Here’s a final flower/mountain vertical from backpacking on Mount Rainier last summer. This one is my favorite, partly because the sunset was so cooperative and partly because this is the first time I’ve found Monkeyflowers that set up nicely for composition.
I find balancing the foreground and background lighting to be challenging on these late sunset shots; it’s challenging to make the image look natural without letting the foreground get too dark. How does this one look to your eye? (It does plug a bit at smaller sizes, hopefully you are able to view the larger version.)
I originally had the mountain left of center, but decided the empty space on the right was just too much. I’ve cropped it, and now the mountain is near center. Does that still work? (I’m hoping the bright area to the left of the mountain lets the rule of thirds work here.)
Any other thoughts and critiques are always appreciated!
FUJIFILM X-T30
FUJIFILM XF 10-24mm F4 at 10.5 mm (16 mm equivalent)
1/8 and 1/10 sec. at f/13 and ISO 160
Blend of three images for foreground DOF, and one for background DR.
John, this is an exquisite photo! Regarding the foreground, I would lighten it up just a bit. If it looks unnatural to you, then lighten the sky a bit also. I think the crop is great. The rock in the lower right seems to balance the brighter sky on the left. Really a superb image.
This looks really good, John. Great sky to go with the flowers. I think you can lighten the flowers a bit more and retain a natural look, but looks good as presented too. The mountain centered works quite well.
Hi @John_Williams, very impressive shot. It’s perfect in my opinion, the sky light is phenomenal and the foreground leads the eye to the peak in a perfect way. I love how i balanced the light in post processing. Thanks for sharing.
John,
Of course your image is going to look different on differing devices, but on my calibrated Mac, the overall lighting looks spot-on. From my perspective I wouldn’t brighten the foreground as it shows the right amount of light given the sunlight is partially blocked by clouds. As you know, always a fine line sometimes between looking natural vs some kind of HDR look.
Really like how the flowers naturally lead one through the image.
Cheers
John, The crop works just fine for me. My personal preference would be to have the flowers just a touch brighter, but that is subjective. I like the way they direct me into the scene toward the mountains and the drama laden sky. Glad you were there to catch this beauty for the rest of us to enjoy.
Over the past year, I’ve been working on trying to understand color theory better. I won’t say I have made too much progress, and I think I’ve come up with more questions than answers. With that said, your image is beautiful and these conditions were spectacular! The composition is great to my eye and I have no issues whatsoever with it as presented. What caught my eye was the magenta/blue color contrast to the sky compared with the yellow/green of the foreground. I couldn’t get a sense of the reflected magenta in the foreground scene. The conditions are the conditions, but I’m just wondering if in post there is a role for creating greater color harmony throughout the scene. I’d be interested in your thoughts. Regardless…tremendous capture and you were truly blessed to be there!
We are definitely blessed in the Pacific Northwest; I make a conscious effort to not take that for granted. If you are ever out this way, give a shout.
I’m really impressed with that observation @Jim_McGovern , because I did remove some of the red from the foreground. In my experience, the average viewer seems to note (in a negative way) if there are strong colors in the shadows, especially if they are warm. I routinely drop the saturation in the deepest shadows, and in this image I reduced the red in the foreground too, because it just seemed to much to my eye; I may have removed too much.
Dan Margulis has recently finished working on a translation of what he calls the greatest color work every written, M.E. Chevreul’s 1839 classic On the Simultaneous Contrast of Colors . His version has modern annotations and lots of illustrations. It’s not readily available yet, but my understanding is it will be soon. I may have to pick it up when available.
Quite beautiful! And I would say you’ve expertly handled not only the catpure and crafting, but also processing and balancing the light that you described. Kudos on that!
Excellent composition and combination of elements. Such dynamic light and atmosphere up top, yet it doesn’t overpower and the bottom flowers and landscape contribute just as much; beautifully combined.
Love this image. The distant sky is tremendous and I love the detail and sharpness of all those yellow flowers. The weakest point of the image is the large dark rock on the right. I think it takes away some of the potential of this scene.
