Here is a “recent” new favorite image of mine that I took in Utah in 2019. I named it “Thanksgiving” because the colors remind me of things around Thanksgiving time, and because I took it during a glorious phase of my life where everything was going very well and I felt so thankful. I’m pretty happy with it but am open to any and all thoughts.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Any!
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Any!
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
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@brentgoesoutsidephoto
Edit after a couple of tweaks per the suggestions:
Really nice image. Full of nice texture. I would tone down the blue/cyan just a little. I personally love a warm/cold mix in my photos, but to my eye this is a tad too strong.
I like your handling the dry grass at the bottom. It’s usually an issue due to it’s brightness but it works here pretty well. Although perhaps it could still do with some burning in. The blue shadows don’t bother me at all. In fact they go with the yellow quite well.
I love this image, and I didn’t even notice the blue being too blue until Michael Lowe pointed it out. I like the blue tint, because it is different and gives the photo a really mysterious look.
Beautiful autumn scene. There is a lot going on, but your comp brings it all together very well. I would agree with the suggestions on the blues/cyans, but very minor either way. I quite like this one.
Thanks all! Very good advice. When I opened up my master file one of the last layers was reducing blue saturation but I did not take it far enough! Looking closer, I think the issue was that a lot of the blue was uneven. For this version I took down the blue a bit everywhere, but then some areas more than others. I also lightened the really dark spots as @svetlana suggested.
I’m late coming in here, but I think the rework is a nice improvement. I love the rusty late autumn colors, it does say Thanksgiving. I think the blues play a very important role, otherwise this would just be an overload of warm color. In the rework, I think the reduced blue saturation helps, but I’d also suggest slightly increasing the blue luminosity just a bit too. And I might burn the grass even a little more. With the grass this bright it makes it harder for me to appreciate some of the subtle colors and textures in the center of the image. These are minor nits, overall this is a great autumn image.
This is fantastic Brent; especially with your dropping the blue a tad. I too would play with dropping the luminosity of the grass a bit, but regardless this is just lovely.
Brent, this is excellent, and with the edits already made, even better! One thing that I noticed after looking at this image for a bit is the bright green spot in the top center of the image I didn’t notice it at first, but now my eye keeps going right there. Maybe a little desaturation of just that spot would help.
Ahh you’re so right @Craig_Moreau ! I can’t believe I didn’t see that before. Thanks very much for pointing it out. I’ll have this image dialed in one of these days!
Its a strong image. The color contrasts is what makes this special for me. The sharpness is great too. I’m still going back and forth on the overall contrast. I like the original contrast, but then look at the softer version I like it as well. Maybe somewhere in between.
Such a lovely image Brent, well done. I’m in the low blue crowd however. The blue tint seems so limited to some of the trunks and branches that it seems a bit unnatural to me. If it was a blue hour shot there would be less saturation in the warm colors and they would be tilted cooler. I love the warmth of the foliage, and would de-sat and darken the trunks and low bushes in the front. Overall this is a super image with all manner of editing possibilities.
First off, way late to the party here but I have to say I love the original image a lot. However, I love your rework where you’ve applied some of the suggestions to make it just about perfect. I agree with you that this says Thanksgiving. I think it’s the saturated colors and the dark contrast that makes it pop. I’m also wondering what it would look like with less contrast, and slightly softer colors? I’m at work so I can’t play with it. There is one small rock that keeps grabbing my eye about a third of the way up from the bottom and about 40% of the way in from the left side.
One more thing that caught my eye when I was looking at the small thumbnail, the left 40% or so of the image is about a half stop darker than the right side. You might take a look at evening out the luminosity. Cheers
