Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.
Questions to guide your feedback
What comes to mind?
What’s your reaction to this?
Other Information
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Image Description
This is part of an enormous Banyan tree. Ever since I became familiar with the history of Buddha I wanted to see a banyan tree. To be honest, the reality didn’t live up to the imagination. Their trunks are massive and lack any grace. But their numerous roots provide a lot of opportunities for exploration. They are a world of imagination. This was shot on a rainy day. Which day wasn’t?
Technical Details
GFX50R, 45-100mm, f/11, iso 1250, focus stacked.
Specific Feedback
Once again, is this too dark?
Does it hold interest?
How much interest does it hold?
Can you relate to the title or do you see it differently?
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Immediately: Anthropomorphic. And after Jim’s comments, I too can see male/female reference.
Not only is there a size and difference in demeanor, but I think the variation in color also helps distinguish (not that the actual color has any significance , just the difference between them.
Not much else to say really other than this fits right in with your “dark” mode. And in this case that promotes the lighter toned trunks and makes them stand out against the non-descript background.
I’ll be curious to read why this caught your eye (I’ve yet to read the hidden text.)
I knew this was yours even before I opened it. I love the colors and the subtle textures in the trees. That said, this one just doesn’t have the same impact that so much of your recent work has, but I can’t quite tell you why.
I didn’t come up with this initially, but now that I read it I can’t get it out of my head. That’s a fascinating comparison between the two. Right or wrong, there very much is a masculine/feminine contrast to my eye; a wonderful image to ponder.
Without reading the others comments before posting I see, “The Odd Couple.” The two trunks are so different in nearly every way that I immediately thought how odd of them to be paired up. Now, after reading the comments, I love @Jim_Gavin 's reference to Adam and Eve. I think that nails it.
One thing that sticks out to me though is the trunk base on the left side of the image. I really only want to see the two main players side by side but I find the intrusion of the trunk on the left a little bit of an eye puller. IN LR I just used a luminance mask to burn just the mid tones and the highlights, adjusted the color from green/yellow to more blue by using the saturation and hue sliders in the mask to kind of make it disappear.
I love the dark approach you have been using in your latest images and I very much like this scene that you’ve shared with us. For the life of me, I don’t know how you pick these out amongst the jungle business but you do. You have a very well trained eye.
Jim nailed it. It refers to the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. I suppose it could be many things. I’m not sure I like giving titles to my work. The image is really about the forms and how you interact with them. It’s just like those dunes in DV. It’s not about the dunes (for me).
Thank you for working on those greens. They didn’t bother me much but I knew some would find issues with them.
Hi Igor,
Kudos for having the vision to see and isolate this very engaging and thought provoking image. I had been sitting here looking at this trying to figure out was keeping me engaged. I then went back and read the comments and bingo; Jim Gavin nailed it. I see Adam on the left and Eve on the right with her arms crossed. I do like @David_Haynes tweaks with darkening the tree trunk on the left. Thanks for sharing this. BTW, this is not to dark for my tastes.
