Changing of the Guard

Gallery: LandscapePosted February 15, 2015384 views4 comments

I captured this image last fall in the Smokies along the Middle Prong of the Little River near Tremont. This was a unique day in the park as all of the roads were closed due to the risk of fallen trees from a snowfall that had fallen that morning, but they allowed you to walk along the roads in the park. By this time, the snow had melted in the lower elevations, but it had left the vegetation with a beautiful sheen.

All honest comments and critiques are welcome. I'm particularly interested in whether the comp resonates with others. It's obviously busy, but I feel like it still has a good flow despite everything that is going on. I know many would prefer more detail in the water. It was late on an overcast day and since I anticipated needing to recover shadow detail I didn't want to risk introducing any noise by using a higher ISO. In hindsight I should have shot a higher ISO file and tried to blend in just the water.

Capture Info:
21 mm
f11 @ 5 sec (due to very low light)
ISO 100

Processing Info:
RAW processing in Capture One Pro - basic adjustments to recover shadow detail as well as clarity and structure adjustments and a little sharpening (the web version is probably a tad oversharpened due to compression).

PS adjustments limited to TK's luminosity masks to adjust midtone, highlight and shadow contrast.

Comments

4 comments

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on February 16, 2015 at 2:20 PM

Bryan, you've got some lovely colors and textures here, plus the wetness really lets the stones shine. As an aside, how nice to walk into a usually busy National park on your own. I'm fine with the lack of detail in the water, but keep wanting to see further down the stream.

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by gary phillips on February 16, 2015 at 7:04 PM

I like this a lot, Brian. The lack of detail on the water does not bother me in the least. I also love the detail and sheen in the rocks and leaves. I think the large Boulder on the left is not doing you a lot of favors here. I sorta agree with Mark, that more of the stream showing would have been ideal, but a real nice image as is.

Registered on October 24, 2013, 185 Posts, 4136 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Bristol on February 18, 2015 at 9:54 AM

Brian, You found some wonderful conditions to make this shot. I agree with you that the sheen on the vegetation and rocks looks great! Nice colors and textures in this as well. I agree with Mark and Gary that seeing more of the stream would have been ideal if that large boulder wasn't there, but it still works fine and you deal with what you have. I bet it was nice and quiet in there!

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Registered on February 1, 2004, 752 Posts, 14140 Comments

Comment posted by Igor Doncov on February 22, 2015 at 11:42 PM

Well, I think this is a fine composition. There is a center of interest, the big rock, an interesting foreground, leaves among the rocks, and a good background, the trees. It would have been good to have better definition in the water but as you say the lighting was questionable. I find that sometimes it's good to shoot the image as it is at twilight, rather than try to make it look like earlier in the day. Twilight scenes have their own beauty.

The other suggestion is to cool down the overall image. The water has a an olive brown color which I am assuming is due to the warming that was done to the image. But perhaps that was the actual color of the water (tannic), I just don't know.

Anyway, it's a fine image that I would experiment with some more.

Registered on November 22, 2014, 189 Posts, 2733 Comments