Our trip to BC turned into a trip of Glacier Gazing. We were stunned by the beauty. This morning sunrise over one of them was no exception.
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.
Emotional: Feedback on the emotional impact and artistic value of 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
In spite of the spectacular morning light on the mountain tops, the foreground seems a bit lackluster. Any thoughts/ideas are welcome!
Technical Details
This was seen by my Sony A7RIII on a tripod at 33mm, with an ISO of 500, f11, 1/13
This is a classic grand landscape view and youāve captured it very well. Thereās a wonderful Hudson River School feel to it.
I love the way that youāve framed the edges of the picture with the tallest trees (a very Claude Lorrain technique that has cascaded down the centuries). The splash of light on the central peak is icing on the cake (as is the atomic sky!).
If I were judging this for a competition, Iād definitely notice the lack of interest in the foreground, But, personally I donāt see it as āthatā objectionable, It tells a story of the river. The black area to the left is a bit of a āblack holeā though. Iāve tried to enhance the foreground a bit in my alternative processing example.
The other thing I noticed is that the whole picture is very warm and I know this sort of rendering used to be popular in the days of the warming filter but I think itās probably best to apply warming selectively and have cool areas in the picture for balance too. Iāve cooled down the mid and foreground on my alternate process.
My general philosophy on things like the foreground of this is to always try to integrate it into the picture (if itās large, you can hide smaller areas) and if thatās not possible, crop it out or take a different picture.
In terms of the competition, it would probably be borderline whether it got through to the second round as big views like this are very competitive - but with the strong composition, Iād be erring on putting it forward to the judges in the later rounds.
Iāve been trying to wrap my brain around how much the artistās vision and intent does or does not impact the viewer. Is what the viewer thinks is best actually best?? This is especially true in competitions where judges have no information regarding the photograph, and have to judge the merits of what is presented with no context.
Completely removing myself what you experienced being there and what your vision may be, the āOh Wow!ā part of the image for me would be to crop even more than @Tim_Parkin suggested, down to something like this:
Hah! Great suggestion John. I do like it. It was the foreground that was bugging me, but hadnāt thought of cropping - for some reason? Dunno. Thank you for your thoughtful ideas.
So interesting you bring up Hudson River School as Iāve been studying that style, and had it in mind when I developed this piece. Which is probably why there was the overall warm glow as I finished it with a color grade to bring that out. But I think I agree with you that a blanket of warmth isnāt as nuanced as this scene was. I like the idea of being more selective. In fact, I donāt often use color grading for that very reason. So thank you for pointing it out, and thank you for your time and comments.
