Living by Lake Ontario we tend to have more cloudy days and this was one of them. I decided to take a longer exposure to get the mood of the morning. I liked the way the sun came through the clouds and lit up the barren tree branches,
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
We get very overcast days like the one above. Looking for advice on how to get the most out of a cloudy sky.
Technical Details
Sony Alpha A6600 Tamron 18-300 mm
f16, 2.5 sec, ISO 100, 18 mm
Hi Bradley,
that’s a really nice beach scene. I like the moody look and that beautiful tree leaning over the rock.
There are a few small changes you could make to improve the image:
In the branches on the left edge of the frame I see some Chromatic Aberrations (those little magenta color fringes). They can easily be removed in LR in the Lens Corrections Panel:
The horizon does not seem straight to me. It looks like it is bending down in the middle. Maybe that was introduced by the distortion of your wide-angle lens. You can try to fix that with the appropriate checkbox in the same panel:
The image seems to have a slight gradient from left to right (it gets darker towards the right edge). Maybe you can use a linear graduated filter in LR or ACR to compensate for this.
And lastly, I would desaturate the blues in the clouds a bit. But that’s a matter of taste, of course.
Again, a really beautiful beach scene that makes you want to walk through the sand.
Hi Bradley and fellow Great Laker - I’m in Wisconsin so have Superior and Michigan by me, but oh Ontario reminds me of that last one because it’s that lovely blue. I think the longer exposure works here to soften the overall look and creates nice contrast with that wonderful bendy tree.
The first thing that jumps out at me is a magenta cast - noticeable in the clouds and the sand appears pink. Jens already addressed a couple of other things that are easy fixes and even showed where to find the tools for it in Lr.
In terms of skies here are a couple of things that have worked for me. Expose for the highlights. These days cameras hang onto so much shadow detail that bringing those up in post works pretty well if you aren’t going to bracket and blend photos. Sometimes though that isn’t enough and so isolating the sky in your scene becomes important. You don’t say you use Lightroom, but if you do, I’ve done some noodling with how to keep sky adjustments from bleeding into trees and far horizons. Sometimes a straight Sky selection will do it, but if it doesn’t you can try intersecting that with a luminance or color range to keep it out of the trees, or to feather it into your far horizon in a more natural way. Sometimes object selection will do it as well to subtract something from the sky selection. I also sometimes use a Linear Gradient to soften the blend so that it doesn’t look obvious.
Here’s a screen shot of an example of using just a luminance range to select the sky -
Another thing I try to remember with skies is to keep them in tune with the light in the scene - so not to make them too warm or too stormy or too light or dark. If the light on my subject isn’t doing the same thing it looks weird and fake. They have to match. There is a tiny bit of incongruity with your photo in the sky with the bright blue and the relative dimness on the sand, if that makes sense.
Phew! This got kind of long. Sorry about that, but maybe it was helpful. I hope it was. If something wasn’t clear, let me know and I’ll do my best to explain. I look forward to more scenes from Lake Ontario and wherever else your camera takes you.
Bradley, this is a classic composition. Wonderful. @Jens_Ober and @Kris_Smith already suggested some changes that will take this image over the top. If you choose to make some changes, please feel free to edit your original post and add the rework to the top of the thread.
It’s a really peaceful image from my perspective. Well done.
A lovely lakeside landscape image. My actual first thought was “tropical.” the color in the water is beautiful and even the sky really makes me think of some place in the Bahama’s/Carribean… So “overcast skies” isn’t the impression I’m getting - But hey, I think that’s a good thing. And to answer your question, you got plenty out of the cloud sky - so kudos on that.
Jens and Kris have already detailed some of the elements that could be improved. Other than the Chromatic abberations and slightly distorted horizon line, I think the colors are within a personal preference. I do see the magenta Kris refers to, especially in the sand, but I kinda like how that goes with the aqua-green of the water.
Compositionally, despite the main part of the tree being centered, I think the composition works and the lower part is balanced between the base of the tree, the rock, and then balanced by the water on the other side. The sky is great and again gives me more of the Tropics look and feel - like I can almost feel the humidity…
I can’t leave without mentioning the sensor dust. Not a big deal or image killer at all, but one of those things that if you’re going to print or ever submit somewhere, you want to go over your images with a fine tooth comb. A LOT of little things to remember along the way - and don’t worry too much, we all overlook these things with our images.
Thank you Jens for more great suggestions to improve the photo. I need to spend more time working with these settings. I appreciate the time you took on the comments.
