Morning back light on the grasses

What technical feedback would you like if any?

Any

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

This is an image I made a couple of weeks ago early in the morning in the foothills just east of my home. I had been hiking in this area and saw the beautiful backlit grasses so I came back with a camera to try to capture it. I’m just not sure I’ve done so. I’m interested in hearing if this photo has any impact with you, and is there enough context to make it work. I tried many different shutter speeds and liked the slower options to allow the grasses to blow a bit in the breeze. I only had a few minutes to get this and have the sun included. Thanks in advance for thoughts and suggestions.

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)

Olympus EM1-X, 40-150 f/2.8 @ 50mm
ISO 64, 2 seconds @ f/20

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I really like 90% of the scene. I think the shutter speed works well. But I’m trying to figure out what’s going on in the sky. Sort of looks like trees. Is the sun peeking through a notch in the treeline?
:vulcan_salute:

@Michael_Lowe Thanks for the input. Behind the light grasses is a line of dark piñon trees, then behind that by a mile or so is a mountain range that the sun is just peaking over in a small notch in the mountain range.

Thanks for replying @Keith_Bauer. That’s what I thought was going on.

Colors, tones, textures, real strong image.
Not liking the sun…gives me the looking in the flashlight vibe, and draws the eye to the edge, away from all the best parts, here aka everything else.
TY for posting

Keith, I like the concept of this image, and i think you ended up with a very pleasing degree of blur in the grasses. I also like the almost sepia tone color here, it work very well artistically with this sunrise light. My only suggestion is that I wish that i could see a little more breathing room above the sun, maybe you have that in one of your shots. If not you may want to consider adding 2 or 3% canvas in phootshop, and using Content Aware Fill to create some breathing room, it might actually work pretty well with this image. This is a very creative image, kudos to you for having the vision to to see this, and the creative possibilities of it.

@Ed_McGuirk . Thanks for the thought on the sun. I went back and aded a touch of canvas on top. I think it helps. Always helpful input from you. Appreciated. Second image is included with the original at the top

Oh, this is fabulous. I love the darker plants showing through the moving grasses.

That’s exactly what I had in mind Keith, I think it does help to leave a little room above the sun.

Keith,

This has great impact for me - quite dreamy, if not ethereal. I think the second version with the little extra space up top works much better, even though it’s just a small change.

The blowing grasses really help create that dreamy notion and the color is dreamy and impactful too. This is quite unique actually, so kudos and well done.

Lon

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A very artsy image that appeals to me for it’s creative uniqueness. Rather than a dreamy(romantic) image I would call this an image as seen in a dream. Like a scene from some Ingmar Bergman film where nothing is real but the dreamer is agitated. I don’t see this as a pretty backlit image of grass.

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