After a long hiatus with the coming of my third child
I am back in the mountains. This was a stormy day and as we descended this mountain pass the storm was breaking up, the clouds were dramatic and some light was filtering in to the landscape so i naturally decided to capture the scene.
Specific Feedback Requested
I like the photo but i am not sure if it is balanced. I shot this with a 14 mm lens and the foreground was even more dominant than that but j ended up cropping to balance the foreground with the background.
Also since this was a 14-mm shot the trees towards the edges were leaning out so i used the warp feature to correct for it i wonder if you would consider that to degrade the integrity if the scene as mountains get corrected too in the process.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Sony A7ii
Rokinon 14 mm at f11
SS: 1/60 sec
ISO 100
I think the warp looks very natural, and it’s hard for me to see any impact on the mountains (not knowing this location). I think it’s better to have straighter trees, so a warp helps.
I think your composition is pretty well balanced from a graphic design perspective. The S-curve in the rocks is interesting, and you have a good foreground/midground/background relationship. The spruce trees in the center add a lot to the image, and I also like how the diagonal of the mountain on the left leads you to the lake.
I think the image is not as well balanced from a luminosity perspective. To me some of the most interesting elements in this scene are the lake, clouds and the mountain on the right. However the foreground rock is so bright that it’s luminosity competes with the luminosity of those three things I find interesting. I would try burning down the rock formation to the point where the sky is brighter than the foreground. The rocks add a sense of depth, and the S-curve, but they are a bit too bright for my taste. The rest of the image looks very well processed to me however. I especially love the turquoise color of the lake.
You have some interesting light and a good composition, so I think its worth playing with the luminosity of the rocks to try and take this image up another notch. But overall this is a great image, nicely done.
was already darkened quite a bit but i guess my eyes have adjusted to the bright rock that came out of camera.
Here is a re-work with a much darker foreground
Please let me know if i have gone too far
That rework takes it as far as you would want to go. I didn’t think to say it before, but I thought you should drop the luminosity of the rock down to match the luminosity of the area just in front of the trees. And in fact, that’s essentially what you did in the rework.
You might want to think about trying this in B&W as well, it may have potential there too.
Aref, the rework is very nice. I had the same problem with the foreground on my image that you commented on. I had already darkened it quite a lot from the original, but it still needed more. Your rework gets it just right.
I have posted the re work to the main post and added a couple of distractions removal (very small parts) based on advice from a mentor and also cooled down the shadows a tiny bit.
I also worked on a black and white version…curious to hear your thoughts about the B&W as i don’t usually do it and not sure if i know how to edit them well
Hi Aref. The drama of the Canadian Rocky Mountains was wonderfully conveyed in this image. The curved line of rock leading to the curved lake is a splendid composition element. The luminosity of the large rocky mass also seemed to me to the significant item to be dealt with. I tried my hand at bringing out more of the colors in the lichens and autumn foliage (using a LAB color curve) and then darkened the rocky area , leaving the lip of the edge ( which forms the s-curve ) reasonably bright. Burned the clouds in the top left a little. Overall the idea was to keep that lake as the main focus, but let the eye enjoy the trip there.
Thanks @Dick_Knudson
I love the idea of the lip being brighter than the rest of the rock.
I think the color saturation of the big foreground rock in your edit is a bit more than i would like.
The rock was very bright and grey because the sun was right in it
