hey everybody,
wow. it has been a long while since i last posted here. actually it’s been a while since i posted anywhere online. partly because i didn’t have the time to and partly because i was sick of posting on social media platforms (that includes so called photography platforms).
and then a few months back for the first time i thought about posting on any of the nature photography forums i used to frequent in the early days of my photography. i checked and it seemed like activity was on an all-time low so i forgot about it again… and then came the “rebirth” of npn!! i’m glad to see all you old and new faces posting and critiqueing in a way unseen recently.
the shot presented here was taken two years ago on a long trip through south america in a remote salt flat of argentina. during these months my workflow had matured quite a bit and i started putting a lot of thought into my shots (unlike the earlier days when i was more of a run-and-gun photographer on the hunt for out-of-the-ordinary conditions). the resulting shot pretty much resembles what i had in mind when scouting the composition and setting up the camera.
thanks for taking the time to look and you comments.
cheers
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
anything that comes to your mind. composition, processing, colour balance,…
i’m quite happy with the shot and it awaits its finishing touches - but if you tear it apart, i’d be willing to start from scratch
Any pertinent technical details:
5 exposures blended with LR hdr feature and then edited in PS. cloned out a few dust particles.
I would have bet anything this was Death Valley. This looks great. Any suggestions would be different interpretations and not necessarily better. I would raise the shadows just a teensy bit to show more detail. I would also cool the image so that those bright sunlight edges combine with bluish interiors. Just my dos centavos.
The thing I like the most of this image is how the sun illuminates the edges of the salt patterns. I don’t think there is anything wrong with this images, I bet it would look good printed large. Thanks for the share!
Jody
Beautiful shot~ I like how the sun lines up with the first point and line in the center of the frame on the bottom. Out of curiosity, how long do you usually have for a shot like this before the sun illuminates too much of the flats?
So glad you decided to come back and post. I suspect there are many giving their online posting a presence another shot. I know I’ve been motivated a bit more by the new NPN.
Love this image! The belly-level view works beautifully letting the ridges capture those last rays of light - extremely effective with lots of impact. I can see why you’re very happy with this!
Nothing to be critical of I don’t think. I suppose, and it’s all dependent on personal taste, but I could see boosting the contrast in the sky/sunset - a very wee bit. Again, it’s all taste - and I’m sure as well how you may like your prints to look.
I love the symmetry of the salt patterns. Sometimes Nature can be so precise and symmetrical that it doesn’t seem real, and this is one of those cases. Those pentagons and hexagons just really pull my eye in. I think your perspective was great.
Color balance on this is going to be very personal, and will probably depend on whether you print it or not.
I like it as is. Very, very cool.
Hello sailor! My god I love this image. That light is absolutely sublime.
Couple of comments:
I’d like a teensy little bit more shadow detail around the edges. I think the vigenette hurt it just a touch.
Mostly a personal taste thing but I’d love to see you push those glowing edges a little more - a little dodging with colour to increase the ‘glow’ and saturation and really giving it some extra pop.
@Igor_Doncov: my idea was to accentuate the golden highlights against the cooler shadowy areas. i wouldn’t want to bring those closer in terms of hue/white balance.
@Kah-Kit_Yoong, @Richard_Wong: in went a bit wider overall now. maybe just a wee bit more for the sky. does it make a difference? i’m still unsure if it adds anything - and i remember going back and fourth on the original crop.
@Nathaniel_Merz: we’re talking about not more than a minute here. luckily this was a sunset, so i could set up the comp and just wait for the light to get better. even more critical in this case was the sunstar though.
@Sam_Ison: yep, i went overboard with the vignette on the foreground - thanks!
This one is so good Joerg! I think i prefer the version with slightly less vignette in the FG, but either way it is just brilliant. This would be a highlight of just about anyone’s portfolio.
