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Questions to guide your feedback
The ‘Rainbow Lit Field’ image was originally captured on colour slide film [fujichrome]…this slide was digitized recently in a Lab…thus the white halo frame on sides and top. Only wish I’d captured this in digital format initially. [circa 1993 before digital] Can the halo be omitted by taking slide out of sleeve?
The ‘Salt Marshes & Driftwood’ was taken digitally. I wanted to balance the image by placing emphasis on the marshes in foreground and driftwood placed well off the 1/3 rule. Question of Cropping?
Other Information
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Image Description
‘Rainbow’- I saw this rainbow forming then darted off the road to chase it…and then in a spur of a moment magic happened as it lit the field up…with a flash of light.
‘Marshes’ - I just liked the blending of colours overall…greens to blues…taken in a reflective moment…a peaceful and serene scene..with driftwood being a peace of history.
Technical Details
‘Rainbow’ - From memory it was f11 at 1/60sec. - 28mm
‘Marshes’ - f16 at 1/125sec. -24mm
Specific Feedback
‘Rainbow’ - Cropping had to be selected very quickly…due to the event in motion…would have preferred less foreground and more rainbow…but it still works in my view. I could try cropping it further but the right edge gets quite tight to fit rainbow into frame with enough negative space.
‘Marshes’ - This is at 3/2 ratio…but could have been better at 16/9 ratio [crop foreground?]
Critique Template
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Thanks for sharing these images, Stephen. I do kind of miss shooting Velvia. The rainbow image is nicely composed, and the spotlighting is in the perfect part of the frame as it’s hemmed in by the shadowed grasses at the bottom and the darker sky. My eye naturally gravitates toward it but doesn’t get pulled out of the frame. I’m not sure about the halo. I don’t recall running into halo issues when scanning my slides.
The second image isn’t as strong. Compositionally it works, but the light is a little too flat. That bleached root ball (or whatever it is) on the left keeps drawing my attention, too. Perhaps use a linear gradient to darken the foreground a touch, and there might be a bit too much cyan in the sky (or in the image as a whole). Could be my eyes, too.
Hi Stephen,
The light is exquisite in the rainbow image and has created some wonderful layers giving the scene a nice sense of depth; all leading the eye to that gorgeous rainbow. I could see cropping some of the sky along with just a little along the bottom, but that is just my personal choice because it is nice as is.
IMHO the flat harsh light in the marsh image is not doing you any favors, so I am thinking this might be better suited as a B&W. I also think the right side of the frame has all the visual interest with the trees and that somewhat flattened pattern in the grasses so my suggestion would be to crop some from the left. I hope you do not mind, but here is a rework with what I was thinking. Just my opinion of course as this might not be your vision for the image.
Stephen, I’ve digitized quite a few slides and never see that halo effect, so I suspect that it’s an artifact due to the hardware being used. (I spent so much time trying to get the colors “right” that I’ve given up…) The colors look good albeit a bit contrasty in the dark green foreground (but that was/is slide film). The scene looks great with a good looking bow and the hills heading off into the distance.
I like the foreground in the Marsh scene, with it’s variety of greens and changing vegetation. The driftwood does act as an eye stop towards the left edge but I don’t see what it’s balancing. You might try burning it in so it gets less attention. For me, this has some of the classic “Kodak moment” (over the shoulder sun) look with well saturated colors and a crystal clear blue sky. In looking at the large view, the driftwood and beyond doesn’t look quite sharp (which surprises me at f/16 and 24 mm). I love marsh land, but find it hard to photograph.
The Rainbow Lit Field…halo is unusual as this halo didn’t show up on any of my other digitized slides…so must discover further how it came to be?
I retraced the image info on the ’Salt Marshes’ as you mentioned it wasn’t terribly sharp. You are correct the f stop was actually f4.5 [not f16]…and the speed was 1/320sec.
I also shot this on ‘FINE’ setting on a Nikon D70 [6MP]…but now I’m starting to use ‘RAW’ with higher res JPG’s on newer cameras…Nikon D7500 & Leica D-Lux 8 at 17MP.
Best regards,
Stephen
PS: I include an image here of ‘Barn with Red Windows’ now with Leica camera at f11…and it’s super sharp.
Hi Stephen, welcome to NPN and the Landscape Critique forum!
I have no experience with scanning slides, but I do love the scene you captured in Rainbow Lit Field. The rainbow is beautiful, and it leads to that “pot of gold” light on the foreground that is special.
The very bottom of the image does battle the contrast that @Mark_Seaver mentions. You might consider a 4x5 crop that reduces it some.
Welcome to NPN Stephen. Thanks for submitting these two nice images for review. I’m a little bit late here but the reviews have been spot on so far. The composition of the rainbow lit field is ideal. I’m not generally a fan of long ratioed portrait images but your composition feels just about perfect here. The colors certainly pop but don’t feel overly saturated and the rainbow gives me that same feeling with regard to color. Just right. I very much like the dark green shaded grasses along the bottom of the image that keeps the eye in the main portion of the image. The naturally varied light hitting those grasses is exceptional and for me is what makes this image so strong. You can have a rainbow anywhere but capturing one in a setting like this with terrific light gradations is awesome.
The second image is less strong than the first. The light is a tiny bit harsh, the greens have an almost bluish/cyan colorcast to it and the composition seems to need more sky for me. Also, the driftwood in the upper left is more of a distraction and is too close to the left side of the frame and the top of the frame and as a subject, just isn’t interesting enough to make it a focal point. I would clone it out if you are not apposed to doing that. I have to say that I very much like the crop that @Ed_Lowe came up with and I also like the B&W conversion since I think the colors are off a little bit. I can certainly see why you stopped to photograph this scene though. The foreground reeds falling off into the windblown golden grasses behind it are beautiful as they touch the green grasses leading to the backdrop.
Thanks for submitting your images and apologies for being a little late to the party. Lots of superb feedback from Bret, Ed, Mark, John and David.
I love the first image. What a beautiful scene with the interlocking fields of different shades, lovely light and of course the rainbow – the gold field at the rainbows base is the icing on the cake here and it’s the little details like that, that makes all the difference. Compositionally I think it’s about there – though I might be tempted to crop up from the bottom left a little, draw more attention to the start of the rainbow and all those lovely interlocking lines – I’ve attached an example. Currently I think the rainbow base is about the right distance from the right edge of the frame – though I’d always shoot a little wider with the original image, give myself a bit of breathing room to crop in slightly and play with different compositions. Much easier cropping in than out, especially given the high resolution of cameras now.
I’m not sure how the white halo you mentioned has occurred. You could soon remove it with a bit of careful brushing in whatever processing software you use though. Certainly the clone or remove tool in Lightroom / Photoshop would take care of it.
With regards the second image I agree with the others that this one is not as strong. I think if you’re going to include that much foreground it either has to have a minimalistic look or be a really strong foreground – it’s currently lacking an obvious focal point. I also dislike (and this is a personal bugbear) distractions cropped halfway through on the edge of the frame (like the flowers at the bottom). I think Ed’s is good solution and nice crop for this image – it also works better in black and white.
