Fog, Sun, Storm or Rain
Keeping my house from flooding
The dunes near the sea
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Conceptual: Feedback on the message and story conveyed by the image.
Technical: Feedback on the technical aspects of the image, such as exposure, color, focus and reproduction of colors and details, post-processing, and print quality.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
Developing this kind of image I find quite tricky. I think I have done well on this one . Now I am curious about your opinion .
Hi Ben,
this is a really beautiful scene. I love those dune edges hit by the sun and the resulting diagonals. The mood is nice and soft. There is a nice transition between the sharp foreground and the soft background.
There are two issues I would think about. First of all, there are the branches on the right-hand side that distract my eye.
And secondly, I see a subtle color cast in the middle of the frame. It was probably generated by a lens flare. It is green in the center and there is a slight red cast in the lower part of the image.
I took the liberty of downloading your picture to play with it. And here is the result (The difference isn’t really big):
I cropped the image at the right edge to get rid of the branches. There were two remaining branches after the crop. I cloned them out.
To treat the color cast, I proceeded as follows:
For the red cast, I added a Curves Layer in PS, switched it to the Red channel, and dragged the curve down slightly (Dragging down removes red and adds cyan, dragging up does the opposite):
Next, I added a black layer mask and painted over the red cast area with a white brush and a low opacity.
I did almost the same thing to remove the green cast. But now I switched to the green channel in the newly created Curves Layer (Dragging down removes green and adds red, dragging up does the opposite):
Now, I added a black mask and revealed the adjustment with the white brush where I wanted it to take effect.
I don’t usually make such adjustments in one go. I often go through the above steps several times in a row ending up with many different curve layers.
Again, that’s a beautiful backlit scene. Well done!
Hi Ben! I enjoyed your short and sweet description of the photo. I like the way the lines lead you through the photo with the nice diagonal leading from the the top of the dunes down to the foreground. I agree with @Jens_Ober About the tree at the right side. I think you could crop that from the image. I like the slightly wider possibly 16:9 crop that you’ve chosen, has a cinematic feel.
I love the colours here, the muted sandy greens. Even your name seems to match this shot (at least in English)! @Jens_Ober’s small changes are suitable to focus our eyes on the beautiful light and shapes. Really excellent.
Lovely. And I always enjoy your Haikus. As with some others of your recent pictures, this one also has that “underwater” feel, which I find very dreamy. This picture does what a good photograph can do - make the ordinary extraordinary. It asks me to really notice what I might typically walk right by. I do agree with @Jens_Ober that the upper right corner draws my eye a bit too much. But the problem isn’t just the branches, it is also the brightness. That being said, I wouldn’t crop. The aspect ratio you’ve chosen for this picture is important and cropping denies the sweep that you intend. What I did was use a little content aware fill in the URC and then touch it up with the clone tool in Ps. As to the colour cast, I’m not really seeing it. But in case its just my eyes, I used the HSL tool in ACR and completely desaturated the reds. And while I was in ACR I brought down the highlights just a touch as they were a bit blown in the upper part of the frame. Pretty minor stuff for a lovely rendition of light and line.
PS. I would really love to see some of your more recent images pulled together in a series. I think together they would give further substance to your vision.
You captured another very ethereal image Ben. I also agree with @Jens_Ober about the tree on the right and lens flare. Very minor adjustment to a very beautiful scene,
@Jens_Ober , @Cameron_Wilcox , @Mike_Friel , @Kerry_Gordon , @linda_mellor , @Eva_McDermott
By your comments my doubts about developing these kind of images is for the biggest part taken away. @Kerry_Gordon your rework and explanation did it for a great part. Together with the comments from @Jens_Ober .
About the colorcast (flare?) I already took out most of the green, what I saw as just a sunbeam. Jens and Kerry I am grateful that you pointed me out to do it still better. And the way in which to achieve that better result.
To me, the in or out of those branches is more for personal taste.
Thank you all ,also for liking my Haiku !!
I post a screenshot of the color cast part. The Raw, Rework of Jens and My own.
Meaning to jump in here sooner. First thing, the light and atmosphere you’ve caputred here, and continue to show us, is just phenomenal. The light up top - essentially blown out as evidence in the raw file - but here is a case where, SO WHAT? comes in to play - the source of light, the atmosphere created and most especially the highlighted grasses and the lines, diagonals and shapes created - are just wonderful.
So with images about light that are so wonderful… comes with the opporunity to take an already outstanding image - and elevate it even futher. And so we get to the little details. I think they’ve been covered - the errant branches on the right and the lens flare color cast. I worked this a little and pretty much came to the exact result as Jens, so I won’t post the same results.
Looks like you’ve taken care of the color in your last post here. No further nits/suggestions from me. Another wonderful - and unique image. I’m so glad you continue to share these for your corner of the world.
