When I first downloaded this image I was very excited. It seemed close to fulfilling the vision I had in making the picture in the first place. But as I spent time working with it in post, I began to lose confidence. Is it a chaotic mess or the semi-abstract field that I originally imagined? Obviously, it is a field of side lit marsh grass, but I believe it is the dark water that grounds the image and lends order to the chaos. But that might just be a reassuring theory. As I have committed to trying new things as a photographer and moving out of my comfort zone, surprise, surprise, I feel less and less certain about what I’m doing and in post, what I’m even looking at. As I go through my RAW files to pick out the best of the best to work on and avoid, as David DuChemin says, “polishing turds”, I find it difficult to tell if I love an image or if I’m just comfortable with it because I know the “rules”. In any case, I would love to get some feedback on your visual and visceral experience in viewing this image – ordered chaos or chaotic mess?
Hey Kerry,
I like the feel of the grass here but it feels really textured and, struggling to find the word here… crunchy? Maybe it’s oversharpened or there’s too much contrast added, I can’t tell! I love the ripples at lower left! YUM
Yeah, I struggled with that myself and did go back and soften it but maybe it would be worth pulling back on the clarity even more. Appreciate the feedback.
@Matt_Payne : I have posted a rework where I eliminated most clarity and a lot of contrast. It feels like it has eliminated most of the “crunchiness”. Any thoughts on the rework would be appreciated.
The effect is still quite pronounced although you did reduce it a tad… I actually prefer the original now. LOL. I dunno, it must be a contrast thing.
This is almost an abstract to me. The water does ground the scene in reality, but I don’t know that it brings order to chaos. OTOH, even though the grass is chaotic, the overall scene isn’t that chaotic to my eye because the grasses are all bending in the same direction. That feels orderly, in a way.
Aesthetically, I agree with Matt P. that it looks a bit contrasty. The rework is better, but still busy. How about reducing contrast only in the midtones+darks by bringing up shadows+darks and reducing exposure. Or maybe selecting just the midtones and darks for a reduction in clarity/contrast would work, but I couldn’t make it work in ACR with the jpg.
This is helpful Bonnie. I feel a bit defeated by this image. I have a sense there is something in there and tried bring it out through midtone contrast, only to get this very “crunchy” feel. When I go back to the raw image, however, it is quite flat and doesn’t read well at all. I was hoping by posting this here I might get some suggestions as to how I might approach working with this in post. One thing that is evident is that my usual post production “tricks” aren’t working for this image (i.e., dodging and burning, which is virtually impossible in an image with so much going on, and adding texture/clarity and contrast). I think this is about getting more tonal variation without getting that over-amped feel. Maybe, as you say, working with the lighter midtones and lights rather than midtones and darks will get better results. Or, perhaps going in the other direction with clarity - moving the texture and clarity sliders to the left. I’ll give it a break, I think, and give it another try. If anyone would like to take a run at it, I’d be happy to share the RAW image.
I feel very excited for you about this image. You are indeed breaking new ground, being creative, and taking chances. I suppose the small changes make a difference but in the big picture of things they are unimportant. For me this is not a picture about grass but about the emotions grass evokes. I see it as an abstract of lighter and darker lines. In fact, if I really separate myself from reality I see this as music, energetic with great tempo. In order to show my impression of this image I tried to conceptualize it by reducing its reality with color loss and emphasizing basic forms playing with contrast. As with a musical composition the values of tones convey the change in mood as you observe the image.
Kerry, I feel your indecisiveness. I too am trying to put on my creativity hat and I’m now looking for compositions that I would have not seen or walked by thinking they wouldn’t work. I find that l like some of them I take, but worry about posting them because of the “what were you thinking” response. Of course, no one on this site would say that. I loved what @Igor_Doncov wrote and I think his rework really brought out what you might have been trying to say. You should be proud of yourself that you took the chance to push your creativity and post the results. Good on ya.
