“She freed and floated on the air her arms
Above dim veils that hid her bosom’s charms…
The veils fell round her like thin coiling mists
Shot through by topaz suns and amethysts.”
The bent aspens in this grove seemed to be in a state of movement. I decided to convey this feeling with a composition that contained virtually all bent trees and position them so that they crossed one another repeatedly. I actually shot this area twice but for some reason the second ‘improved’ version turned out worse than the original. I just think the light wasn’t as good the second time around. Anyway, this is the original version as I saw these trees.
Igor , my first thought was " what a funny image". After translating and reading the poem it became more sensitive . I like this as a fine combination of image and poem. It gives a soul to your work !
Are you kidding Igor, this is magical, not bizarre. The poem and image description significantly added to my enjoyment of the image. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts in this regard.
Only you Igor, the master of composition, could have arranged these crazy trunks so perfectly. I bet you spent a lot of time looking for angles of view here. I really enjoy another subtle aspect to this image, which is having the ground completely covered in fallen leaves. In some ways this image turns everything upside down. There are no leaves to be seen above the trunks, instead the leaves are all below them. I think this is one of the finest images you have produced, definitely portfolio worthy.
Is this from your Utah trip ? If so, I’d be returning to this location next year for sure !!!
Lol. It is from the Utah trip, but only the beginning. This is still Oregon, on the way to Utah.
I considered other titles that may have been actually better. “Drunkard’s Ball” “Senior’s Ball” “The Serpents Dance” “Primal Orgy” “Sailor’s Brawl at a Tavern”
I guess that’s why I shot this image. The shapes were very suggestive.
Seriously. This is not bizarre at all, Igor. In fact I find the twisted aspen trunks to be quite graceful, like a ballet with the accompanying symphony. The subdued color pallet of yellows and whites works perfectly with the soft lighting and only enhances the mood. This is a wonderful find!
Excellent dance of the aspens. I love the angles and light. I would consider cloning out the brown spot (leaf?) on the bole just right of center, but really minor. Very well done, Igor. I quite like it.
Ah The Dance of the Seven Veils. Nothing like a little poetry and culture with my photo enjoyment. Well done and seen. The only thing missing would be a little mist. Just kidding. I really like this.
This composition is fabulous. The twisted aspens are unique and this brings great interest to the photo. The lighting looks like it was amazing but something in the processing has made it seem flat and uninteresting. I took the liberty of downloading it to see if I could bring some life out of that light but there is no color profile attached to the image you uploaded and now I am wondering if not having a color profile, at least sRGB is somehow clipping some of that interesting light. If I assign a color profile in PS, say AdobeRGB or ProPhoto, the colors get tweaked.
Thank you, Youssef. I can’t imagine how that happened. When I export an image the ‘convert to SRGB’ is always checked off so that there should be a profile with the jpeg. The working file is a TIFF tile that was in LAB mode. But I never convert to RGB before downsizing. This was done 6 weeks ago so I have no recollection what the workflow would have been. I can’t remember one from an hour ago much less a month.
I’m posting the sRGB file next to the original so that the difference can be seen. Glad you liked the image. Thank you for the critique.
Actually I don’t see a difference between the two.
So I made some adjustments. I added a boost in contrast through a Lights-3 mask and then warmed it slightly through the same Lights-3 mask. I raised the luminosity through a Darks-3 mask. Then one more slight bump in contrast through a Lights-2 mask. I added an Orton layer but at very low opacity about 20%, and then finally I brought down the luminosity through a Darks-3/4 mask as well as warming up through that same mask. Let me know what you think. I was trying to get those lighter areas of the trunks to pop to accentuate the light falling on them and giving the whole scene a little pop to celebrate the glorious yellow aspen leaves. If you would like the PSD file let me know and I will down size it to fit in an email.
A wonderfully composed and whimsical image, Igor. Not at all too bizarre! My only suggestion would be to perhaps slightly cool the white balance to separate the trunks from the foliage a bit, coupled with a little boost in saturation to ensure the golden fallen foliage still has some impact after the cooling.
@Youssef_Ismail and @Alex_Noriega. Thank you for the suggestions. I will explore them. I feel that there are many directions in processing that this could go.
I’m glad you both liked the image. I agree that it is whimsical and I think that’s to it’s detriment. It certainly was not meant to be that when it was taken but it also is a departure from the somber photos I prefer. Like I said, I was attracted to it more for what it suggested than what it was. More on that later.
Thanks for sharing the photo and accompanying piece of poetry, Igor. Fittingly combined to tell us what you saw in the image. - and wished us to see too! I have no critique of the image, except to say it reminded me of an image of the Scituate lighthouse in a small shop in Scitutate, MA where I lived for about 3 years. The photgrapher had warped the image to make it seemed to be playing a sax which he added to the image. When my brother and sister-in-law were visiting, I commented that I liked the photo and it became a surprise gift to me later. What one sees and chooses to convey to others is as much about ourselves as about what is unique to the image.
Thank you all for your kind comments. It’s time to put this one to bed (for now). I’m actually surprised how much interest this image garnered. I came to realize with Youssef’s rework that this image had a ways to go technically. It seems to me that it’s too underexposed and I felt that there was too much orange in those leaves. I’m not sure if that was introduced in the field. This should be a fairly light hearted image and therefore the light seemed too flat, too dead. Here is the rework.
Overall, I think this image isn’t too bad. I still haven’t printed it to see if I can bear to see it day in and day out.
