I took this photo back in November and been sitting on it for a while. This week I finally got to edit it but there’s that is not convincing me about it (not sure what it is). Any feedback on it will be greatly appreciated.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Mostly composition and colors. Always struggle with these.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Any pertinent technical details:
16mm (crop sensor), f/11, iso100, 1/45 s single exposure. Basic edits in Light room, then photoshop for contrast using color efex pro, dodging and burning, colors, and sharpening.
It is a lovely rock formation with golden light on it, but the composition doesn’t work for me. Is the subject of the photo the rock, or the plants in the foreground? If the subject is the rock, the plants don’t draw me into the photo, rather, they are a distraction. So my vote is to crop the bottom and the sides a bit and make the rock the undisputed subject. Thanks for sharing your photo.
That is fine light on a real nice formation. I like the foreground, but I would be inclined to add more contrast to it and to crop off the left side to eliminate the cut off butte. Overall real nice image.
@Tony_Siciliano the foreground is one of the things I’m not sure. I’ve cropped it out but then I feel like the photo is incomplete/something is missing.
@Harley_Goldman I think that when I was originally cropping it I cropped out the left butte but then went back and added it, I’ll give it a try again.
I just spent the day shopping for agaves so this is a very welcome image. I like the fg plants but I could see a better comp with the spikes radiating from the viewer in front of the butte. It’s a common comp yet still pretty good.
I do like the circle of dirt around the plants. It does add to the comp. It’s a bit unclear why the shadow on the small butte on the left is so much darker than the other shadows.
I love those rock formations in the SW. It looks like arches NP to me.
I’d crop the foreground slightly and add more saturation to the stack as well as the plant. I’d be looking to create an interplay between those two items.
Jose, I like what @Nathan_Klein did to re-work this, it eliminates a lot of negative space. I do agree with @Tony_Siciliano about deciding what you want to pick as the subject the rock or the agave. In this scene, I might have considered getting really close and down low to the agave, and shooting this as a vertical, making the agave the dominant foreground, and going for the near/far look.
I had considered a crop similar to the rework. Unfortunately it confirms Tony’s observations even more than the OP - this now is now even more a two subject comp with the visual ping pong effect.
Very Nice Image. At a workshop with Alain Briot I learned to exaggerate the foreground and get down low. I’d consider selecting and command J the foreground agave, then on its own layer command T and position and resize the agave. Perhaps move the file into viewpoint plugin and rearrange the position a tad to left, recenter and apply. Then command T the image and stretch back monument. The image has a tad saturation problem, fix that but keep glow on the face. Sky needs work. The foreground needs additional work as mentioned, the curve from the water is interesting feature to work with. Here is an idea to consider… again very nice image…
Excellent near/far composition. I really like Nathan’s edits, especially warming up the main rock formation; perhaps not so much saturation was needed, but a little warmer light/WB. Good call from Harley about removing/cropping the cut off butte on the left. It’s the little one on the right with some last light that makes for a nice addition to the scene.
For me, regardless of crop, I think the rock formation is clearly the main subject; just from sheer presence, it dominates. The foreground plant/sand adds nicely for a pleasing composition…
A few options here, but you’ve got a great one you’re starting with.
Thanks all for your suggestions, they have been really helpful.
@Igor_Doncov agaves are such nice plants. I think the shadow in the small butte is darker because it’s in the shadow of the big rock tower; the other shadows are receiving some light from the sun. Didn’t noticed that until you mentioned it.
@Nathan_Klein is arches indeed. Thanks for your suggestions, I like that crop that you made.
@Ed_McGuirk At the moment I didn’t even thought about getting closer. I’ll probably reshoot this that way the next time I’m in Moab. Composition is the thing I most struggle the most, I start seeing a lot of things that I could’ve done differently once I start editing the photos.
@Ed_Fritz getting close to the foreground object is a thing that I alway struggle with but want to start practicing when it is useful. This is definitely a scene that I’ll reshoot whenever I get back to Moab. I term of modifying the foreground in post, I don’t have anything against it but I really like trying to get as much as I can in camera, it makes me really enjoy the time I spent out shooting.
@Lon_Overacker Working with the saturation of these rocks is really difficult, it can get out of control even with just adding a little bit of it.
Yes, my point exactly…you’ll get better results and fulfillment by getting closer and getting low in camera. My edit was to show you what it could have looked like if you did. However sometime you can’t get it in camera, and in this case your image could be processed to still make the illusion.
I used to be a little hesitant in getting close with my wide angle foregrounds and was encouraged by one of the true masters of the SouthWest Photography to get close and exaggerate the foreground. It looks like your headed towards giving that a try…
