This is a forest I’ve taken thousands of shots of both in normal and ICM style. I like ICM the best. I did this just a few days ago.
Specific Feedback Requested
Anything, is the little bit of sky ok?
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Nikon D3400, ISO 100, f/7, 1/10, 70mm, upward motion.
Brought exposure and highlights down a little and bumped up saturation and vibrance and mid tones very slight.
This ICM has a wonderful painterly feel to it Vanessa. The processing and colors look just fine to me as I can see why this is one of your favorites. My personal preference would be to crop the sky as it does pull my eye in that direction away from all the good stuff happening in the scene. I am particularly enjoying those red tones in the grasses. Very nicely done.
I like the softness that you’ve created here. Soft textures and soft, warm colors. Really nice. If you can’t crop the sky maybe reduce its brightness a little, without going dark. How beautiful, Vanessa!
Vanessa, as the others have said the warm colors in the grasses turned out really well here. In terms of the colors, it’s not just the warm yellows of the grass, I also like the warm greens in the moss on the trees. And your ICM movement created some appealing textures in the grasses. Given the interesting shapes of the trees, I also like that you used less movement, and kept the shapes of the trees more recognizable, good call on that.
And here’s another vote to crop out the sky, the hot spots just compete too much with the shapes of the trees.
Thanks so much for looking and your feedback @Ed_Lowe@Mark_Muller@Ed_McGuirk@David_Bostock . I really appreciate it, so I cropped out the sky, I’m interested in what you think. My amateur opinion is I feel like the trees don’t have enough room going upwards…
So I took a crack at this using the transform tool instead of cropping in Photoshop. This allowed me to retain the vertical nature you were looking for while pulling out the sky. See what you think…
I like David’s interpretation here. I think given the slightly surreal nature of the shot, the transform tool can correct for the sky without introducing weirdness that is noticeable. Lightroom has a transform tool as well if you want to give it a go yourself.
If I was in the field here, I’d have taken a step or two to the left and had just the progression of larger tree trunks leading to that small tree and I’d have probably eliminated the tree on the right. Maybe you have a shot like that and it would be a nice comparison.
Thanks @David_Wallace and @Kris_Smith for looking and your feedback! Always appreciated. Yeah, I do have a lot of different angles, the forest gets a little more crowded to the right and it slants up more. As far as filling in the sky I think because I see this scene so much it’s hard for me not to see the top of the ridge. But, I have a few other angles and crops to add. If you get a chance I’d love any thoughts as always…
