Vineyard Kaleidoscope

Image Critiques Everything Else Critiques
1

48D6656HCR_1500
48D6656HCR_15001500×1323 742 KB

Had no idea where to post this… Flora, yes, it’s a plant; Photo Art, yes, some manipulation, although not a composite; Landscape, my default, Gallery/critique? I really just wanted to share, but still give opportunity for comment or critique. Non-Nature? Sure, why not. Agriculture… Moderator, feel free to move this if another gallery/critique is more appropriate.

I had such a fun and productive morning the other day that included my recent fog/tree images. After a couple hours of fog, it started to lift, but the blanket was thick and I had a few more hours with some nicely diffused light. I spent 2 hours walking the line of this vineyard a few miles from home. It’s mid December and yet some of the vineyards still had lots of leaves and even some grapes - I wondered if they were still going to harvest for perhaps a late harvest zinfandel…

I found this grouping of leaves and was captivated by the variety of color in just one vine. Literally a rainbow of just about every possible color. I’ve enhanced the color/saturation among other things in post, but honestly, the color in the RAW was already there… and I’m always reminded of something I always keep with me from our friend and TK Panel creator, Tony Kuyper, when he said, paraphrasing, “Let the image take you where IT wants to go…” And this was all about color for me. If I was critiquing I’d say there’s no focal point, no place for the eye to rest, too busy, etc. etc. etc. Unless you just want to enjoy the colors of nature (grape vines are natural, right?)

What technical feedback would you like if any?

Feedback if you want, but not really looking. In full disclosure though, this is a single image. While I didn’t add any leaves or rearrange anything per se, I did spend a bit of time “cleaning up” the image. There were a number of gaps where the bg showed through that I either content-awared or cloned in small pieces of leaves, or in some cases selected the small area and dropped the brightness. And still there are a couple of places I missed. I removed small bits of wire and distracting stems. But for the most part, the main leaves are as they were found. In terms of processing, some dodging/burning and selective color/saturation and contrast work as well as a good dose of Orton.

While I’d be dishonest if I tried to pawn this off as reality… I still like to push the bounds of what is perceived as real. And this is almost believable. What the heck, I enjoyed this process from the moment of capture all the way through sharing it…

Any, all comments welcome.

What artistic feedback would you like if any?

Stand alone? or does this need a focal point? Is there one?

Any pertinent technical details:

Nikon D800E, 28-300mm @100mm, f/11, single exposure

Thanks!

You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
2

This is a very enjoyable leaf abstract. I might dodge the URC a bit to even things out, but not a huge thing. I like this a lot.

3

This is really sweet, Lon. I like all the different colors and the light is great. I and others have posted images of this nature in Flora and we never got any kick back over it. Most of the flora images are of domestic cultivars or gardens anyhow.

4

Great color, and wonderful patterns. There is a nice flow of color from cool at lower right to reds on the left. I agree with Harley’s suggestion. Nicely done, sir!
-P

5

Lon, I tried to leave a comment this morning at 0200 before my J-tree trip. However, the system had issues. The regular & caps were all reversed. So, I was afraid if I left the comment it would reverse back and be almost all in caps. Seems OK now.

Anyway, for me it was a wonderful floral print look. I think my first thought was Monet-ish. Not to be at all cliche either, it just looks like a painting and his work had lots of soft floral as I recall.
I also was going to comment like Harley about brightening the URHC with whatever method works best there. Beyond that it is a really nice scene and very well processed too…:+1:

6

Nice image!
I’d say flora - is surely is not non-nature.
Sandy

7

I like all the colors here and feel the variation in color is one of the strengths. Light-wise, though, it feels a bit flat. A bit too homogeneous across the frame. I could see trying to spotlight some of the leaves, maybe the yellows to create a bit more subtle contrast especially in the images center.

8

Hi, Lon - Sure looks like leaves to me - so Flora, I think.
Leaves are nature, aren’t they?
Sweet image, although I agree with Tony that it’s a bit flat.
Sandy