The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Ok, now I have my head on straight with regard to the fact that this is clearly Iris and not Bog Cotton as you can see by having them both together in this shot. Dope slap!
Anyway, I had a grand time in the snow and I didn’t let the fact that we had blue bird skies instead of partly cloudy get me down. I tried to stay in the more dappled or shaded areas because full sun was off the hook contrasty. In this area, I could manage it although the white balance had a hell of a time and was always wrong. Still, I am going to seek out more little ponds to walk around in. Quite fun and it will thaw before I know it.
Specific Feedback
So…how are you feeling about the snow texture and the blue shadows? They do look blue to the eye, but I reduced it somewhat because it’s my particular pet peeve to get right. Angles, composition etc, useful for a next try.
All processing in Lr including a slight crop and a lot of work with masks to manage luminosity values. Big WB adjustment and some tweaking of blue, yellow and orange color channels. Some texture, clarity and sharpening.
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Very nice, and even nicer to see you’ve got your mojo back!! Snow is such a lovely background for seeing details of plants, and you have a wonderful capture of it here. The plants are lovely and I think the blues are perfect, and the sparkly details are such a nice touch. If I had a small nit, it would be to consider toning down the highlights in the top quarter. They pull my wandering eye away from the lovely subject.
Snowshoes are such a neat-sounding idea. Would they keep me from falling over backwards while trying to shoot birds in flight, or camera sweeps of overhead limbs? They sound good for slogging through sand dunes, too.
Excellent, Kris. I differ a bit from Diane on the highlights as they give me the impression that it’s still snowing, which adds to the image in my opinion. Beautifully done.
Kris: Whatever you did with the processing looks great to me. The snow and shadows look perfect and the spent plants are set in exactly the right location in the frame. Your renewed enthusiasm is producing some fine work. >=))>
Thanks @Diane_Miller - @Dennis_Plank & @Bill_Fach - mojo is not fully back, but making an appearance. The light was very challenging and the contrast off the charts, but the sparkle in the snow is a big part of what makes winter photos work, so I’m going to leave the whites where they are. As for snowshoes, they might help with some things, but take a little getting used to since your stride and stance are altered just from the sheer size of them.
Nicely composed, Kris, and I like your treatment of the snow. Good detail in the plants and they certainly pop against the snow. Maybe this is an illusion, but it looks as if the background snow is more vertical than the foreground show; gives it a sense of sky and clouds. Another nice shot for your snow/plant portfolio.
Thanks @Allen_Brooks - it is an optical illusion I think, and one I hadn’t really picked up on so thanks for that. Probably it’s my angle and the way the shadows hit. There were some little hummocks of stuff covered by snow, but for the most part it was flat since it was a pond basically.
Ahhh – I think @Allen_Brooks hit on what was bothering me (very slightly). I wasn’t referring to the lovely very bright specks but to the larger light areas near the top. They are pulling my fickle attention too much.
