And a better adjustment:
Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Thia was the first night of the recent workshop, with low level lights set up on the tufa. This was looking like my first trip to the eastern Sierra where skies would be clear of smoke – until a fire broke out of the western side with the smoke blowing south of us. The skies were clear above but there was a pall of smoke low.
Specific Feedback
All comments welcome!
Technical Details
Minimal global tonal work in LR. Into PS for star separation with stars and BG treated separately. Stars reduced and blurred a little to soften the lens aberrations; tonal contrast work on the dust lane structure. FG focused separately and composited – a PIA due to focus breathing and some shift of the tripod in very soft sand.
Critique Template
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- Conceptual:
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3 Likes
Beautiful image, Diane. You nailed the Milky Way. Small nit: if this was my image, I might bring down the brightness on the foreground just a tad. Just enough to give more of a true night scape feel. Really like this.
Thanks, @J_Fritz_Rumpf! I was bugged by the light on the tufa, which I kept adjusting but never found what I wanted, so gave up. Maybe the actual problem is how it balances with the sky. By “true night scape feel” do you mean you would like to see the sky part brighter? I’ll play with that – not difficult to do. I’m slogging through several others and will try to balance them all out with similar looks. There is more leeway than I really like in these shots.
If I was to brighten the sky, I would go easy on that. It is just the tufa that is to bright/daylight like to me. Perhaps bring down the highlights/exposure just on the tufa? Really love the image otherwise!
Thanks, @J_Fritz_Rumpf – always good to have other eyes on things. I will get back to this one and will tame the tufa. I’m sidetracked for a while with a new bird blind.
1 Like
Well, it took a while (been busy!) but I finally got back to tweak this. And many thanks, @J_Fritz_Rumpf – you were SO right! A rework posted above with the tufa toned down and the dark area on the horizon from distant smoke lightened a bit.
YAY! That’s it! Glad to return the "extra-set-of-eyes’ favor; always appreciate your feedback!
I hadn’t seen this yet but I agree with @J_Fritz_Rumpf for sure. Did you reduce just the exposure or the saturation too? I’ve been finding I like the look of reducing the saturation in the foreground a bit to keep some luminance but mimic the lack of color our eyes see in the dark.
Thanks, @Paul_Holdorf! I don’t remember, but it was probably mostly contrast reduction, which also reduces saturation. I totally agree about keeping the FG understated in most cases, pulling the eye to the main area of interest.
