This is a hand held 4 shot focus blend image. It was originally shot in landscape but cropped to take out distracting rocks etc. on the edges in the foreground, on each side of the cactus. Open to any critiques. This is my first post and trying to get a feel for it.
Pertinent technical details or techniques: 4 hand held shot focus blend
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
If you would like your image to be eligible for a feature on the NPN Instagram (@NaturePhotoNet), add the tag āigā and leave your Instagram username below.
#iggregstokesbury1
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
I like the foreground interest leading towards the mid ground and then towards the strong subject in the background.
Iād try adding a bit more contrast by increasing the luminosity of the light on the mountain and maybe add some warmth to that light. I think that would highlight the subject stronger.
Hi Greg and welcome. I would concur with Nathanās suggestions, but you have a really nice scene from a classic location. It is a great view in your image.
Pretty impressive too with you stitching handheld frames - this comes across as quite technically impressive. And not to mention, your comp and and processing is wonderful.
Itās rare that I canāt find anything to be nitpicky about - this is outstanding. Love everything about it.
Thanks for posting and weāll look forward to more!
Welcome to NPN, Greg and a fantastic first post IMO. This has some wonderful depth to it with the layering and I like Nathanās suggestion of a little more contrast. Impressive for hand holding; I know I could not do it. I look forward to more posts.
Thanks Lon. I will admit that I did my hand held leaning against a rock just out of the shot to my left. In the process of leaning against the rock I cracked my screen on my I phone. If I get a good shot out of it, then it was worth it.
Thanks Marylynne. Yeah, that wedge was a problem as well as a rock to the left (out of the shot) which I cracked my phone screen on trying to maneuver around it. My main objective in the shot was trying to get the cactus in the shot. This was taken in landscape which showed more of the wedge and that rock to the left. This is a 5x7 crop to take the rock out and leave as little of the wedge as possible. So to keep the cactus I darkened the wedge and came up with the shot you see.
Welcome to NPN Greg, this is a nice first post. I love all the various textures you have captured in this scene, they create a lot of visual interest. The processing of exposure, color and contrast looks great in the foreground. I think the mountain and sky could benefit from a small increase in mid-tone contrast. I agree with @Marylynne_Diggs, i would clone the road away too. But those are nits, overall this is a very pleasing image.
Thanks Ed. I agree with @Marylynne_Diggs and @Nathan_Klein. In the final processing I added some color and contrast which looked better. And I did take out the horizontal road in the shot but left the smaller vertical roads. Oddly I liked those.
Exposure, color and sharpness are great. The light in the background is excellent and it needs to be as such in the foreground as well. As it is now the foreground leaves me kind of flat. If you had a more prominent foreground element that might have made up for the flat lighting. Those two small barrel cacti seem like they would have made an interesting foreground had you used a wider angle lens and got down closer to them. Just some thoughts.
Thanks for the input @Youssef_Ismail. I got as close to those cactus as I possibly could. I was leaning across a rock that was more than waist tall and the cactus were not accessible from the front. That was why this was a hand held shot. Hand held blending is not my favorite way to shoot. To make it worse I cracked my phoneās faceplate on that rock leaning on it. I also had considered making the foreground more prominent but the shot wasnāt about the cactus ( if I had found better cactus then maybe I would have ) but it was more about the valley/mountain and the sunrise. I as just using the cactus as āfillerā.
