Edit (cropped)
Edited (Color and Contrast Adjustments)
I saw the fog when I woke up, I only had about an hour before heading in to work on location so I tried to work 2-3 scenes out of it. I love this tree, but it has a clingy friend that pokes in from the left side that I wish would just go away, but it won’t. As I got closer and closer to the location, the fog just kept building. It was super dense, I had to work in a touch of dehaze to bring out some more structure in the tree because it was just all turning to mush.
Specific Feedback Requested
I have a few…my experience with fog is about nil.
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Is the bottom too dark, could easily lighten it up, but was trying to force SOME contrast into the image, trying to make sure I didn’t over do it.
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It feels a bit blue, which I don’t mind because it fits the scene and there was very little light breaking through (although when it did, it was quite warm). Too blue?
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I keep going back and forth on if it feels too tight particularly on the left side, which then leads me to think of cropping in closer, more on the trunk of the tree and really emphasizing the patterns in the middle half of the image. The other part of me thinks it doesn’t have that big of an impact coming in from the left. What are your thoughts?
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Great photo. The colors and tones look good to me. Not sure what to do about the composition. It’s just not symmetrical.
Lucky you, this looks like some awesome fog, the kind that can really simplify the landscape. Since you have limited experience shooting in fog, I think you are asking the right questions, because shooting in fog can be tricky.
In processing fog, you generally want to avoid underexposure, I prefer fog with a lighter, delicate look. With fog this thick, some de-haze is necessary. When you add LR Dehaze it can darken the image, so I will offset added dehaze with an increase in exposure. Another dehaze trick is to use TK Actions Dehaze, but apply it through a Darks 1 mask. This helps add some definition, but does not darken the lighter tones. The top 2/3’s of this image looks fine to me from a luminosity perspective, but the bottom third feels a bit dark to me.
In terms of WB, thats a matter of personal choice, but my preference is for a slightly cool look. Your image feels too cool to me, especially in the bottom half. The cool WB combined with the greens in the vegetation creates kind of a cyan/teal color that feels a bit strong. The WB in the top half of the image looks within the realm of personal taste, but the bottom coolness feels strong to me.
In terms of composition, it does feel tight on the left. This tree is symmetric at the top, but not on the bottom, which presents some challenges. The bottom left branch gets cut off by the frame edge, but there is space to the right of the bottom right branch. This works against having symmetry, and creates a feeling of tightness on the left. A tighter crop could push this in more of a symmetric direction, which would be my instinct based on the top half of the tree.
Excellent image, with a great feel of the mystical to it. I would agree with @Ed_McGuirk about the teal color cast, but I really like the blues for the mood. The comp works great for me as does the dark bottom. Other than the color cast, no changes suggested here.
@Ronald_Murphy @Ed_McGuirk @Harley_Goldman Thanks for taking a look, I took a quick crack at changing the crop a bit to get in tighter to the tree. Ed, I’m going to take a look at some of those other edits and see if they can push it even further, I think cropping as I have above eliminates some of those issues though as well.
Thanks for the feedback!
David, I like what you did with luminosity and color in your rework. The image has a lighter feeling, but you kept some of the blue which creates a moody look. I also prefer the tighter view of this crop, it works for me.
Thanks @Ed_McGuirk I also added the full version back in with some of the color and contrast adjustments. the pesky tree on the left though still creeps in obviously.
