Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.
Questions to guide your feedback
What drew you to this image?
What mood does this put you in?
How would you change the colors, if at all?
How else would you process it?
Other Information
Please leave your feedback before viewing the blurred information below, once you have replied, click to reveal the text and see if your assessment aligns with the photographer. Remember, this if for their benefit to learn what your unbiased reaction is.
Image Description
Nothing too mysterious here. This is a reflection of the sky, clouds, and mountainside in a lake in a very high alpine cirque in Colorado’s Sawatch Range near Aspen. Conditions were perfect for hiking and photographing such things, with a light wind moving the water’s surface to and fro, creating lovely dynamic and gentle ripples.
Technical Details
Metadata from LR:
Basic Panel of processing:
Effects Panel:
Plus Denoise
Specific Feedback
Interested in any and all comments.
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Gorgeous! The shapes convey peaceful movement and I can hear the gentle rippling of a mountain stream. The colors are equally calming, with small features to keep me exploring. Very nice!!!
I love vignettes but here I wonder about lightening the top a bit. Somehow I feel that would suggest that the water goes on and on, leading my imagination to something beyond. Small point though – a fabulous image!
A very peaceful image and I love the rainbow ovals and the brownish streaks, Matt. If I had to name a drawback it would be the relatively narrow depth of field. I find my attention stays focused between the lower brown streak and the third one up and just doesn’t stray above that without forcing it. The processing looks fine to me.
I really like this type of image; this one is effective because of the moderate use of DOF, giving the reflection its due prominence.
If it were mine, I would have cloned out the dark parts in both top corners
@SandyR-B , @Diane_Miller, @Dennis_Plank , @joaoquintela, Thank you to each of you for your comments and suggestions. I appreciate that each of you found something about my image you liked and differed with.
I modified my processing to try each of your suggestions and reposted. To lighten the top part, I removed the vignette, added a subtle linear gradient from the bottom and slightly lightened the global exposure.
Joao, I purposefully avoided cropping those dark corners out to see if anyone would comment and feel the same way. I’ve cropped them out in the repost.
Dennis, for the DOF, I see that I had plenty of room to adjust the aperture in my settings, so thanks for letting me know that it matters for you, whereas for Joao and me, the blur is fine.
Interesting to see it with the upper part lighter (thanks for giving it a try!) so now I’m not so sure it was a good idea, as the two upper dark reflections look a lot alike now. I’m wondering about cropping off the top one. But that’s a pretty small thought… I love all the variations!
I love them too, Diane. They are all non-destructive and if I don’t try it, I’ll never know.
When I was learning B&W processing, I learned from late photographer Jack Curran to experiment with every LR slider just to see the effects. I still take that approach and sometimes I get unusual and pleasantly surprising results that I incorporate into my standard workflow.
