This shot was a wonderful bit of luck. After getting socked in at my planned sunrise location in Rocky Mountain National Park, I decided to try to drive up higher in elevation to see if I could get above the fog. I was met with this scene as the morning sun started to burn through the fog and started firing off shots like an excited puppy that knew how to use a camera.
Edit: Whoops, posted before adding the photo…
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Any and all feedback welcome, but particularly with regard to crop suggestions. If this stays as a panorama, I’d like to keep it at a 2:1.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Single exposure with a couple of blurry foreground branches removed from the bottom of the image. Edited in LR and Photoshop.
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1 Like
I like the crop as is. The tree line forms a nice diagonal line across the frame. The one comment that I have is that all of the trees appear to be leaning slightly clockwise. I would recommend straightening the horizon line which of course will crop the image slightly. The backlit fog is beautiful especially the way that it adds contrast and lines in the trees. Nicely done!
Beautiful light and color here Kevin. I love shooting backlit fog like this, and you were presented with some wonderful conditions here. I also like how you composed this to include a significant amount of shadow space to contrast against the backlit fog. The arrangement of trees here is very nice, there is a good amount of separation in the trees to create visual interest.
I have a couple suggestions. I would lightly dodge the fog threading through the trees to draw more attention to it. This is personal taste, but to me there is slightly too much negative space in the ULC. I would crop from the left and the top. I did a rework reflecting both of these things, with a crop tha t maintained your original aspect ratio.
I really like what you have done here. The awe and serenity (odd combo but it does work) comes through very nicely. I really like the pano crop. I might be inclined to work with it a tish to get the left edge tree and right edge tree a tish of room (maybe by picking a different tree for the edge and cropping to give it some shoulder room).
ML
Kevin,
I love this as presented - although Ed makes a strong case for his crop.
There’s just a great balance of fog and beams of light through the forest. Yeah, the upper left is a bit of negative space, but the colors and contrast in the fog up top I think make up for it.
No nits or suggestions. Excellent as presented
Lon
Thanks very much for the input, everyone! Oddly enough, I had tried a different crop and dodged a bit of the light coming through the trees in a separate file before I posted this one, so it sounds like my suspicions have been confirmed. I had actually cropped in a bit from the top right in my version, but @Ed_McGuirk, I think I like your idea better. As @Marylynne_Diggs mentioned, I think I’ll also crop in from the top right just a touch to the tree on the edge of that side of the frame will have a bit of breathing room. And @Brian_Schrayer, I stared at this from a while to try to see the counterclockwise rotation and wasn’t sure if I could see it, but then when I rotated the image slightly they did look a bit straighter.
