Vineyard Autumn (added rework)

Hey folks,

I know I haven't been participating much as of late, but somehow life, work, the holidays... all seem to get in the way of photography. :-( Haven't been out much, but I did sneak in a couple of hours at the end of November when the local vineyards were busting with color.

I'm curious about a couple of things and would like your opinions. First, is this over-saturated? And second, what do you think about the open LRC? There's plenty of leaves and color that I can make a good crop without this corner, but I kinda liked having some of the leaves slightly in the open. Anyway, give me your honest opinion.

4x5, V100f

Thanks,
Lon

In general, I like this. It's a little over-saturated for my taste, but I could live with it. The colors are so bright and I love that diagonal line of yellow-orange that I didn't notice the LRC till you mentioned it.

It is a little empty there. Perhaps darkening is bit would help.

- Dab,

Lon, I agree with Dan, once I notice that lower corner my eye keeps wanting to return there, great colors.

The saturation looks fine on my work monitor, but that is not very accurate. LRC - I would prefer to see the brighter leaves darkened a little. It tends to pull my eye away from the center and heart of the image. I don't mind the dark area, just the brighter purple tones within it.

Lon, although I'm a big fan of pushing the colors up if obtainable without too much distraction, this one seems too pushed to me. From a WOW factor it is an incredible image and I love it, I just think it is a bit too much on the saturation, but man does it look great. So, I guess if it looks good it must be good. The LRHC does not affect my thoughts on the image at all here, the scene beyond the saturation is fine and very natural looking to me overall.

I'm a big fan of colors, and I think it looks great. I find often that if the colors look a little over the top on screen they look perfect when printed and you lose that backlight (at least for me). I think the LRC is important to keep as it is what lets the yellows create a nice diagonal through the scene, which makes the comp work. Nicely done!

Great color, Lon! I like the diagonal sweep of the orange leaves. The open corner doesn't
bother me. It gives more of a three dimensional effect.

Hi, Lon -

Saturation is fine with me if you print on matte paper, but a bit too much on metal paper.

I really like the diagonal line separating the image. The purple flower and green grass on the LRC look good to me. The blue/green/red leaves on the ULC are fine with me, but not balanced with the LRC IMHO. Maybe some subject in the distance will help? OTOH it could be the inbalance that attracts me.

Thank you very much for you comments and suggestions. I've darkened and desaturated the open space in the LRC and I hopefully it's killed two birds with one stone. That corner was too green and saturated and I think influenced the saturated look of the entire image. I did reduce saturation a bit overall and masked the corner. How does this one look?

Thanks again!
Lon

MUCH better look here, Lon. Scrolling up and down I can see what influenced my thoughts mostly on the saturation issue now, and it was truly the green that had me going. Overall the second image finishes off very nicely and would make a super print IMO.

Lon,

Your second version is much better. The LRC does not bother me, and I don't think you need to crop. Overall color look fine to me.

This is definitely better.

- Dan.