Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I’m down here in Death Valley waiting for a workshop to start. I thought I would warm up by making a few images and ‘hit the ground running’. This was made last evening. It’s pretty standard fare for this location. I was working on a composition of just the rocks at my feet but nothing looked right. Then I looked up and saw the long shadows and decided to go the near-to-far route.
Specific Feedback
The question I have is with the illumination. The camera recorded a slightly darker image but I decided to bring up the brighter areas for aesthetic reasons that didn’t match reality necessarily. Well, your eyes adjust in nature anyway. Do you think it’s too bright? I have a series of edits, each brighter than the previous.
Technical Details
GFX 50R, 32-64mm, f/11, focus stacked
Igor,
I think the luminosity level in this photo looks very natural, in fact, I would have thought it would have looked even brighter to the naked eye. I love the sharpness throughout the entire frame from front to back. The composition is nice as well, leading the eye casually through. Great start to the coming work, and looking forward to seeing what you capture in theworkshop.
1 Like
I think your tonal adjustments are pleasing, but I wouldn’t go any brighter. I love your near-far composition.
I hope Lake Manly is still around. I made a detour to Death Valley a month ago to experience the lake before it disappeared. It was certainly worth the effort.
I hope you have a great workshop experience. I attended a workshop with Erin Babnick which finished just as the COVID lockdown started. Erin is a superb instructor!
Manley Lake was still there a week ago but there were so many people that I was completely turned off and didn’t even bother to take the camera from the truck. Some were even standing in the water. One fellow dressed himself as a bird while another made pictures of him as he opened and closed his ‘wings’ against a background water and the distant mountains. It’s quite a spectacle out there at Badwater. It’s also an international attraction as I heard many languages spoken.
Igor, what a great place to be. It must be difficult to make good images over there. In my opinion you did it . Making this empty place so great to experience . Not only those shadows but what a light .I should love to be there but it’s a bit too far from home for me .
Definitely not too bright on my monitor Igor. In fact, the bright white of the frame makes it harder to see some of the good stuff hiding in the deep shadows and I could see opening them some.
This is a classic “western” for me. I can hear “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” when I view it. The spartan foreground works very well, and that larger rock is just right to anchor the scene.
@Ben_van_der_Sande @John_Williams, @Youssef_Ismail, @Bill_Pelzmann
Thank you for your comments. I guess this is a fine image but I didn’t break any ground here. In the past I would have been quite happy with this image. Perhaps that feeling will still come.
This is the last of the colored work I did at Death Valley as the workshop instructors were b&w guys.
