Rework: darken trunks, lighten bg
Edit: reworked attempting to darken forward trees… Ended up lightening and reducingcontrast in the bg - go too far?
A snowy image from my last trip to Yosemite in November. I mentioned in previous post 3 days of dreary, rainy conditions… well, except what I took a short drive above Tunnel View where that rain conveniently turned to snow. This was captured in the same pullout as my ICM “Blizzard 22” image posted recently.
Type of Critique Requested
- Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
- Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.
- Emotional: Feedback on the emotional impact and artistic value of the image.
- Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
In thinking of a title, I was just recalling the moment. You can see the falling snow in the large view. I was attracted to the foggy and snowy conditions with the forest rising and fading in the background. The area was a mix of barren, fire damaged trees, and trees to escaped the burn. But standing there, just listening and absorbing everything… was just silence.
I suppose there is a bit of a story of earlier fires? maybe. Curious to learn what you see and imagine in this mage.
Feedback, comments and suggestions always welcome. Thank you!
Technical Details
Nikon D800E, 28-300mm @160mm, f/9 1/125 iso 400
2 Likes
Lon, To find a good one is not always easy. Silence, your title does it for me.
At first I thought to take out the two trees on the left. That wasn’t a good idea because it took all the balance(life) out of your image,
It is good as it is, silence in a balanced composition also with the background.
Again to me it speaks Silence. Fine work !
Masterfully done minimalist image. There are few components to this image and they are well placed. The scarcity of content and greatly reduced tonal variation makes this image for me. Silence is a good title. I like the fact that there is little clarity in this subject and would focus on that. I don’t know what to suggest. No crop comes to mind. Perhaps remove the small tree leaning against the large one? Don’t know if that would help. That’s so minor though.
This is really really well done Lon! Such a pleasure to explore. Literally the only thing I thought of was introducing just a bit more blacks particularly in the lower 1/3 to help give it just a bit more separation from the rest of the scene. Almost applying 100% to the bottom 1/3, 50% to the middle 1/3 and 0% to the top 1/3. Not sure it makes it better, but it does help create just a bit more depth in the scene. This is killer as is though.
I really like the ethereal feel to this image. Beautiful work and the title is perfect!
Perfect image, perfect title. as someone who lives in Arizona, where snow and/or fog are quite rare in most parts, this photograph is pure tonic to the eyes. Stunning, Lon. Well done!
I love this composition, Lon. Such an evocative scene. I have a tendency to agree with @David_Wallace about darkening the foreground trees just a bit more to provide better separation and a sense of depth, though I would go about this with a light hand, indeed.
Thank you all so much for the comments and suggestion, @Ben_van_der_Sande , @Igor_Doncov , @David_Wallace , @Tom_Nevesely , @J_Fritz_Rumpf and @jefflafrenierre .
Wondering if even less clarity improves or not. Certainly a little higher key?
Thank you David and Jeff for the suggestion. Indeed, a light hand… very hard to separate tones for any masking, so I did a rough mask and then manually painted around the trunks to remove global adjusments.
In the process, I raised the luminosity of the brights - which in effect, maybe, helped separate.
Curious if an improvemnt, or now just an alternate?
thank you so much everyone!
1 Like
Maybe a bit too far on the rework (??), but I do think it is a slight improvement overall. I definitely like the creater separation of those foreground trees, and I like the brighter feel overall, I just worry that the back row of trees is now a bit too subtle. Maybe not. Either option is still a fantastic image, and I am definitely digging into the weeds now.
