Pandani and Mount Acropolis ( + Rework)

[Keenan_Wadsworth]

Original:

Reworked edit:

Critique Style Requested: In-depth

The photographer has shared comprehensive information about their intent and creative vision for this image. Please examine the details and offer feedback on how they can most effectively realize their vision.

Self Critique

This image shows a frosted Pandani plant and button-grass field beneath Mount Acropolis in Tasmania. I am happy with the composition, especially the framing of the different subjects and their separation through the use of the forest in the midground. I like how the slope of the Pandani mirrors the slope of the mountain and I like the calmness the tones in this image present, although I feel like I could have improved my exposure. I am also happy with the focus of this image, I used a combination of front and back tilt to play with the perspective and to ensure that the forest was slightly out of focus so that it does not distract the viewers eye too much when looking from the Pandani to the mountain. I am unsure if my intentions with this image are easily conveyed to the viewer.

Creative direction

My intention with this image was to display the what I thought was the sublime beauty of the area, and to try and elevate the scene into somewhat fantastic interpretations, as was my impression of it the morning this image was made. In keeping with my intention to portray the scene as somewhat elevated from reality or something out of a fairy tale, my composition intended to display the mountain as a fortress upon a hill with the pandani as a subject of the mountain, or the fortress. I hoped that my intentions with this composition, could be interpreted or understood by viewers. I also hoped to convey a sense of calm through the image.

Specific Feedback

I would appreciate feedback on the aesthetic, conceptual, compositional, emotional (if any) and technical aspects of the image, if anything could be adjusted in post processing that could benefit the image. Thank you

Technical Details

This image was taken on 4x5

Film: E100
f/32 at 1 second
180mm lens

Combination of front and back tilt
The image here is a jpeg of the .tif file from the scanner, cropped slightly to eliminate the film border.

Note: If the entire image looks slightly out of focus, it is because I am in the process of fixing my scanner, the actual transparency is in focus.

Description

This image is from a recent trip to the Cradle Lake St Clair National Park in Tasmania.

[Tomas_Frydrych]

I love the idea, the composition and how you leveraged the LF camera to get the focus where you need it. I also think the colors here do have a nice calming effect. The one thing my eye struggles with is the big difference in luminosity between the pandani and the sky, it is making it quite hard for me to fully register the plant with its wonderful detail, my eye seems to move almost immediately up to the edge of the sky. I am wondering whether adjusting the levels on the foreground so as to get the lightest tones there to white and burning the clouds a bit above the mountain might be beneficial here.

[Igor_Doncov]

I like this image very much and I think I understand what you’re after. I agree with @Tomas_Frydrych that the sky is an issue. Everything says fantasy but the sky does not. There is a lot of tonality in those clouds but you have chosen to reduce them. I tried to bring them back and I also reduce the amount of sky. This may be the direction I would go. I don’t know. Still not satisfied, however.

[Susanna_Euston]

Hello Keenan (also my son’s name!), This is such an interesting image. To me, the Pandani plant looks like a creature from Star Wars. Love it! The focus works well. The contrast of the grasses surrounding the Pandani plant gives it a really interesting “nest” of sorts. And the contrast of the upper part of the Pandani against the trees helps to set it off nicely. Then, my eye travels upward. I’m afraid that the hazy Mount Acropolis is a distraction for me. Since you shot this on film, I’m not sure how much work you want to do in Photoshop, but I would be tempted to mask the mountain and gently use Dehaze in Adobe Camera Raw to reduce that haze. And you could add more structure to the sky at the same time. It’s so bright that it almost hurts my eyes. (One thing that’s nice about digital is that we can do so much in Photoshop to correct difficult exposures, which this was.) With that said, what an extraordinary scene! Nice job.

[Tom_Nevesely]

Compositionally this image is great – I love how the shape of the plant mimics the shape of the mountain and how you positioned everything so that they’re lined up one if front of the other. The sky is a bit too bright and featureless for my taste and I like Igor’s take on it. Otherwise, when I view this large, I can see a lot of dust and such in the image that would benefit from a bit of “cleaning”.

[Brian_Schrayer]

The blue tonality of this image contributes to the cold feel of the scene. That is such an interesting looking plant and the frost adds to the character of the scene.

[Mark_Seaver]

I’m thoroughly enjoying the shape and texture of the Pandani and how it mimics the distant peak. I’m chuckling because my first thought was of a yeti popping up to view the distant mountain. I do think that a bit more contrast both in the sky and the distant peak would improve the visual balance. that needs to be done carefully because the pland and it’s surroundings deserve to be the main interest, as you’ve got them here. This is a very striking picture.

[Keenan_Wadsworth]

@Tomas_Frydrych @Igor_Doncov @Susanna_Euston @Tom_Nevesely @Brian_Schrayer @Mark_Seaver

Hi, thank you everyone for the detailed feedback

I have tried my best to follow all of your suggestions and I think the revised edit definitely looks a lot nicer. I am also currently experimenting with my scanner a bit to try and maximise the dynamic range of the .tif file, so I will update this again if I manage to get better results.

Firstly, I implemented Tomas’ suggestion to burn the clouds slightly and increase the highlights in the foreground so that it is not overpowered by the sky. I think that this suggestion works well, thank you! I have also followed @Igor_Doncov’s suggestion to increase the tonality in the clouds as much as I can without the amount of contrast being too different from the rest of the scene. I still feel as if I can retain some more tonality in the sky once I improve my scans of the film, but I would be interested to hear your thoughts if you think I should try for more tonality in lightroom, or leave the sky as revised.

I have also tried to carefully dehaze and adjust the tones of the Acropolis and increase contrast in the sky as per @Susanna_Euston’s and @Mark_Seaver’s suggestions, which I think helps the acropolis fit better into the overall scene. I have also followed @Tom_Nevesely suggestion and done a substantial amount of cleaning on the dust spots in the image, as well as the dust in my scanner

Thank you once again for all of the feedback and kind comments, I will continue to work on post-processing this image as I am fairly new to working with 4x5. In hindsight, the dynamic range of this scene would have probably been better suited to negative film instead of slide film, which I will take into account on my next trip.