Original:
Edit:
A photo of the full scene for reference:
Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This was taken during sunrise in March, right outside the front door of the cabin.
When I first looked out the window this morning it was pretty gray, cloud covering the mountain. Even so, I still took my camera with me outside, silently hoping the sun would brake through as it began to rise. Five minutes later it started snowing, heavily… But little by little the sun started poking through, the clouds started lifting, and eventually revealing the mountain.
It was a very windy morning, and as the sun rose the light would catch the snow making the hill in front of the mountain almost glow.
Technical Details
333 mm, F8, 1/800, ISO 500. Plus a tripod this time.
I’ve slowly been getting used to using my 100-400 lens after using either 28-75 or 25+85 mm lenses. One of the hardest things with it has been learning ways of creating depth in the photos. Does it show a bit depth? The other thing I’ve been experimenting with it cropping and intentionally leaving things out. With this photo I wanted people to wonder what was above the clouds. In addition, it helped solve the problem of what to do with the sky (seen in the second photo). I think the clear sky is distracting when it’s at the edge of the frame. What do you think? Or does the crop make it unbalanced?
I really like this one @Julie_Gunstensen! This image strikes me as something you could find on the walls of a church. Something about that light pouring down from above, illuminating the hill. Really well seen!
Let’s get into your questions:
For me, it does. I think the main reason for this is the relative darkness of the trees compared to the darkness of the hills/mountains beyond. The way our eyes see contrast/dept and our brain perceives contrast/depth, this fits into that model. With that said, I think it comes across almost a bit distracting. Probably nitpicking a little but the general theme of the image to me appears very light and airy, then there is. thick dark band running across the bottom of the image. I thought bringing up the luminosity of the whole image could help, avoiding the highlights and really focusing on the band of trees at the bottom.
I think you have succeeded greatly here. The top of the image was a bit distracting due to it’s luminosity but your crop has helped with that. It also emphasizes the strong horizontal flow of the image. I’m a fan of the crop!
I decided to take a crack at what it would look like lightened up a bit to emphasize that airiness I was feeling, might give you some ideas to try out.
Thanks for sharing!
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Julie,
This is such a wonderful moment in nature. I think you made an excellent choice in your cropping as it really works to isolate and draw attention to the dynamic element of the snow blowing off the ridge. Agree eliminating the upper sky does provide that little bit of mystery as to what may be happening above, and outside the chosen frame. The crop makes this image more direct, less generic - if that makes sense.
Interesting because the use of the longer focal lengths typically compress a scene and thus reducing depth. But I think here the beautifully highlighted ridge of blowing snow works to separate the foreground trees and the bg mountain and cloud cover - actually creating some depth here. At least that’s what I see.
I really like what you’ve presented. I’ve gone ahead and made some small tweaks that hopefully don’t change your vision, but I think are just small adjustments to enhance what you’ve already created. I did a few things. First, selectively performed some USM sharpening just to the snowy ridge as it seems a little soft. And sticking with that ridge, I also selectively applied TK’s Lights Triple Play to further enhance the details of the ridge and blowing snow. Then finally added a slight vignette and also burned down the surrounding areas to further differentiate the highlighted ridge and the surrounding treeline and bg mountains. Oh, and dodged the treeline a little in a vignette kind of way.
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Julie,
I agree with Lon. I was about to mention the same about longer focal length lenses compressing rather than accentuating depth. The photo to me does not have much depth, but that is fine, as it is a fine photo. The geometry of the composition I think adds more than enough interest to overcome any lack of depth. The blowing snow on the backlit snow ridge is wonderful and adds a dynamic element to the photo.
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@David_Wallace @Lon_Overacker @Youssef_Ismail Thanks for your tips, it’s been very helpful!
I’ve re-edited this photo, and combined it with learning a bit more about TK8. I lightened the trees since I agreed that they were a bit dark. The entire photo was a bit dark. I’ve also added a bit contrast to the middle part of the mountain. The only thing I’m wondering about if the light is a bit too white?
It’s been fun shooting at longer focal lengths, and I’ll continue to explore and try to figure out how to best use it. Let me know if anyone have any tips for how to create depth.
