Out and about, sticking my head into willow thickets again. This was in the middle of the afternoon, so getting interesting refractions and bokeh balls with back light wasn’t happening. Really still experimenting with this idea, looking for interesting patterns, lines, and color (although I am adjusting color balance and making local color adjustments to balance things out).
Specific Feedback Requested
Is the upper left quadrant too empty? Any other critique always welcome.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
a7r3, f/6.3, 1/250s, ISO 200.
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Very pretty, Bonnie! It looks like a painting.
Fantastic!! Fascinating color and composition with abstract patterns! UL looks fine to me. The diagonal in the LL pulls my eye a bit – I might do a subtle partial opacity clone on it.
I think I might like this more than your previous one. Yes, for me this is the better of the two. Somehow I get the feeling we’ll be seeing more of these. I look forward to them. One suggestion: make that dominant white vertical twig continuous all the way through. It fades into the light bg about 1/3 of the way up.
Thanks @Vanessa_Hill, @Diane_Miller, and @Igor_Doncov for your feedback.
Good call, Igor. Thanks.
These must be a lot harder to do than one might think, kudos to you for diving into experimentation. The ULC being “empty” does not bother me. But for my subjective taste, the darker tones in the upper left quadrant (ULQ) reduce the luminosity and sense of “lightness” relative to the rest of the image. I would prefer to see a slight bit more luminosity, and perhaps more saturation in the ULQ, to make it look more like the right half.
Thanks for your thoughts, @Ed_McGuirk. I fiddle-faddled with that ULQ to bring it into harmony with the rest of the frame, but it does still look a bit muddy, doesn’t it.
I had a go at a rework by using a “color-dodge” on the ULQ. For this I used a TK Dodge layer thru a Midtones 2 mask, but changed the brush color from white to pale peach, selected from the right half of the image. Then I applied a PS warming filter adjustment layer, and masked it into only the ULQ, and a bit into the LLC. Here is the result. I think this makes the ULQ look more similar to the rest of the image.
Bonnie, do you feel you have enough control with this system to completely control your composition?
Looks good, @Ed_McGuirk. Thanks for the ideas!
@Igor_Doncov, I would have to say no, not complete control. There’s often something in the frame that you just can’t get rid of without ruining what is a relatively good composition. The trick (for me) is to minimize and/or choose the distractions such that you know you can deal with them relatively easily later (cloning, color adjustments, etc.).
The lack of control and the inability to clearly picture what the final result will be is part of the charm for me. Rather like weird reflection shots.
Now that’s an interesting statement. I wonder how many others feel that way. I suppose the increasing popularity of ICMs answers that question. The only thing comparable that I do is taking long SS exposures of running water. To a degree it’s a crapshoot. You just keep shooting hoping that something good will turn up.
That’s true for running water, water reflections, other moving things for sure, but not so much for shoot-throughs. For water and moving things, the camera is seeing in a way that we can’t - I find that fascinating (and yes, one does end up with lots of dud frames). For shoot-throughs, though, things are still, so the scene can be composed. Again, the camera is seeing in a way we can’t, but one can see through the viewfinder the main compositional elements.
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