Round Valley Sunrise

Gallery: LandscapePosted December 19, 2011116 views5 comments

5D-1815

Round Valley is always spectacular early and late, with the trees lining the fields and roads. Unfortunately shots are hard to come by because most of them are on private property. The scene reminded me of some I saw in Art History courses. I really liked the European and American landscape paintings from the 19th century. This is my third attempt at the image and I am still not 100% sure about it. though it is the best try so far.

The Maxfield Parrish colors in the sky were the easy part. Maintaining the light glow in the trees and foreground was the hard part. This is a single exposure worked in LR using the selection tool to control the lower portions. There is little done to the background and sky.

Comments

5 comments

Comment posted by Phil Pogledich on December 19, 2011 at 2:02 PM

Works pretty well for me, Guy, and I like the sky and distant mountains (particularly on the RHS). The composition is also good and I can appreciate the limitations presented by private property ownership. If there's anything here that I'd critique, it would be the relatively strong contrast on some of the trees that just doesn't quite seem to fit with the rest of the scene. Some areas in particular seem a little dark in the middle of the grove. Minor stuff.

Registered on August 24, 2009, 123 Posts, 3099 Comments

Comment posted by Richard Teller on December 19, 2011 at 5:03 PM

This is a nice pleasant composition and the colors are nice. But for some reason it lacks some punch for me. The way the tree line is shaped high to low from right to left it feels like it should be leading me into the frame, but the is not a lot on the left side of the frame to lead the eye to. It would be great if the mountains were on the left side of the frame with the trees leading the eye to them.

Registered on August 23, 2010, 1162 Posts, 6692 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on December 19, 2011 at 10:07 PM

The light here is spectacular, Guy. You managed it well. Comp-wise I could see trying not line up the two main elements in the center of the frame. One on the left and the other on the right would maybe create more tension and balance.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on December 20, 2011 at 9:25 PM

Guy,

Classic Owen's valley scenic. Great sky and I really like the peaks "peeking" out from behind the clouds on the right. In fact I wish there was more of that. Nice job with the light and processing. No nits or suggestions.

Lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments

Comment posted by Roger Hayden on December 21, 2011 at 12:17 AM

My first take on this was what you said: classic19th Century painting feel. For me, the mountains in the background to the right compete with the trees and cloud. Obviously, nothing you can do about that, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Registered on November 21, 2009, 41 Posts, 201 Comments