The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
The shoreline’s natural guardians, rocks shaped by time’s hand, poised in defiance. They’re like old soldiers, battle-scarred and resolute, facing an old foe. There’s a storm brewing on the horizon, a darkening mood that promises to test their resolve. It’s as if nature itself is drawing a deep breath, waiting for the wind and waves to make their move in this eternal dance between land and sea.
Don, the B & W certainly supports your word picture of this scene. It is powerful. There is a lot of textures competing for attention. I am wondering if croping some of the rocks on the right would move the line of water to the right and actually give it more importance. The balance of the compostion seems uneven to me , because of the vast difference in the rocky formations. Let the rocks on the left dominate and decrease those on the right. I am glad you chose B & W for this picture.
Barbara, I truly value your perspective on the composition of this image. The intention behind the framing was to create a sense of harmony by using the rule of thirds, placing the horizon near the top to allow the textures and lines within the rocks to lead the eye through the picture. The balance is achieved by the even distribution of visual elements and the contrast between the detailed rocks and the softer sea and sky. I aimed for a composition where no single aspect dominates, encouraging an equilibrium. I’m keen to hear your thoughts on what aspects might be contributing to a sense of imbalance for you. Your insights are very much appreciated and could provide a fresh viewpoint on the image’s composition. @Barbara_Djordjevic
I think this is another wonderful image! There is a strong visual movement from left to right but somehow, for me, having the fault line centered adds strength.
Again, I’m feeling the darks to be too harsh. The histogram stops just short of the left edge but it drops off a cliff where I would expect a toe shape. The other tonalities are so gorgeous – I feel the darks could probably end more gracefully on the left end and still preserve drama. But that’s so easy to say from here…
I don’t think I explained myself very well. I was reacting to the two types of rock formation, and “balance” was not a wise choice of words. One half of the picture was complicated with the rock formation, and the other half had much less going on. It felt like the right half took up too much of the composition. This crop is an attempt to demonstrate what I mean. It is only my take on a beautiful scene. The dark shadows are very dominant. Was there detail in the RAW file? I think that would make a big difference in the composition. When I compare the two, I still feel like the crop isn’t doing the scene justice, so I tried cropping the left, which comes closer to what I envisioned.
Aaah I understand. I like what you have done. Thanks for the effort! I think for me to make this effective I would have to go back and retake the shot from a new angle to achieve what you are suggesting. Going to look at the shadows but the geology of those rocks is virtually black so I am not sure how much more I can pull out of the shadows. Thanks again for your feedback!.
Thanks Diane I’ll take a look at those shadows, the rocks are almost black so not sure how much there is to pull out of them. I think the fault line is the spine of the image. thanks for the feedback!
Thanks for the feedback, I have pulled as much as I can out of those shadows, please let me know what you think. I think it has improved what was there.
I really like your rework with the opened shadows. I like @Barbara_Djordjevic crop but think I enjoy your original vision better. It gives a better sense of place where you can see more of the incoming waves. JMHO
Thanks Michael, I like Barbara’s crop as well, I think to do it justice I would have to stand more to the left and run off the center line more at a diagonal left to right, but maintaining my original aspect ratio. Thanks for your feedback Michael!
Oh yes – so much better with the blacks in the center, but I’d do it globally, right from the raw file conversion. An initial conversion should always be on the low contrast side, with careful attention to the ends of the histogram. You can increase contrast in PS, but can only dig out blocked blacks (and blown whites) with limited success.
Thanks Diane. The first image is with the histogram centralized globally , no clipping, unfortunately this gets away from where I was going with the image. The second I have I have shifted each to where I think globally they make more sense to me. What do you think?
No quibble at all to where you are going – just with the histogram and what I see of it in the blacks on my monitor. Just wondering if it is possible to keep the dramatic darks without the histogram crashing against the left wall – even if it is then slightly moved to the right? I don’t know your processing, but I find a careful balance in raw of Exposure, Shadows, Highlights and Blacks, often with a touch of Clarity, can preserve drama without clipping darks. Even if they are not technically against the wall, a dramatic falloff that has been pulled back from the wall is still clipping important subtle tonalities.
Your images are top-notch wonderful and amazing, but maybe you are relying more on the monitor than the histogram? One of them tells the truth!
Thanks Diane you are spot on I hate that histogram, except for when I am shooting. I have a calibrated monitor but I must admit it is calibrated to my printer and that is very much I print what I see. I am scared to change those settings it took me months to get my printer to where I was happy with the output. I print a lot of my work. I use the shift, double click on the white and black point and it optimizes the point where no clipping occurs, perhaps this is not as accurate as they claim. I use both PSD and LRC so I will compare. Thanks for this valuable feedback I love digging solutions!
I feel your pain, and getting good prints is the holy grail. But… the monitor should be calibrated to reveal what is actually in the image, and then the printing process calibrated / adjusted to print that accurately. If you submit digital copies of these images to a worthy publication – AND YOU SHOULD – they are going to have clipped blacks. Here is the histogram to illustrate what I mean. The left end shouldn’t look like that. You can get the same drama without clipping – with more gentle transitions at the left end.
As far as printing – I wish I could give you a magic formula (I would, in a heartbeat), but I can’t. I haven’t printed for several years, thanks to one of our famous California wildfires, but I never had a problem with a calibrated monitor, giving preference to the histogram, and the right papers with good printing profiles.
I tried sending my work to so many printers, always disappointed, oversaturated, bad color renditions and a multitude of other problems. Eventually bit the bullet and bought my own which is a Canon ImagePROGRAF TM-35, I use several stocks depending on what the image is. For me printing my work is one of the most satisfying parts of the whole process, social media is great for getting some form of recognition however it fades into obscurity when compared to seeing your image on a wall. Thanks for that histogram I am going to spend some time with it. I believe Californian wildfires on on par with ours here in Australia … very very bad!
Thanks for all your help with this image, and for all your encouragement regarding publishing. The feedback about perhaps relying too much on my monitor and not putting enough emphasis on the histogram is totally correct. I am going to look at how I can remedy this.
I’m sorry to hear about your long hiatus from printing. If a wildfire was the cause of this, I hope you’ve managed to recover as much as one can from such a loss.
