Critique Style: Standard
The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.
Feedback Focus: Artistic + Technical
About This Image
Our last morning at Yosemite, we had several hours where the sun began to burn through the thick fog that lay in the valley. Some of my favorites from our trip were from that brief period of magic. It was a morning to remember.
Feedback Requested
Does the ridgeline add or subtract for you? (I have a landscape format without it.)
I toyed with the idea of cropping this shorter, but I really like the dewdrops catching the sunlight in the foreground. (Unfortunately, they don’t come through as well in this downsized version. If you you open the full-size version, and click on it, once opened, to be sure it is full-size, you can see them a little better.) Would you recommend cropping the bottom out?
I typically tone my black and whites, but left this as is. Does the conversion look okay?
Technical Details
Camera: NIKON Z 7_2
Lens: NIKKOR Z 28-400mm f/4-8 VR
Focal length: 70mm
Shutter speed: 1/80s
Aperture: f/16
ISO: 64
Blend of four images for DOF
Absolutely adds. However, I really should not say that without confirming it by actually seeing it with the necessary crop. This goes back to what I wrote about a visual critique being the gold standard. However, such a crop would also change the aspect ratio and I agree that with this subject you have a good vertical format. I did look at a blow up of this and could see the sparkle in the dew drops as mentioned.
There is a dark shape of a pine tree behind the leftmost tree. Does that add to the fg tree or detract from it? I can make arguments for both. I think I like that faded pine but would prefer it in a different location. Once again this is theory and would have to make the edits (remove it) to confirm my theory.
I also played around with making the meadow lighter as I felt that darkness dominates the faint silhouette too much. However I couldn’t come up with anything good. I guess I’m stuck with trying to emulate the fog classical paintings from the Orient. Maybe that’s a mental block.
But the curve of the ridge up top is masterful.
This is a beautiful scene. The layers of the fog behind the trees and your comp are excellent. I think the Ridgeline adds to, and is important to the scene. At full size the sparkle of the dew drops is visible. I also love that it’s a vertical format.
John,
Interesting subject matter. The photo is evocative. To me it has an apocalyptic mood, perhaps because of the uprooted tree and the broken contorted tree on the right. In addition, the ridge line in the BG has an overshadowing effect. While I am sure the environment was one that brought about elation, as Yosemite just has that effect. So it is strange to me that this photo has the opposite mood to me. The B&W processing is good, but I wonder if the color version might capture the magical light that was present.
John,
Absolutely! I imagine other comps could work too (as you suggest you have,) but in this vertical comp I think that ridgeline helps frame and design the landscape. Just enough space/sky up top - you wouldn’t want more since it looks cloudless and empty; but space-wise important to include.
B&W works great here too and good call on allowing the viewer to see/explore the foreground. The dew is apparent, but doesn’t necessarily jump out at you.
I too wonder like Youssef what this looks like in color - in terms of seeing and bringing out the meadow grasses and dew.
As presented, I actually don’t immediately think “Yosemite” (although I know for all kinds of reasons it is.) Maybe it’s because I don’t recognize the specific trees and location - it could be anywhere. Not a bad thing, just an observation.
John, this looks great in b&w, with the three main trees standing out well.. I like the ridge and the luminosity variations in the fog. At quick look, I’d crop off about half of the bottom. That keeps a good presence of the glowing drops but emphasizes the trees and the fog. As I look longer, I’m liking the “tallness” of the view and how that emphasizes the tree on the right, as well as inviting the viewer into the picture.
Thank you @Igor_Doncov , @Steve_Kennedy , @Youssef_Ismail , @Lon_Overacker, and @Mark_Seaver .
Igor, your detailed thoughts on ideas, and your reaction to your own ideas, is very helpful as I bang them around thinking about this picture. When there, I was focused on the forground tree and fallen branch to its left, and didn’t notice that background tree on the left. I’ll play with reducing its contrast to the fog around to minimize it, and see how that looks.
Youssef and Lon, your points about the this being from Yosemite are really good ones; I hadn’t thought of them enough. As photographers, we can’t avoid being affected by the time and place the photo was taken. The viewer sees the photo more in isolation from the event, and often (IMHO) that really change how they are appreciated.
Thanks all for the comments on the ridgeline. I’ll keep that around.
John,
I did a scroll crop on this and I have to say that adding in the mountain top adds a lot to the image. With the crop it completely eliminates any idea of there being a mountain behind the trees. I also love the layers of fog in the background providing tremendous mood. The moisture on the foreground grasses is beautiful and adds little specular highlights giving the scene more depth.
I would need to see you play with toning this but the standardized B&W treatment works beautifully for me. Nicely seen, John. This is a non traditional Yosemite image and that’s hard to pull off. Well done.
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This is beautifully done, John. The transparency of the fog and the overall luminosity of the scene work very nicely. Honestly, the pine tree doesn’t bother me, but it would be interesting to see if it’s presence could be reduced.
Stellar image, sir!
-P
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I’m a little late here, John, but I wanted to pop in to agree on the value of that background hill. I would love to see the landscape aspect image as well, but that’s a whole different composition. I played with the crops, and here, losing the mountain would put this tree in “anywhere” category. It could be Iowa, Alabama. I like the hill and it’s tonality, which adds to the wonderful range we get from bottom to top (or vice versa).
Perhaps it’s my monitor, but the droplets of dew are not “coming through” for me. You could perhaps crop some of the foreground if that’s your reason for including so much of it, but that also reduces the verticality, which is part of the appeal here, so I don’t think that would improve upon the composition.
Nicely done,
ML
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A crop without the ridge gives me a totally different feeling. Without the ridge, the scene is much more intimate to me. The ridge, with the very nice curve, gives me an impression of a much grander scene, in spite of the fog. The fog limits the view, but this seems to be low fog that allows one to see behind the subject (the trees).
I definitely prefer the image with the ridge included. But I can also imagine a square crop, without the ridge and with less FG.
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This is very nice.
beautiful composition.
Keep the ridgline
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Nice one, John! I really like this and I’m glad you chose to include the ridge line. In fact. I like your “loose” composition quite a bit and wouldn’t think about changing it.
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