Does the color balance feel okay? I warmed up the highlights a bit give more color contrast.
How does it make you feel?
Single shot, ISO 800 because I couldn’t use a tripod to get this shot, 1/340"
Rework:
Hi David,
I like the two tones in this: the brighter, cooler tones in the top half, contrasting with the darker, warmer earth tones in the lower half. It’s a cool effect, drawing my eye from the lower portion to the top.
The dark brown lines running from the lower left corner up into the scene are captivating my imagination. I see some kind of giant talon or claw scratching up into the frame, from the dark into the light. (I haven’t been smoking anything!) So this makes me feel a bit uneasy, cautious, and wary of a nearby claw!!!
Congrats on seeing this small pattern!
It’s nice to see you posting some images again David, we promise to be gentle 
This image has some mind-bender aspects to it for me, the strong warm/cool contrast in colors makes me pause and think about what I am seeing. I don’t often see light like this, so it gets me engaged. I also love those gold colored fingers within the rock at the bottom.
I have few tweaks to suggest. I would clone away the bright yellow spot 1/4 of the way from the bottom. For a little better tonal balancing I would burn the bright area on the left edge in the center of the frame. And because I love those goldfingers, i would dodge them gently to bring them forward more.
David,
My first thought was what is this? Without the title I could have been convinced it was tree bark or an aerial view of some sort. So I think it is interesting and it made me feel curios to study it further. Anytime an image encourages me to explore and study the details I consider it successful. The longer I look it takes on a creepy kind of vibe.
I like the color balance as presented.
I love these types of images and really quite like this one, David. The vertical gradient from cool at the top to warm at the bottom is wonderful!
Thank you guys! I know it’s been a while, but I didn’t forget about this, just been super busy. I added a slight rework to the original post based on Ed’s ideas, plus I had a major problem that I failed to notice the first time around; it was out of focus! There was some slight movement due to not being able to use a tripod, so I used Topaz Sharpen AI and I’m pretty happy with the results. If you look real close there are some artifacts, but at smaller print sizes you would never know.
Very interesting David! I like the subtle cool tones and the textures. Thanks for sharing, it is refreshing and opens my mind to the endless possibilities of DV!
