The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This image is from my first visit to Organ Pipe National Monument this last March. I could have stayed at that lookout for hours, just observing the vastness of the desert. I love the texture of the rock outcrop in the foreground.
Specific Feedback
Looking for feedback on the composition and any other suggestions
Technical Details
1/125 sec, f/11.0, ISO 100
Lightroom post processing from raw image
Hey Derika! First of all, welcome to the site, glad you are here. I really enjoy the depth in this image. The way you can see from front to back and the changing tonality is really great. Compositionally the large rocky structure really anchors the scene and provides some interest.
I downloaded the images because I wanted to take a look at two things. First being a minor crop off of the right side and the bottom. There is a saguaro right on the edge on the right that I wanted to remove (you could probably clone just as easily) I also cloned what was left of the small saguaro poking in from the bottom. Second I wanted to look at the colors a bit. I made two adjustments to that, the first was a curves layer where I ran the auto adjustment set to Enhance Per Chanel Contrast (alt/option and click the auto button and make your selection). This is a really useful tool when looking at colors and casts. When I did this it cooled the image a bit and added a touch of contrast. I also did a selective color adjustment and targeted the cyan colors and pushed the more toward blue by pulling the yellow down and the cyan down. While I was there I added more red in the reds and more yellow in the yellows. If this doesn’t make sense…please let me know and I’m happy to send over screen shots etc.
You mentioned enjoying the vastness of the desert, this image conveys that for sure!
@David_Wallace Thank you for the suggestions on the crop, and the color contrast and adjustments. I have not practiced with curves much yet, so this is very helpful to consider! Did you make these adjustments in LRC? I am using the LR option right now as it’s a little easier interface to work with. However, I am not sure that all the features in LRC are available in LR so screenshots would be helpful if you have time. I watch YouTube videos mainly to learn new techniques, so I will be looking for something on this topic as well
Ok, I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for so I made this:
A couple pointers.
To launch the “auto” dialogue, you need to click the auto button while holding either “alt” on Windows or “option” on Mac. I select the second from the top.
If I have my contrast the way I want it, then I will switch the layer mode to “color” this means that only the colors are being adjusted and the tones are not. I also generally turn the adjustment down a little bit using the layer opacity. You may notice when I had it set to normal before adjusting to color, some of the highlights in the top left corner were starting to look blown out.
Finally, I tried it out in Adobe Camera Raw (same thing as Lightroom) and was able to get a very similar result in my opinion. Essentially what you are doing is setting a “white” and “black” point for each of the R G B curves. Now that curves can be used in lightroom with masks, you could do this as a final step in the process by creating a mask that covers the entire image, then going into the curves within the adjustment and setting those points.
Hopefully these notes along with the video are helpful.
No problem. Hopefully it helps give you some ideas. I need to explore some of the other options within it more. You can also set a default algorithm. I should do that because I use the version I showed here 100% of the time if I’m clicking auto.
Hi, Derika, Welcome to NPN from me as well. I ditto @David_Wallace 's comment about the nice wide angle capture. Just for fun, I cropped some of the sky as it’s the desert and mountains that hold interest in the image. This also adds to a panoramic feeling of the image. I also added some contrast to the mountains.
My main comment is to encourage you to use Lightroom Classic over LR. The learning curve on LRc and Photoshop is related to practice, and there are many free tutorials to help. I look forward to seeing more of your images.
Hi @Larry_Greenbaum! Thank you for your feedback! I really like the crop you suggest…I agree that the focus should be the mountains and desert, so less sky is appropriate! And I will be focusing on using LR and PS for future work.
Welcome again to NPN! You’ve posted a wonderful and grand landscape from the desert. I especially like how you’ve composed and rendered the landscape; the outcropping of rock surrounded by the desert vegetation - along with the backdrop of the mountains make for an excellent composition. I do agree with Larry’s comment about maybe some of the sky isn’t needed, but maybe wouldn’t crop quite so much - but I do like the broader resulting perspective.
I think your comp is excellent. My only other suggestion/feedback hasn’t been mentioned yet, so I’ll go ahead. To me, the mountains in the bgground are pretty blue. Not an image killer, but the shadow areas do have a blue cast. Of course this is pretty common and could be like this quite naturally, so this may or may not be an issue for you. But I too went ahead and edited to illustrate. My edits were entirely in PS however (and ACR, which would be equivalent adj in LR), but for the most part I do my work in PS (I don’t know LR… an admission…)
So the main adjustments were in the blues of the mountains. I desaturated the blue and cyan on a Hue/Sat layer, and then “painted” in the adjustments after masking the layer (black conceals, white reveals concepts) I also did a Levels (or you can with Curves) layer and set the black point using the darkest spot I could find on the main mountain on the right.
I played with vibrance, clarity and dehaze in ACR and so the main landscape is a little different - but I must say that the landscape in your original is processed very well (colors, contrast, sat, etc.) and so my changes here are more personal choices rather than a right/wrong approach. Oh, and I cropped slightly, burned/painted the bright ULC - upper left corner and also cloned out a few things on the edges.
I just think this is a wonderful desert landscape. And all the little tweaks and adjustments can be enough to elevate this to the next level. Thanks for sharing!
Lon and Derika, As a follow-up, I like what you have done with the mountains. I tried it and got a close result -desaturated the blues and cyans and then painted color with a grayish purple from the color picker. Then I added a soft pop which I pulled down to about 50% opacity. It would be difficult to do this in PS without the TK8 plugin. Tony Kuyper’s TK8 plugin simplifies and demystifies PS. With the change in the mountains, I do prefer a bit more sky.
@Larry_Greenbaum - Wow, I really like what you did with the mountains and sky!! I will check out the plug in you mentioned, sounds like a valuable tool. Thank you!
@Lon_Overacker thank you for all of your suggestions! I did struggle some with the blues in the mountains and the sky … Was it too much, too dark etc. So I am really happy to have this specific feedback and see your edits to compare.
And thank you also for validating my original choices! It’s very nice to hear that I am making good choices with my edits
