Wife-Approved

Rework

Critique Style Requested: Initial Reaction

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

Cultural adjustment necessary?

Other Information

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Image Description

Early morning light breaks under clouds, washing over what appears to be a multi-stall horse barn, near a small lake in an area designated as Wife-Approved Huts near Greybull, Wyoming.

Technical Details

Canon EF 5D IV; EF 70-200mm @ 125mm; f/8 @ 1/1000 sec, ISO 500; Gitzo tripod; RRS ballhead

Specific Feedback

Whatever you think, positive or negative.

I like the painterly soft feel of the sky and distant hill that seems to set the cabin in a different time. For me the yellow grasses in the foreground are nice but perhaps a bit too saturated?

The title and your question suggest that you bought this property on a whim, and were very relieved that she approved, as you both love the area and she knows you’ll make a home of it, with you both making the necessary adjustment! It is painterly, but the lower half could perhaps be brightened (except for the yellow grasses). I’d like to see your residence and lake at least brightened a bit. Excellent composition.

I love the light and the way the trees lean in this image, Bob. The shading in most of the image is relatively subtle and but some of the dead grass patches in the foreground are bright enough to try anchoring my eye though they do lead through the frame nicely. I could see bringing them down just a bit.

P.S. I don’t think my wife was one of the ones consulted.

Thank you for your input @Cathy_Proenza , @Dennis_Plank and @Mike_Friel. I reprocessed the image to incorporate your suggestions as best as I interpreted them—reduce the saturation in the foreground grasses, lighten the lake and barn. To me it looks like later in the morning and a bit flat

This version does look a bit flat compared to the original. Maybe a compromise between the two on those grasses?

@Dennis_Plank: Kind of like working with more than one art director.

3 Likes

I know the feeling. You just have to take the parts you like and ignore those you don’t. It’s all just suggestions and no one is right or wrong. And I really like this version.

@Dennis_Plank : beginning back in the days of B&W film and linotype composing I have been published in Specialty field texts, juried journals, magazines etc. Every one of those houses have their own preferences and standards. If you have had that experience you would remember the “Galley Proof.” Even when one approves of it, there are changes made. The adage was “There is no writing, only rewriting.”

1 Like

I like what you did with this final version. I did like the yellow grass, but a little light. But it lost the feel in the second version. This version gives more depth from foreground to background. As someone said earlier, very painterly. Though, an image you could just walk into too. Nicely put together.

Thank you @ Patrick. We all perceive the world differently, for far too many reasons to mention. There is, however, a range of acceptability when talking “art.” I once was speaking with Galen Rowell’s curator who volunteered he “did not understand the public’s concept of beautiful art.” I agreed by pointing out they buy Velvet Elvises and Thomas Kinkade ‘s. He roared.

1 Like

@Bob_Faucher Ha, love it. And I was going to put in my original note, it really comes down to how you want it to look.