Autumn 2020 photo project - taken 10/02/20 in Franconia, NH
Due to the pandemic, I canceled my October lodging in New Hampshire, and took day trips from my home in Massachusetts to photograph foliage this year. In order to justify the 5 hour round trip drive, I concentrated on shooting during rainy, overcast days to be able to shoot all day long.
I went to one of my favorite ponds for autumn reflections. And to my great surprise the pond was completely dried up due to a severe drought this summer. But the fog and mist was threading its way through the hillside at the back of the pond, and I managed to come away with this image instead .
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Any critique or comments are welcome
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
Canon 5D MKIV, Canon 70-200mm f4 lens, at 200mm, ISO 400, 1/8 sec at f11
Great color and feel with the fog. To my eye, the foreground yellowish tree (pine?) dominates a bit. I would be inclined to crop the bottom and distill the layers of color and fog. Here is what I was thinking. Strong image.
Thanks Harley, yeah I wrestled with that tree too, both in the field and during processing. The tree is a tamarack (fir tree) that has not fully turned color yet, but the color does look a bit sickly. In the field, the best composition of scattered spruce trees unfortunately had the tamarack dead center. In processing I experimented with lesser crops of the bottom, but frankly your solution is probably the best way to go, even though I normally don’t use panoramic aspect ratios. You are right, by elmininating the clutter at the bottom, it distills down the top part of the image.
If I wanted to maintain a 3:2, while cutting off the bottom would you crop from the right ?
The image looks so balanced without an additional crop, I could not say. I am in the “crop to the image”, so I don’t even think in terms of maintaining aspect ratios. But I do realize many, many people do so.
I think you got the tones under control hee and the colors seem to balance well together. I think this is a fine image. One improvement I feel woud be to have those dark pines stand out even more than they do. If you could make the deciduous trees between us and the pines be less saturated it would do the trick. As it stands now all is well as you go from top to bottom but the effect is lost a bit because some of the drama from the dark pines is lost from he competing colors below. Just my opinion. I wouldn’t know how I would prefer it to look but have no idea how to achieve it. Just saw Harley’s rework. You need space below the pines.
The image is wonderful as well, with or without that title.
My one suggestion is that it seems to me that the colors are very saturated, like Velvia 50 on steroids . I know the foliage was probably wet from the rain, and water does saturate colors, but for me, it just seems like the colors are just too electric. Then again, I have never seen or photographed a New England Autumn, so I could be way off. BTW I did not notice the FG Tamarack because the colors just overwhelmed me at first.
Ed,
I like the colors as presented.
I also do not get too locked into maintaining dimension ratios, as @Harley_Goldman mentions. I agree with @Igor_Doncov and feel the front row of spruce need space below them. My crop would be not be as severe as Harley’s, but I think a bottom crop would be an improvement.
I missed this one somehow, Ed. First off, I love the title as it is perfect for this lovely image and way to make lemonade out of a lemon. This turned out to be a great plan B. The layering in this autumn scene is simply fantastic with the alternating bands of color and fog. I like my brother @Michael_Lowe’s crop the best as that just seems to have the perfect balance; at least to me. You certainly made the most of your day trips and came away with some beautiful images.
I knew Harleys advice to crop the bottom was a move in the right direction, and in the end I think Mike Lowe’s compromise crop is my preference as well. I think Igor also has a great idea to de-saturate the foreground trees, it helps to emphasis the spruce trees. I also intend to apply this suggestion to a bunch of images taken from this location that day. Here is a rework, starting with Mike’s crop, but de-saturation of the foreground trees.
. I know the foliage was probably wet from the rain, and water does saturate colors, but for me, it just seems like the colors are just too electric. Then again, I have never seen or photographed a New England Autumn, so I could be way off. BTW I did not notice the FG Tamarack because the colors just overwhelmed me at first.
