Thanks to the “Greenland Block” spring in New England this year has been unseasonably cold and late arriving. But this past week finally saw spring foliage color emerge in full force. I know this composition is pretty busy, but what I like about it is that the trees on this hillside contained just about every color that you can see at this time of year. I just love the medley of white, green, yellow, orange and red. I know the trunks of the trees have a blue cast (it was an overcast day), but when I tried removing the cast, the overall image felt too warm. And I actually ended up liking the silvery blue cast. I’d like to see if others agree with this choice or not.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Any comments or critique are welcome.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
A very slight Orton Effect was added in post processing to provide a softer feel to the image.
A dazzling image, Ed. Very painterley in feel, it now reminds me of Impressionism, now of Jackson Pollock ! I think ultimately the latter, with his evocation of depth, which this image portrays for me quite brilliantly. Can’t quite imagine how different it would look without the Orton effect - it looks great with it.
This is really good, Ed. I like the blues in there, they work well with the overall color scheme. I did a quick TK Zone 6 mask and lifted the center point of a curve just a little lightening the upper mid tones just a touch. As always, YMMV. I like this a lot.
Well done Ed. As you know, there’s no limit to chaos I find acceptable. I like this very much but I think there’s room for improvement. I feel the color distribution/balance could be better. The dominant reds on the right are pulling us off screen while the white buds aren’t holding their own. The red tree on the right together with it’s branches looks like a great subject on it’s own.
People seem to think that these chaos images are easy to pull off. You just point your camera into the chaotic mess and plaff, squeeze one off. But they really take a lot of searching and often the leaves and branches just don’t line up ideally. I suppose every composition is a compromise between the ideal and what nature provides.
Anyway, I wouldn’t be so critical if I didn’t respect your work.
This is a beautifully balanced composition, Ed. The subtle colors work wonderfully under the soft neutral lighting. Processing looks good. Only suggestion I can offer, and it’s a very minor one, would be to burn down the brighter patch of forest duff at the bottom center frame edge. I don’t know why but it continually grabs my eye.
Ed, I like your choices of colors very much. With the overcast skies I find the bluish cast to the trunks to be very appropriate. I am really enjoying the composition and it’s impressionistic look.
Sweet stuff here, Ed. This is one of those images that needs to be viewed large to appreciate all the subtle textures and colors spread throughout this lovely woodland scene. It’s almost as if I am viewing two different images with the reds on the right and the whites on the left, but they seamlessly mesh together to form on outstanding scene. Great eye to spot this beauty.
What an amazing and diverse display of colors; all intricately interconnected. I don’t mind the blues in the trunks so much - as pointed out the diffused lighting often produces these blues.
I’m with Igor on his thoughts about chaos in general. These are difficult not only to “see”, but in crafting a composition. This works beautifully for me as presented. Although, I see at least a few viable crops in here that don’t necessarily tame the chaos any better, but perhaps organize and segment the colors differently. Basically, some version of square/near square crops starting both right and left. You might find something you like.
@Igor_Doncov “I feel the color distribution/balance could be better. The dominant reds on the right are pulling us off screen while the white buds aren’t holding their own. The red tree on the right together with it’s branches looks like a great subject on it’s own. People seem to think that these chaos images are easy to pull off. You just point your camera into the chaotic mess and squeeze one off. But they really take a lot of searching and often the leaves and branches just don’t line up ideally”
The red buds/flowers are what caught my attention. This hillside was on private property, and I had to shoot from the road. Unfortunately there were several large trees between the road and hill that severely restricted the available shooting angles with my 70-200mm lens. I was at 200mm and had no longer lens with me. There was no way to show more of the red without being blocked. I have been debating acquiring a Canon 100-400mm lens to add to my 70-200m f4 workhorse, and these comments are maybe a sign its time to spend some money. Thanks folks
I agree with Igor’s point about the white not holding up well relative to the strong reds. And as @Lon_Overacker and some others have commented, there are some square crops here that might show the red better. Perhaps it is irrational, but for my own work, I strongly prefer the 3:2 aspect ratio for both aesthetic and printing reasons. I also prefer to retain some of the white to keep with the concept of showing many colors.
I have posted a couple alternate crops that maintain 3:2 but reduce the emphasis on the whites. I clearly see the consensus is towards minimizing the whites.
The horizontal crop is your best as far as I can tell from my laptop. It also has the best structure of the three with that vertical trunk on the left providing a good framework. The image is starting to have a stronger framework within the chaos. As you’ve moved in the elements have gotten bigger - leaves, branches, trunks. That appeals to me personally. I can like both of them for different reasons. But for me, the horizontal crop is the best of the 3.
Thank you for taking the time to make this edit. I can see that the horizontal crop was done with thought and seriousness. It has purpose.
Hi Ed, Valid point you make on your preferred format. Interesting because I haven’t made a print in some 3-4 years and so I find it easy to make square crops… I’m finding something appealing to square - yet, I’ve never had one printed.
I too like your original, but like I mentioned, there are viable crops as you’ve shown.
Personally, I find that printing allows me to connect with my images in a way that is a very different experience than viewing them on the web. Printing forces me to think about and process images differently, and usually that takes me in directions that make the images stronger. And there are some images that I love as prints, but are just okay when viewed on a monitor. there is just something so satisfying about having an image as a physical print. I make my own 12x18 prints, and put my best images into display books that serve as “collections” organized by location, season, etc (the very best are printed larger and framed). I settled on 3:2 to keep a degree of uniformity in the appearance of the print books. It’s also interesting that non-photographer people seem to connect with prints in a stronger way too, perhaps because they are used to almost exclusively seeing images on a phone or computer screen.
Sometimes I will use other other aspect ratios for web display, but I never got into Instagram, so the square format doesn’t have a strong pull on me. I also learned photography and composition on 35mm slides, so there is a strong attachment to 3:2 from that as well.
Ed, I meant to comment on this and got sidetracked. I think this is outstanding! The gradual merge from the white into the red, with the trunks and greenery backdrop is very pleasant. One thing that appeals the most is that there’s a uniformity in the colors distributed and loads of detail, which lets my eye browse around without the need to settle on anything in particular.
Of course the presence of so many visible trunks suggest a vertical, and for this I personally would prefer a little more to the left of the, only because I’m stubbornly thinking in thirds, just my thought.
Such a beautiful photograph, Ed. I understand the points others have made about the red pulling attention from the whites but I personally like the mix of colors as they are distributed throughout the frame in the original version. I also like the cooler cast, as I think it evokes the emotion of a foggy spring day. Of your other crops, I do like the vertical with attention focused on the red tree. It is more of a portrait of that tree rather than an abstract rendition that helps organize the chaos of a forest (which is what I like most about the original photo). The alternative horizontal crop doesn’t work as well for me because the strong white trunk on the left draws so much attention.
