A stand of redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains in an area that was ravaged by the CZU Complex fire of 2020. These redwoods although slightly scarred by fire, are not only still standing but are thriving.
Specific Feedback Requested
First, does this tall panoramic format work? I have tried this format before, but it never seemed to fit right.
Second, is the color balance ok? On my color-calibrated monitor, they look natural to me. But here they seem to be a bit too orange.
Technical Details
Photographed in the late afternoon warm glow under partly cloudy skies.
Nikon D850, Nikon 80-200 f/4 at 200 mm at f11 1/2 sec and ISO 31
Raw file processed in LRC, then exported as a TIFF to PS CS6 for final corrections, sharpening, and prepping for print.
Hi Youssef. I really like the vertical pano. I think it works nicely for the trees. I wished there was a good way to see it all on a phone. I bet it would look good on the wall. I like the color in the trees, it conveys the light of the day well.
Yes, might be just one of those rare scenes that seems to fit this image’s profile perfectly, Youssef. I won’t comment on the color / saturation as I came in on a browser that can be subjective at times in that arena. Regardless, I really like this posting…
btw: not too bad for an old CANP film guy…
Thanks, Paul. Haha, I also photographed this stand of trees with my 4x5 as well, once I got it on the digital I felt like it was worthy of a sheet of 4x5.
Hi Youseff! I really love this scene and I think it was a good choice to do a pano crop. I don’t think the colors look too orange. I do agree with you about it seeming like the colors look different when you upload on here. At least sometimes they seem to. Beautiful capture!
Youseff, the tall redwoods fit the vertical pano well. Sadly it’s still hard to view even on a 27" monitor…guess I need to get one of those rotating monitors… I’ve tried a few vertical panos myself and always have a hard time handling the perspective. You’ve nailed that here, with the trees nicely vertical and parallel. While the bark may be slightly orange, I wouldn’t have noticed it without you asking.
I also think the vertical pano format works for this subject. It helps convey the incredible height that these trees can achieve. On my monitor the color balance looks natural.
Amazing work, Youssef. I think a photograph tells you what size and aspect ratio it needs and you obviously listened. Since I am away from home and not on a calibrated display I can’t make an informed comment on white balance and colors.
Anyhow all photographs and this one in particular needs to be printed and and hung on a wall. It might be a bit hard to find a place in the house, but I am sure it will look great.
Thank you @holgermischke , I did print an 8x24 inch print and I have it hanging in my show booth right now at my weekly showing in my local farmers market. It is a stunning print that is begging to be printed larger.
The colors and processing looks fine to me. The success of the choice of composition depends on what you’re trying to express. To me the image feels compressed from the sides and stretched in the vertical direction. Elongated. That’s my first impression.
I am warming up to the elongated format you’ve chosen here and I think it works pretty well actually. It’s definitely different and that’s a good thing. As you said, this was shot towards the end of the day with warm light hitting these trees and I think it looks just about right. The greens look natural to me as well. Love the story about how fire didn’t hurt these giants at all. Amazing. In fact, Redwoods need fire to thrive. So may of them have scars on them when walking through the redwood forests. I’d love to see a larger file size of this. This would be an amazing print if this isn’t too cropped. Thomas Mangelson has lots of redwood scenes that are cropped into vertical panos and they work very well. Nicely seen and framed.
I’ve been busy and got hopelessly behind here, but glad I saw this one! I’m a huge fan of redwoods – they are amazing giants and it’s not easy to do justice to them, but you done that here! The vertical format fits the subject very well, and the colors seem natural to me for the conditions you describe.
If browser color management is working right, there really shouldn’t be a visible difference in a post here and what you see in PS. The color of the BG can affect color perception. I have a dark gray BG for the forum – I don’t even know if it can be changed.
