I have found that my best use of NPN at this time (when not trying to help with critiques, which is a tremendously valuable exercise in and of itself), is when I’m not sure if a composition or scene is successful. I’ve found that I have benefitted greatly from the perspective of others when I’m just not sure if a shot is going to make it or not.
Such is the case with this image. This was taken this past spring at a location called Blue Ridge Pinnacle which is at the NE corner of the Asheville Watershed on the BRP. This is a pristine forest untouched by man for the most part, and serves to provide water for our community. This image helps demonstrate why with the building storms over the valley. What can’t be seen through the fog is the body of water collected by the storms that frequent the beautiful forests and streams within them.
Anyway, I’d be interested in your thoughts and of course I beg you to be open/honest.
D850; 14-24 f/2.8 @14mm; ISO50; 1/50 @ f/13, single shot. LR & PS w/luminance and color mask work.
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
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WOW! Over the past few months on NPN I am learning a lot, including that you folks who get to the Appalachians have eome wonderful sights of Nature to behold.
The strength of the rocky pyramid with its channels, echoing the hill beyond, is the real strength of this image to me.
Some things you might want to try, would include
Pushing the clouds to purple or? a little
Cropping to 5x7 to see if less sky still conveys the impact you want.
Mildly warming up/ saturating some of the orange brush (I also hit the lichen on the rock, maybe a bit too much for good taste)
Taking advantage of those leading lines and changing the 50-50 composition I got this. I think that you weren’t taking advantage enough of those leading lines in this comp. My first thought was that the aspect ratio was too high and narrows but it works well with those high lines.
This is a difficult one. I can find myself in the comments about the leading lines, the channels in the rock. But I also agree with @svetlana that the rock feels too heavy. And my problem is not with the rock with the lines, but with the rather solid rock on the left edge of the image.
Maybe a slightly different position when you made the photo could have avoided this dilemma? In post-processing there is little else left than to crop, but I don’t want to lose your leading lines. I tried to crop away part of the left of the image and cropped a bit of sky as well, to keep the aspect ratio more or less the same.
I really like the foreground and color treatment in this image ,and overall it works well for me. My only suggestion was too much sky and a crop along the line that @Igor_Doncov offered.
Jim,
I am enjoying the view along with the drama from that cloud as it slides over the ridge line. There is no doubt in my mind that the image makes it. For me each slight tweak makes an already fine image even better. I like @Han_Schutten’s suggestions the best. I would definitely not crop from the bottom as the leading lines in the rock are perfect for drawing the viewer into the scene. His crop from the left reduces the prominence of that larger rock and the crop from the sky moves the image off of a 50/50 split. Beautifully done.
Jim, I usually see a voting pattern in such cases. The first person affects several votes that follow directly after him. Then someone offers a different option and a bunch of others agree with him in succession. As a result I don’t really know how valuable voting stats are. I would independently look at the offered changes and pick what you like regardless of how many like it. You were probably going to do that anyway.
I’m with you, Jim. I’m not sure whether this one appeals to me. There are several things that work well such as the diagonals that lead the eye from the bottom to the center and on up to the sky, the simple composition, and the green vegetation. And the location and geologic setting is quite appealing. Those I like.
But I guess I’m less impressed with the light and sky. I think with more dynamic light and sky this could be very compelling and just beautiful!
Jim, this has both a killer foreground and mid-ground, but it’s the sky that’s the weaker part of the image. I definitely would not crop the bottom, not with leading lines in the rock like this. I also like the triangle / pyramid shape in the rock being somewhat repeated in the distant mountain.
I don’t think the sky and clouds are strong enough to the carry the composition as presented. The clouds/sky don’t have enough texture or color. I’m not sure cropping from the top helps a lot in this regard either, since you just end up with less of an uninteresting sky. But it sounds like this location is someplace you could easily revisit. With a foreground and mid-ground as strong as this, I would want to go back when you can get more interesting conditions in the sky, and repeat the original composition.
