Backstory:
On January 28th of this year, I was recovering from my second round of Covid and decided to try my snowshoeing lungs in the fresh, deep snow. I was delighted to know that my weakened lungs did not hold me back too bad and the day was winter wonderland with falling and blowing snow. I shot a few small scenes earlier, but I wanted a bnw landscape to better capture my experience on that gorgeous day.
Type of Critique Requested
Emotional: Feedback on the emotional impact and artistic value of the image.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
Originally, I wanted more background detail, but I felt that the mood changed too negatively by showing more jagged trees through the more transparent snow. Instead, I settled for this more ethereal, high key feel that is truer to the faw file and closer to how I felt on that day. I also enjoy the more opaque, mysterious feel that the background provides.
How does the overall feeling speak to you? How do you feel about the balance and flow? Does the opaque background work well? Is there anything else you think is needed?
Also, the title is simply a descriptive place holder until a more creative title replaces it. I would enjoy hearing your title suggestions
Technical Details
Editing: LR, 3x4 crop, removed dust spots.
I pulled blacks down moderately, but made modest adjustments elsewhere.
I really like this image and it has a great wintery feel. I think your choice to make this high key was a good one because it really help get that felling of a beautiful snowy winter day across. I do feel however that the image benefit from a little more balance - “everything” is kind of in the lower left and there is just that big expanse of of white at the top (and to the right). I think that if you cropped a bit off the top and the right, so that the big tree would be closer to the edge of the frame that the image might be a bit stronger.
Thank you for your helpful input, Tom. I did feel that it was previously unbalanced, but I think I was emotionally attached to the extra white space. I burned some of the highlights at the top and the right. I cropped to a 4x5 and a bit off of the right.
Welcome again, and what a fantastic first post here. This is an outstanding and beautiful image. Great choice with the b&w and the processing is spot on, especially with the hint of the bg trees up top - this adds quite a dynamic element to the nature story being told here.
I was thinking along the same lines as Tom’s and I see your repost - exactly! The original was a little too “tall” for me. But even after the crop, there still is enough “empty” space with hints of the bg trees showing through, that I think the overall scene just balances beautifully in your edited post. (BTW, best practice - when adding an edited version, you are free to simply “edit” your original post and add the re-worked image. this way, members can flip between versions to be able to compare the edits. No biggie, but fyi.)
I keep going back and forth between the original and Tom’s crop, and I think I prefer the original because of the clouds swirling in the lower right side of the photo. Tom’s crop loses some of this and to my eye, that’s a big part of what I like here. I also don’t mind the negative space at the top. The high key processing is perfect here. What a fantastic find.
