Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Here is another shot from my trip to the Grand Canyon, albeit not of the canyon itself. This was actually taken from the plane on the way to Phoenix, one of a series of shots I took on that flight.
Taking photos from a plane is interesting and challenging. Beyond the basic awkwardness of shooting in the cramped space with a long lens, there are many factors working against sharpness and clarity, including the window itself, heat shimmer from the engine (note to self: get a window seat in front of the engine next time), and atmospheric haze.
This makes for a fairly challenging editing process, although now that I’ve edited a few of them I have a basic workflow down. I’ve found that a careful combination of tweaks to tint/temp, dehaze/clarity/texture, and color grading tend to result in a pretty nice image. (The secret to color grading is to warm up the shadows a touch.)
Just for fun, I looked on Google Maps and found the exact spot that this photo documents on the Pajaro River. The photo was taken facing southwest-ish.
Specific Feedback
Anything! Color & contrast look OK? I know there is a pretty severe issue with sharpness due to heat shimmer, although it almost reminds me of a tilt-shift effect. Any other thoughts welcome, nits especially 
Technical Details
Camera: Sony a6600
Lens: Sony 70-350 @ 70mm
Settings: 1/2000s, ISO 1600, f/9.0
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
- Vision and Purpose:
- Conceptual:
- Emotional Impact and Mood:
- Composition:
- Balance and Visual Weight:
- Depth and Dimension:
- Color:
- Lighting:
- Processing:
- Technical:
Ah, yes! Lovely patterns! And a very good job of dealing with the blue haze on even lower level aerials! It is very difficult to tweak. I don’t see anything I would attribute to a dirty window or heat shimmer. You might try to tease out (as in reduce) a bit more blue and magenta, but it’s not easy to find the right point.
1 Like
Thank you Diane! You can see some heat shimmer in the lower-left, I believe, thankfully the center is pretty sharp
So you’d suggest warming it up and making it more green? Perhaps like this? It’s so hard to find the right spot 
But I think I like this a bit more, thanks for the suggestion!
Good eye Matthew in seeing this composition, this is beautiful and well executed considering where you took the photo from. I’ve enjoyed shooting out the window on trips, usually nothing this good but now and then you can pull off a great image like this.
I was going to suggest some sharpening or dehaze for the ag fields but realize shooting through a double/triple pane window takes away some IQ.
The river sandwiched between the ag fields is so interesting, well done!
I think the issue at the bottom is from the angle through the window. It’s bad enough with a single layer of plexi on a small plane. Smaller apertures minimize it.
The colors are leaning toward magenta. I did a Selective Color and on the Magenta channel pulled the Cyan and Yellow sliders full right and the Magenta slider full left. Then on the Blue channel, pulled the Magenta slider halfway left and the Yellow slider full right. Could probably do more with the low contrast dark greens in the UL.
1 Like
Matthew,
Terrific image captured from the air - and great job pulling it off given all the constraints you and others have mentioned. I would be hard pressed to determine if this was from a drone - or from an airplane window. Agree with Diane on here color/tint comments; although I have to acknowledge that color/wb/sat, etc. are all subjective and clearly your interpretation is well represented.
I especially like how the river meanders through all the various cultivated fields. Very cool persective!
As a side note, given this is almost entirely a “hand of man” scene, probably better posted in the “Everything Else” category. HOWEVER, we don’t heavily police our forums, so please believe this is not a big deal (and not up to me anyway…) Just a consideration for future posts.
I think you also asked, but I can’t find it now, about where is the best place to post other or multiple images you would like to share. Frankly, this site isn’t really built for that as it’s primarily a critique site. But certainly you can post in the “CHAT Channel: PhotoShare”. You could also start a discussion. You can reach the Chat Channels by opening the Sidebar navigation.
I’m really enjoying this, it’s different, striking and colourful and yes there is a large proportion of hand of man woven into the fabric but if you take the word landscape literally well it is certatinly land that has been “scaped” or if you prefer sculpted. I like it as is, but actually I cannot help thinking a square crop that loses the “real” and leaves the surreal might even improve it.
