Prairie Morning

Image Critiques Landscape Critiques
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Prairie Morning
Prairie Morning1118×894 350 KB

Image Description

The Puget Sound Prairies are a surprise to many because the Pacific NW is associated with evergreen trees. I wanted to share their beautiful existence in early May during the Camas bloom. This sunrise shot with fog was challenging for me to take and to edit. I am drawn to extreme light conditions and am always learning how to accommodate bright light and good exposure of the darker foreground in the same photo. I wanted to convey a moment of early morning peace and beauty.

Type of Critique Requested

  • Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.

  • Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.

  • Emotional: Feedback on the emotional impact and artistic value of the image.

  • Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.

Specific Feedback and Self-Critique

Please see the Image Description.

  1. Tips on taking images with bright skies and dark foregrounds like sunrise images, to yield exposures for editing that will print well.
  2. Was my editing of the fog effective?
  3. Is this image still too dark overall for successful printing? Would printing on canvas be a better treatment? I rarely print.

Technical Details

I use Fuji equipment; this four year old image was taken with earlier equipment: Fuji Xt-2, 18-55mm lens at 18mm, ISO 200, f/8.0, 1/80 sec on tripod. Topaz Sharpen AI, Lightroom Classic

4 Likes
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Meredith, welcome to NPN! This is a great looking prairie shot, where you’ve handled the light very well and have an amazing collection of flowers blooming. I often shoot high contrast scenes like this using -1, 0, and +1 EV adjustments, thinking that I may have to blend two exposures. However, I often end up using only one shot, while lightening the darker tones and darkening the lightest tones. I dont’ think it’s too dark to print plus a mix of overal brightening while holding back the lightest parts is still possible. My experience with canvas prints is that they reduce details while adding their own textures. That may work against showing off the flowers here.

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Let me also welcome you to NPN - what a fine opening image. That fog is so lovely and I think you’ve done quite well with the processing - I think it looks natural and doesn’t have a color cast that can often happen. The light is to die for, isn’t it? Such serenity and peace as you say.

I think Mark’s advice is quite sound - blending exposures for different areas of the photo often work best for this wide a dynamic range. My experience of canvas is like Mark’s - the texture of the canvas itself can be quite prevalent. If you are going to print, I’d definitely proof this beforehand. A printed surface with no light shining behind it needs some extra treatment to come out correctly. There are some good videos out there on You Tube that talk about soft proofing in Lightroom.

Finally I would reconsider your crop. I couldn’t help tinkering with this gorgeous scene in Photoshop -

Puget Sound Prairies x03 2019_MRafferty
Puget Sound Prairies x03 2019_MRafferty936×537 133 KB

For me the real strength of it is the silhouettes and the sun, with the rolling flowers acting as a foundation for those. I think if you were lower into the flowers and there was more uniformity in their spread up close, this might work. Take the tinkering with a grain of salt if it doesn’t mesh with your vision for the image. It was just too lovely to pass up.

I look forward to seeing any updates you have for this photo. If you decide to tinker with it yourself, please add a second image in your original post so we can flip through them in the viewer to compare your changes. You can edit your title as well with something like (+ 1 re-work) so that people know there is something new in your post.

Again, this is a very strong image - welcome aboard.

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Hi Meredith, welcome to NPN. What a glorious image and scene. Wow…This has a very painterly quality to it. Lovely. I think you handled the light just fine. With the more recent Fuji cameras, I can usually set the exposure so that the histogram is to the right, without over exposing the highlights. It’s pretty easy to bring up the shadows in post, but impossible to bring back blown highlights. I never take multiple exposures anymore…just expose for the highlights and work on the shadows later.

Not sure what you did to edit the fog, but it looks quite realistic and natural to me.

Sorry, I can’t help with printing…I haven’t had anything printed in many years.

So where are the Puget Sound Prairies? I live in Portland, OR and regularly make it up to Olympia, WA…anywhere near there? I’d love to check them out this spring.

Cheers,
David

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Hi Meredith and Welcome to NPN :slight_smile:

This is a great first image! I like everything about it!
As for tips on taking images of a sunrise and be able to keep a good workable exposure on the FG, it’s been my experience that a graduated neutral density (GND) filter is a must.
If you don’t already have a set, it might be worth investing in one and it would help to have set with a few different stop values as well as various transitions.
However, an image where the sun is filtered by fog like this one, a GND can be omitted and just get the correct exposure for the sunlight using the histogram on the camera, the rest can be brought up in post processing.

The fog looks really good to me, it doesn’t look too contrasty or washed out, the trees look natural and the tree appearance is the gauge for fog in my view.

I think that the overall brightness looks good, but in my opinion, the FG might benefit from a little more contrast (but just the FG using a gradient mask), I wouldn’t add any contrast to the fog or sky. Note: Adding contrast is more of a personal preference thing but it may be worth exploring.

As for printing, it would be best in my view to do a small test print to see how it looks before printing anything large, the type of paper you use (matte, semi-gloss, soft texture, canvas, etc.) can have much different results between them.

Edit: I thought I should add that when you do a test print on your choice of paper and it comes out darker or lighter than you’d like it to be, go back into your editing software to make the brightness adjustments needed, then do another test print.

Another thing to consider is making sure your monitor is calibrated, usually a good monitor calibration will help to insure your prints will come out very close to what you want, but again, the type of paper can make a difference too.

Again, this is a wonderful image and I enjoyed having a good look at it :slight_smile:

Welcome aboard :slight_smile:

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Hi Meredith! Lovely first image and I definitely think you have conveyed that ‘moment of early morning peace and beauty’.
For it being a challenge for you to photograph fog I think it looks great! You’ve gotten a lot of good feedback already. That’s the awesomeness of this community! Welcome to NPN!

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Welcome, Meredith. This is a lovely first image. Like everyone has said, I think you did a nice job on the fog. I always enjoy taking photographs of fog. Like David, I can’t help with printing. If I want something printed, I have it done professionally. I love the softness of the light and those prairie flowers stand out beautifully. Great job.

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Welcome here.

I like @Kris_Smith’s rework and would have suggested something very similar. Having a uniform carpet of flowers at the bottom seems superior than the individual flowers you have now. Some are cut off at the bottom and one on the left. But even with that cleaned up I don’t find their arrangement all that attractive. Her more distant view works well with the fog and that sun. The sky, fog, and trees are really well done and the scene even reminds me of Turner’s work.

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I just smiled when I saw your crop. The front line of my image did look ragged and the darker spots were distracting. But the crop nicely took care of that and redirected the whole image. It also made me realize that if I do want to feature the flowers, then I need a different angle/composition. All this is timely as bloom time approaches again!
Great insight, thanks.

1 Like
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I am continuously amazed at what can be brought up from the shadows – and relieved, because I prefer working with one image rather than several.
The Puget Sound Prairies I frequent are south of Olympia. As you drive up to Olympia, there are sites to the west in the “Maytown dip” area. One public site is Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve, featuring very prominent mounds. https://www.dnr.wa.gov/MimaMounds
Another public site is Scatter Creek North and South https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/scatter-creek

The crown jewel is Glacial Heritage Preserve; here’s a description by the Washington Trails Association https://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/glacial-heritage-preserve
Their annual event is Prariie Appreciation Day in May, the only day it is open to the public https://www.prairieappreciationday.org/

Thanks for the comments.

1 Like
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Great suggestions. I will look into the graduated filters. Those first moments of dawn have such a huge range in exposure from sun to foreground.
And I appreciate the reminder to do test prints – it’s been a long time since I’ve printed a wall picture. It will be a whole new process for me to learn.
Thanks for the welcome!

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Such a nice welcome and helpful information – I’m so appreciative. Timely, too, because prairie bloom time is coming up!

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Thanks for the welcome and comments. I’m looking forward to improving–

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Yes, Kris’ crop yielded a great improvement. I noticed the ragged front line but didn’t know what to do with it – the crop took care of it and produced a new perspective.
Thanks for the comments.

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Meredith,

Welcome to NPN! What a fantastic and beautiful first image post! You’ve capture (processed and presented) a wonderful landscape full of mood and atmosphere. I can almost feel the biting chill of the mist and welcoming that sun rising above to eventually warm everything up.

You most certainly did so! Kudos on converting your desires to an image that conveys what you felt!

To your questions, you’ve received some great advice. And whether it was at capture or in processing, you did an outstanding job balancing the brighter sky, the fog and the landscape. Well done!

The only thing beyond the graduated filters is capturing multiple exposures and blending them. You didn’t mention this, but blending exposures can also work with focus stacking. I did notice that the flowers/grass and spider webs! are a little soft. You could potentially work on focus stacking to increase sharpness throughout. Having said that, the mood and atmosphere with the fog… well, the softness upfront is acually working quite well… but something to consider for future work.

I do really, really like Kris’s crop as the very bottom is a little unorganized, if that’s the right word… But in looking closer (why I noticed the softness) I can see all the spider webs! I hope you had a chance to work on those too! Sure looks like this location was loaded with possibilities - all while you’re frantically working the scene with the rising sun…

Welcome aboard! We look forward to your images and for your particiaption!

Lon

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Wow what a gorgeous, gorgeous scene. I too like the tighter crop from Kristen. I can’t really add to what the others have said, except this is so very beautiful. Welcome!

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Hi again, Meredith,

I thought I’d chime in again for a couple more thoughts to share with you.

First, the thoughtful and valuable suggestions that we provide are just suggestions for you to consider, so keep in mind that in the end it’s all up to you which suggestions you feel work for you.

The difference between your original composition and the lovely composition that Kris provided is the difference between kneeling in the grass looking out at the sun and fog, or, standing tall and looking out at the sun and fog.
It all depends on what you want your viewers to see and feel. Personally, I’m more attracted to the original composition where I feel like I’m kneeling in the grass but that is just my own personal preference.

Second, going with your original composition, I do feel there are ways to help it out since you mentioned in a response that the dark areas in the FG are a little distracting.
Many times situations like that can be eliminated (or close to it) with some selective dodging and burning (and blending of the two) and maybe even a little minor cloning as shown in the example edit below.
I also used a high pass filter for some addition sharpening of the FG in your image, sometimes using a mask layer in Ps while using the high pass filter does better than Sharpen AI (but not always).

As for focus, I’d like to ask if you are familiar with “Hyperfocal Distance” ?
Using a wide angle lens like the 18-55, you could use the 18mm focal length, set the focus at roughly five feet using the focus distance meter in your camera (while in manual focus). Then compose the shot so that the closest object is roughly three feet away, and the rest will be reasonably sharp (they usually refer to it as Acceptable Sharpness).
In foggy scenes like this, the fog will automatically take care of blurring the area within the fog but everything else will be as sharp as you would expect.

Note: when you switch between the original and the edited example, let the edited version settle in for a bit because it may seem like a bit shock to the visual sense at first.

To me, the edited version seems to be more even left to right and more gradient from FG to BG and part of that is because I darkened the middle ground area just a bit.

And finally, there is a small bright spot behind one of the trees on the left so I burned that a bit using a burn mask (using an exposure mask).

Anyway, I hope this helps and again, make it yours no matter what we suggest :slight_smile:
And the Most Important, have fun along the way :slight_smile:

Puget Sound Prairies x03 2019_MRafferty - Dodge-Burn-Clone
Puget Sound Prairies x03 2019_MRafferty - Dodge-Burn-Clone1118×894 379 KB

Puget Sound Prairies x03 2019_MRafferty
Puget Sound Prairies x03 2019_MRafferty1118×894 350 KB

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Yeah, the image is soft. I got flustered in the near dark and didn’t double check my focus. With the crop, I really see how soft it is.
Next time I’ll plan several shots, moving and looking for interesting bits like the spider webs and denser groupings of flowers in front.
Thanks so much for your comments.

Meredith

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Thanks for the welcome and comments. I’m learning so much already!

Meredith

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Hi,
Your first comments rang a bell with me – I did intend the texture of the foreground if I could resolve its patchy look. And I was on my knees so that was my perspective :blush:. Your editing of the dark “holes” is masterly – was that in Photoshop or Lightroom? I didn’t achieve the same in Lightroom when I tried a couple of areas. Your edits did indeed even it all out.
And the image is not sharp, which the cropped version really revealed.
So I will put everyone’s suggestions together for this photo, and for the next. Thanks so much for your discerning eye.

Meredith