This is an image of Dixie National Forest from a trip my wife and I made to Capitol Reef NP over last Thanksgiving. The west side of the park saw a snowstorm in the first part of the holidays and was blanketed by snow and heavy winds. This was the morning immediately after the storm ended, but the winds were still high (and picking up). From the entrance of the park, we could see parts of the Dixie National Forest where the wind was blowing the fresh snow off the ground. It was quite cold, but a surreal scene. Would love to hear you thoughts on the image.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Any/all.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Any/all. Composition, B&W conversion âŚ
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
400mm on tripod, 1/320s@F11, -1 2/3 Ev at post processing, ISO 200, cropped a sliver off the bottom, desturated to B&W.
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The fresh snow nicely looks like mist rising and does make it look surreal. To my eye, the scene looks on the flat and gray side. You said in post processing you desaturated the file rather than used the B&W layer to convert to B&W. I would be inclined to try the B&W layer instead and play with the sliders, then experiment with the contrast in another layer(s) to bring out a little more in the scene. Tony Kuyperâs masks would work well here, if you have and use them.
As Harley said, this feels a little flat and muddy gray to me. The subject and composition are very nice, and the image could benefit from finessing with the b&w conversion. I like the blowing snow and the layering of the hills off into the distance.
What has been said above, Govind. Also, the top 1/4 of the image doesnât do much for me. The most interesting part is the lower half and the blowing snow there. I would suggest probably cropping it a little from the top.
You have a lot of nice layers here and the blowing snow is a big mood creator! I would try to emphasize the layers more with some dodging with/wiithout lum masks. Some brightness will make the image pop more in my opinion.
Thank you all for your feedback. Hereâs a repost with your suggestions. I have brightened the image (-1 Ev Vs -1 1/3Ev in my original post), added a B&W layer rather than desturating the image and bumped up the contrast. I have also cropped the image a little form top to remove the brighter sky. Would love to hear if these have made any improvements. I am not very familiar with Tony Kuyperâs luminosity masks, so havenât used them here.
Your rework is a marked improvement, including the crop. With your original folks were commenting that it appears flat and think due to desaturating color rather than converting to b&w. I would agree but had a slightly different impression. As presented originally I got the distinct impression of a 19th century early landscape photograph. Please donât take this in a critical way, but the effects of the processing came out similar to what was produced early on; tin types, lack of contrast, soft and grainy details, etc. Also, itâs hard to pick up that itâs blowing snow - could be smoke from smoldering fires.
No doubt the experience was something with the cold and biting wind. Just not sure the b&w brings that across here.
Other minor suggestion might be to clone out the white patch on the left edge; a slight eye magnet.
I really like the rework, too. But for whatever reason, the image quality seems to suffer as compared to the original. The top portion of the image, for example, looks rather blotchy. Did you rework from the JPEG?
Thanks for your detailed critique, @Lon_Overacker. Once you and @Eva_McDermott pointed out the bright spot on the left side, I could see it being a distraction.
One main reason I went with a B&W version was that the original scene was itself somewhat monochromatic with the dark pines and blowing snow being the only elements. Hereâs the image in color and with the bright spot cloned out.
Thanks again for your feedback, @Adhika_Lie. The blotches in the background are trees obscured by clouds and blowing snow. They were present in my original image, but does not show because it was darker. You can see it now that that part is brighter.
Thanks for taking the time and effort to repost. This color version is much improved, IMHO. It most certainly doesnât have that âperiod pieceâ old tin-type impression I had (sorry, itâs a poor descriptionâŚ) This version I get much more sense of the atmosphere, blowing snow, etc. and get closer to understanding what you may have experienced.
also, maybe a minor thing, but remove that patch is also an improvement.
I see what you are saying about the âblotchinessâ I saw previously now. I am with @Lon_Overacker and @Ron_Jansen here, this last color version is the best. The gold in the fog/smoke/blowing snow is very very nice and add depths to the image. I would alter the blue in the shadows slightly but no biggie at all.
) !