Which composition do you prefer?
How is the color balance/greens?
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Lizard’s tail growing under a canopy of Louisiana bald cypress.
Nikon D850 f8.0 ISO800 1/160 Handheld
From a composition standpoint, I much prefer image #2. In image #1 there is too much empty negative space in the LRC for my taste, and I do not like how the foreground plant in the center is cut in half. That cut off plant looks like it was a composition mistake, and not a deliberate choice by the photographer. Image #2 avoids both of these issues, and also shows more of the trees which have nice colors, textures, and lichen. The trees are actually more interesting to me than the flowers, and i like how image #2 makes them more prominent. The color balance looks good to me, the greens look natural and have not veered off into the Emerald City, which is sometimes the temptation if you play with HSL adjustments. The exposure in #2 is slightly brighter which I also like, it makes the vegetation more vibrant. My only suggestion for #2 would be to adding some stronger vignetting to the edges of the frame, in order put more emphasis on the center.
Hermann,
Ditto to just about everything Ed wrote as i agree with his points. I had thought similar before seeing his comments. The second one just has better luminosity and overall color/saturation; either the lighting changed between shots (pretty common right?) OR you processed slightly differently. Nothing wrong with the processing per se in the first, it’s simply that image #2 looks better!
I also like the composition from a 2/3 - 1/3 balance between the floor of greens and the tree trunks. And in the second one, just enough in the LRC to help provide context and the story of the how/where these plants are flourishing.
I like the first too, but prefer the second; it’s stronger IMHO.
Lon
@Ed_McGuirk & @Lon_Overacker Thank you for leaving the detailed feedback. I agree the the LRC in the first is ultimately a distraction. Im glad the greens look normal, all i did was push the yellows to more of a red orange and greens to more green in HSL to try and separate the colors a bit.
There is a better composition in this swamp waiting to be found that would tell the story of the lizard tail and the tree trunks better, Im gonna keep looking for it.
That’s a processing technique I commonly use to separate yellow from green (I know Lon does something using LAB color adjustments to get color separation). The trick is not to overdo the greens more green part, and I think you did a good job with that here.
My first reaction is #1. Then I read Ed and Lon’s comments and decided for #2. But looking at this some I’m going back to #1. The ‘empty space’ in the LRC does not make the image worse but rather makes it better, a stronger composition.
There is a greenish cast to the image which is affecting the back trees. I also wanted the trees to be more prominent, more balanced with the greens. I can’t remember all the changes I made but here is a different, less flashy version.
I’m a bit stuck between the two, Hermann. I like the diagonal lead in of the first but do agree with others about the bottom R corner; if that negative space could have been reduced I think the image would be that much sronger. The balance is maybe better in the second but I don’t feel the kead in is as good. Overall there is the basis here for a very pleasing image with strong colour and a nice setting of the trunks.
