I took this early in the morning at a place in Tennessee called Buck Bald. Great little known spot with a good view in all directions. I was there to image Comet NEOWISE. I didn’t get what I wanted but the sunrise was decent.
I am interested in hearing about critiques on composition and post processing
What a beautiful morning! Lovely conditions here. I see a number of elements in your composition here from the soft pastel pinks to blues in the sky and distant mountains to the fog filled valley in the middle ground. These regions are appropriately of low contrast. The trees in the foreground make the image very “heavy” on the bottom of the frame creating a sense of imbalance from upper to lower. The deep dark shadows create a lot of “visual weight” and their texture also creates a contrast from the softer lines in the middle and distant aspects of the scene. I liken this to your other image where the rock was adding to much visual weight on the bottom of the frame.
I think of the ways in which we can draw a viewer towards certain aspects of the image as with luminance/brightness, color/saturation, and texture/detail. Any of these three can draw a viewer and help create “power” within various regions or elements of a scene. In this case, we have both darkness/contrast, and texture/detail together creating a strong sense of “heaviness” towards the bottom of the frame and holding my eyes, pulling me a bit away from the softer lines and colors that really are the main star of the show.
One could consider (and again, this is your vision, not mine so please take as one of many “right” answers here) lightening shadows substantially in the foreground trees, and even color harmonizing them somewhat with the blues in the shadowed mid ground. That may help decrease the harshness of an otherwise peaceful scene.
Hope this helps!
I like the soft pastel light in this image as well as the gradient from warm to cool tones. This is a great example of where a 50/50 comp works as the clouds at the top of the frame add a lot of interest to the image and I wouldn’t want to lose any more off of the bottom. The silhouetted trees work really nicely as well. I think I found where this is on the map and will have to explore it sometime.
I agree with the comments you received from @Jim_McGovern. The “heaviness” of the very dark trees detracts from the otherwise soft pastel tones in the mountains and sky. For me, this is one of those images that don’t need foreground trees like this, the really neat stuff here are the sky, the fog, and the mountains. To me the very dark trees act as a barrier to entry, visually they block me from getting into the rest of the scene. Even if you had bracket exposures, got a second image with good details in the trees, and then blended the trees into this image, I think I would still see the trees as a barrier.
I’m not trying to be harsh, I really love the rest of the image, your processing of the sky and mountains is right on the money. Maybe this was the only view you had available, but I think this would be much stronger without the trees.
I agree about the trees. Unfortunately, I couldn’t avoid them. What do you do in these situations? Should the trees be lightened to blend in? I can’t crop or too much of the mountains and fog would be removed.
If it were me, I would have moved to the left or right, and zoomed in on the mountains/fog with a telephoto lens to eliminate the trees. (if that was possible).
