This area is one of my favorites to visit during an autumn excursion in Acadia. I find the locale to be so biologically diverse and interesting that I could spend hours there. Mike and I were a little late this year as a lot of the colorful lowbush blueberries had already dropped their leaves so it was a little harder to find some compositions. We were fortunate that that was no wind because this was taken 20 minutes after sunset so a 20 second exposure was needed. This was one of the few verticals I came away with during our trip to NH and ME this October. It seems like I go through stretches where I see images horizontally then for whatever reason it switches over to verticals. As always thanks for taking a look and leaving a thought.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
I have gone back and forth on the color balance here. What do you think?
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
All C&C welcome
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Nikon D800, Nikon 17-35 @ 35 mm, f 18 @ 20 sec, ISO 400, cable release & tripod
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Ah, love this type of shot which often goes unappreciated to those searching for the image of all the landscape icons. To me, this is a killer shot. I respectfully disagree with @Harley_Goldman about backing off the reds. This is how they look in reality which makes this place so colorful with all the reds, blues, greens. I coluld see a small crop from the bottom to eliminate brown section
This is beautiful, Ed. The rich colors are gorgeous. PP looks good to me, although, I agree with @Michael_Lowe on cropping out the bare spot in the lower right.
Really attractive colorwise! I was a bit in doubt about the reds too, first… but they can be so vibrant in autumn, tricky. They go beautiful together with the greens. I agree with the suggested crop too, and I would butrn down or clone out the two white/grey spots on the left, especially if they get closer to the edge due to cropping some.
Possibly my favorite spot on Mt. Desert Island, which is saying a lot. Nicely done Ed.
Regarding color and white balance. I think you nailed the greens and yellows here, they look natural, and just as I remember them. I like the slight blue cast in the tree trunks, I think you need to retain this.
For people who have not seen these red blueberry leaves in person, it must be hard to believe the the red color. But @Michael_Lowe is right, they really do look this intense, especially when wet. If your goal is to re-create what you saw, this does it.
But for creative effect, I might try to shift the hue of the reds to create more color contrast against the green pine boughs. In this rework I added a PS Hue Saturation adjustment layer, and pulled the Hue slider for the Reds about 15 to the right. for my taste this creates slightly better color separation, and a slightly warmer overall feeling without losing the cooler tones in the tree trunks.
This is gorgeous and I must agree with Dave on the colors - rich! I’m glad there are any number of members who can attest to the colors! I might initially agree with Harley, but also trust your local knowledge and experience.
This is wonderful as presented. As an alternate, I started thinking about a horizontal crop (funny you mention going back and forth… and so this won’t help.) The foreground reds and yellow/greens are a tad brighter - I’m sure given the light and direction. But also, I’m not sure all that foreground is needed. I think there is a wonderful balance between the reds and greens even without the bottom 1/3 or so. Just a though for an alternate. Beside the crop I also did a yellow channel selection and boosted sat a few points.
Not sure if this fits your vision of the experience, but here ya go:
