This is another image from my trip out to the Blue Ridge Parkway in August. I had planned to take a trip to the Grand Canyon for monsoon season. However, the monsoon decided to take a week off just in time for my trip. At the last minute I decided to pivot and change my plans to go to the Blue Ridge Parkway since the forecast was calling for stormy weather. Although I don’t know how the forecast eventually played out at the Grand Canyon, I think I made the right call. The light in the Blue Ridge mountains on this trip ended up being incredible.
Specific Feedback Requested
All comments and critiques are welcome. I am particularly interested in your thoughts on the processing and tonal balance. This is a manual exposure blend of four different images using luminosity masks. The biggest challenge for me is to balance all of the tones in the image. I strive to capture the natural vibrance of the scene, but of course the camera doesn’t capture “reality” as we see it and I don’t have a perfect memory of the scene. I am getting better at paying attention to the tonalities in the image. In this case as I was bracketing the photos for the scene I made a mental note that the highlights immediately surrounding the sun were blown out to the naked eye so I chose not to bracket any further. I didn’t do as well about making mental notes about the foreground area and the shadows.
Technical Details
Capture Info:
44 mm
ISO 64
f/11
Various shutter speeds for image bracketing
Processing info:
Manual exposure blend of 4 images using luminosity masks.
Further contrast and tonal adjustments using luminosity masks to target shadows, midtones and highlights.
Minor color balance adjustment
Brian, great work on the luminosity blending of your shots. The pastel colors are wonderful and a nice contrast to the foreground. While the sun in the upper center creates a bit of static rather than dynamic perspective, I don’t know how I’d crop any differently. All in all, a very pleasing scene, captured quite well.
Cheers,
David
Thanks David. What I was aiming for with the composition was to use the sun as a focal point from which the crepuscular ray radiate throughout the composition. Maybe I need to bring out more contrast to make the crepuscular rays stand out more in the composition.
This is really well processed. Each layer is distinct in tonality. The sun bursting through the clouds is always such a welcome spectacle. I might experiment with making the 2nd and 3rd layer from the bottom a bit lighter tonally, just a small amount.
I really love this Brian. I love the cool tone of the whole image and your title “Radiance” is perfect. The blown out sun doesn’t bother me at all. The sun should be blown out. That’s reality. But it’s blown out in a soft way which works incredibly well. I honestly can’t think of anything that can help you with this image. It is so well processed and completely believable. So, well done on the manual blends. The layering in the foreground and midground are super nice. So much detail in that first layer with depth of field and haze coming into play in that second layer, and the third layer having almost no definition except ridge lines is stellar. Superb image Brian.
This is truly a lovely photograph. The colour, composition, lighting, and sense of layered depth all work to perfection. Very romantic!
Brian,
Stealing Kerry’s word, but it came to my mind as well - such a lovely landscape image. The colors and tones, especially in the sky and further two layers are just wonderful. I think the comp is just right as well. I was thinking maybe you could crop from the left, but I don’t think a good idea to cramp the line of clouds, so this works well as presented.
You asked about tonality. The only feedback there might be to reduce the contrast in the foreground layer in the trees. Certainly within personal taste, so not an issue really, but the harder contrast isn’t as much in line with the softer colors and tones of the rest of the image. Beautiful regardless.
Lon
