After wandering around this scene for a little while, I went up on this rock and found this little pool. That’s when I knew I had it. The sun is setting behind me and lighting up the clouds and the rocks and far shoreline. Together with the other shots, I think this does a good job of showcasing the varied shoreline of Lake Superior.
This time we had clouds and I thought that the reflection of them in the rock water would make a nice counterpoint and balance the shot. I worked it in landscape orientation and it’s nice, but I wasn’t able to get a reflection and the upper cloud level in the same shot. I suppose I could have done a pano, but I didn’t think of it at the time. So there’s this.
The left side was dead space and the right was shoreline with my fellow workshop participants. I could have cloned them out I suppose, but it’s easier to crop them out. To my immediate left the rock curved down sharply to the water so I couldn’t get any further over.
Specific Feedback Requested
Does it work or is the empty side still too empty? Where’s a fake rock when you need one?
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Lumix G9
Lumix G Vario 12-35mm f/2.8 lens @ 12mm (24mm equiv.)
f/14 | 1/15 sec | ISO 200
Tripod
Polarizer + graduated ND
This is a three exposure HDR blend.
Lr processed for general tonality management & lens correction. Some color grading & white balance change. Texture added. Sharpening & nr. Local adjustment brush on the rocks surrounding the pool to even the light, another one in the water to up the exposure and whites. Ps to remove spots from my dirty lens (bah).
Lovely scene. I think it works quite well. The reflection in the little pool is a nice addition. The empty side doesn’t bother me at all. The foreground nicely curves around into the mid ground rocks which then sent you off into the unknown. Makes for a nice story to me.
This is a truly lovely image. You also write well. You have a casual natural way of commenting and posting that’s always a pleasure to read. My favorite parts of this image are the pink clouds in the sky and the mercury still waters in the distance. I agree that the empty space is not a problem. Rather, it improves the image. Regarding the cloud in the pool. I might partly clone it out. The lower white part. I don’t know how other feel about it. It would be nice if the cloud reflection didn’t bridge the pool. I’m just talking off the top of my head on that.
Thanks so much @Adam_Bolyard, @Eva_McDermott & @Igor_Doncov - this one might be the best of the bunch. I have a couple more to post over the upcoming days and you guys can be the judge.
Writing…well, I do try to explain what I was doing and any struggles or epiphanies I might have had while shooting. Dedicated landscape photographers probably have an easier time with it than I do. I’m glad you enjoy it, Igor. Critique is sometimes harder because I try to avoid sounding like a broken record. Plus I’m new to the community and don’t want to upset the vibe too much while remaining true to my voice.
The pond makes for a nice foreground element and the shape of the rocks and pond form an arrow that points to the background. This is a nice compositional element. If this were mine I might be tempted to crop out a little of the sky. Although there is some nice light in the clouds, I feel like the upper portion of the sky doesn’t really add much to the scene.
Kris
Beautiful image…especially like the pool reflection. I think the space to left and the whole composition is spot on. It does seem there is a bit of excessive magenta in the clouds although maybe that was the actual color, beautiful skyscape nonetheless.
This is a lovely serene image - I would love to sit there and watch the clouds float by for a while.
I think the composition works really well and feel that anything else on the left would be a distraction - for me the rock pool leads you right into the middle of the image and the gorgeous fluffy clouds. So pretty
Thank you @Brian_Schrayer, @Mario_Cornacchione & @Sammi_Wilson - this one will probably end up as a fairly large print on the wall (I’m due to change them all up anyway). I’ve cropped a bit of sky as per Brian’s suggestion and I’m not sure it changes it that much. The cloud in the URC was brighter due to its position, so maybe the whole image appears more subdued…at least it does to me. How does that change it from a processing perspective…maybe it needs something. Maybe it needed that cloud. Hm…
Oh and the scene was pink overall so I left it that way. Seems Superior is good for pink light - I’ll post another image where you can see it in the water, too.
I think you should have removed that small cloud with content aware fill rather than the crop. You don’t want the edge of the cloud coming to the edge of the frame. Leave some blue above it.
I like the gentle light in this image, it creates an interesting twilight type mood. The way you composed the rocks at the bottom is very well done, it creates a nice convergence on the pool. It’s not that I think the negative space on the left doesn’t work at all, but the top half of this image a bit right heavy with the positioning of the clouds and islands. I think its the clouds, more than the islands, that create this feeling for me.
Ideally a couple steps to the left might have helped, by center the clouds and islands more. This is a case where moving left and cloning the people away might have been a good option. I never used to like doing this, but as our national and state parks have become more crowded (especially with “selfie” phone photographers crowding into my shots), I’ve come to be more willing to clone people away to get better compositions.
I would have liked that, too, but it would have put me 4 feet lower and into the water. As I noted above, I was on the extreme edge of this rock (tripod feet uneven) and any more would have put me in the drink.
I saw this image the other day but didn’t get a chance to comment.
The basic image is very well done — a great strand of rock with lots of texture. The reflecting pool is essential and is the plus that completes the story. As always, you have the horizon horizontal.
However, I’m longing for more shoreline to the right. Maybe a three or four-frame panorama would have been worth a try.
Geeze… I just read the other comments and realize that I might be in left field, but we all have a different gaze, and that’s good! It makes this forum worth its weight in pixels.
No worries, Paul. Our perspectives are varied and our own. Here are a few Landscape versions - the ones with people on that mid bit of shoreline and sandspit connecting the rocks had nothing going on light-wise, so I didn’t edit them. They served more as test shots for the overall composition. The light and the atmosphere changed minute-to-minute as you can see -
I am rather late to the party, but put me down for the final rework of the vertical version. I would even clone out the cloud in the ULC to give some more edge space matching the URC, but that is getting pretty picky. I might also darken the brighter areas of the fore rocks and see how it looks. Not sure it would be an improvement, but who knows. I really like this one. A very fine understated look, too.
