiful reflection, and that kiss of the waterfall in the background this becomes a fairy tale of a photo. And, of course, the light and fog just take it next level.
Your Revision 2 nails it for me. Print this baby large and hang it proudly.
Steve, it’s easy to see why this is a favorite. It’s a glorious mix of dreaminess and being there. The mood is nicely dreamy and the location is wonderful. I like the good sense of distance and the right to left eye flow. The hints of well known rock formations at the back add a fiid sense of place. Rev 2 is the best.
This is a wonderful image. It well deserves to be the weekly pick. I prefer the original version because I just like the added space and the aspect ratio suits this subject better .
Thank you @John_Williams, @Mark_Seaver and @Igor_Doncov for your very kind comments. Igor, I agree about the aspect ratio. I don’t think I’ll post it as a 3rd revision, but I went back and eliminated the crop and cloned out the little snag instead. I plan to print this with the original aspect ratio.
