Ode to sorrow

Image Critiques Weekly Challenge
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Ode to sorrow
Ode to sorrow1500×1000 178 KB

An old one from the archives, but it has new life for this theme. Taken in November, the color palette was at its least varied and the foggy conditions and the early hour further reduced the range. This is a little bit of Little Cohas Marsh if I recall, not far from where I lived in NH.

When I originally processed this, I was disappointed in myself since I should have used the tripod and done a long exposure. There was too much texture in the water. It’s long bothered me, but now I have Photoshop, I tried introducing a gaussian blur in the foreground along with some tonal management to flatten the contrast a bit. I also have learned a lot more about processing and could use some advanced techniques to contour the foggy layers and the elements that appear in them from front to back.

Specific Feedback Requested

So, how did my rework go? Does it look decent? Too fake? It’s only 1s and 0s so I can do it again!

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
Handheld - ugh. What a lazy photographer. Well at least I got out of the house!

image

Processed as mentioned above using Lr & Ps with some TK8 tricks in there - a darks mask and some other things I can’t recall. I also moved the white balance cooler than it was to further reduce the golden colors.

@the.wire.smith
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A lovely, peaceful scene. Looks to me like you have aced it – not sure what more you might want… There is a lovely sweep in contrast from the LR toward the UL, with very pleasing atmospheric perspective. The contouring looks natural to me, and I like the hint of waves in the shadows on the water at the shoreline.

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Thanks @Diane_Miller - phew. This shot has been bugging me a long time. Sometimes we do get obsessed don’t we?

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This is lovely, and the processing looks fine - nothing unnatural looking. I don’t think you’d need to do anything more to the foggy elements. They recede nicely into the background. The only suggestion I might make is to tone it a bit blue-ish if you want to convey sorrow.

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I like this image a lot, with the small tree standing out from the rest of the woods. I think your re-processing worked very well. Maybe also a version with a crop at the bottom and a little bit at the left, to reduce somewhat the empty part in the LLC, also could work.