Very curious about your thoughts on this one. Turns out I captured a number of images from the “remnants” of the Ferguson fire that consumed a lot of acres in and near Yosemite this summer; came within just a few miles of the valley itself.
This is a black oak that looks like it may have survived, but you can see the burned pines at the bottom and there are hints of burned ridges barely visible throughout.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
All is welcome
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Specifically wondering of the empty UL is an issue as well as the somewhat messy bottom part of the image. I really liked the tree at the time (why a captured the image!) and thought it has a little Japanese art kinda structure. What do you think?
Any pertinent technical details:
Nikon 28-300mm @200mm f/13. there is a little bit of low opacity Orton applied here. Too much?
Thanks all!
Repost. I cleaned up the edges a little, but was too problematic to eliminate all the clutter. No one had commented yet, but I noticed after posting that the hazy bg was a bit yellow to my eye. Subjective of course, but looked off to me. Adjusted a few things. Added a TK Lights-3 luminosity layer and boosted the lights. Also Selective color on the lights to reduce the yellow, ticked up blue/cyan a smidge. Also, revealed a bit more of the Orton Layer. too much?
I really like the concept of this one. Great high key mood. The empty space doesn’t bother me, but the messy bottom and stuff coming in from the sides is throwing me off. The tree structure again the smoky background really works well.
What I like about this the most is that it’s all shades of the same color. There is also a very delicate aspect to this image. Something doesn’t feel quite right and I don’t think it’s just the pines at the bottom. I think it’s that sharp bend of the large branch on the right that doesn’t fit in with the theme somehow. Maybe I’m obsessing over it a bit.
Lon, I’m with Jim on the rice paper print idea here. I was thinking along those lines but had no idea what they were beyond a Japanese art product of sorts…
I think you did an excellent job of hiding the dead pines a bit, but obviously it would be more striking without anything at all as backdrop beyond sky. The contrasting colors between the sky, leaves, and the dark trunks is excellent…
Works fine for me as it is presented here…
Love the warm almost blank canvas that you have here as a background, simplifying your subject and the lovely light on the leaves. I do find the cut off branches a little untidy in places but the empty UL not an issue at all.
Thanks for the comments and observations folks! Appreciate it very much and have posted a reworked version in my original post (tip: by posting reworks in your original post, viewers can click between images for comparison.)
Agree about the clutter along the edges and bottom. I did some cleanup. An improvement? I was shooting downward towards this tree and there was a steep, charred slope that I wasn’t going to venture down in order to isolate this guy against a cleaner bg.
@Jim_Zablotny and @Paul_Breitkreuz, Yes, the “Japanese rice paper” artwork was just what I saw and why a tried to capture it. And Paul, there is NO sky in the image. You can see a bit of a ridge line in the ULC. The bg is all smokey-haze. The fire-damaged trees can be seen in the lower portion.
@Igor_Doncov, can’t disagree with you on that knee of the larger branch - and I think the darker/contrast of the tree in general doesn’t help with that. Yeah, I don’t think this will ever see paper, just nature doing her best to be artful.
Thanks @Igor_Doncov. Is it the white balance? Orton too much, want the leaves on the edge back? The contrast did increase in the repost, so perhaps it’s lost some of it’s “artsy” impression?
Lon, I agree with Harley, like the cleanup, but prefer lighting and W/B of the original better. i think the negative space in the ULC is absolutely need to make this composition work, it serve as a nice counterbalance to the smaller amounts of negative space in the LLC and LRC, creating sort of a triangle effect. Very creative image…
Lovely capture, Lon. I like the edge clean-up a lot. I agree with Igor on liking the original yellowish cast best. I played with it just a bit, not necessarily to improve it, but just to try something different - I boosted the saturation just on the leaves and dodged the tree trunk to allow some detail to come out. Again, not saying it’s better, just something different.
Thank you @Bill_Chambers for your edits. Funny, I had 3 layers for effects on the leaves including Saturation and Orton. Always afraid of going too far and wanting to keep things believable (otherwise off to Photo Art…) But I do like your edits, including some dodging as it shows this one could be pushed a tad further. Thanks for taking the time!
