Saw some nice color near aspen mirror lake last week. Here is one of a few that I shot just after sunset. Does this look too dark ? Comments and critique really appreciated. Thanks for looking.
.. and another one from the same area - lot of beautiful colors around
Posted by Grant Collier on September 30, 2010 at 2:03 PM
These are both nice scenes with good color, but to me they're too chaotic. On the first one, I might have moved forward 10 feet to eliminate the distracting logs and rocks in the foreground. This image also seems to have a lot of black clipping and some white clipping in the sky. The scene doesn't seem to have that much dynamic range to where the blacks would be clipped with a proper exposure. If you're shooting in Raw and using Lightroom or Bridge, I'd pull back on the Blacks slider and use a little Fill Light and Recovery sliders if necessary to prevent the clipping. Also, it's hard to tell from the small image, but it looks like there's chromatic aberration where the trees meet the sky...fixable in PS or Lightroom.
For the 2nd, including the sky probably makes it difficult for the camera to capture the full dynamic range of the image, causing the blacks and whites to be clipped. I'd just avoid including that much sky in an image like this and just focus on isolating patterns in the trees. Also, I don't know what f-stop you were using, but a smaller aperture can create more dramatic beams from the sun at the center of the image.
Posted by Koveh Tavakkol on September 30, 2010 at 3:24 PM
Some great feedback given by Grant above, so not much to add. Some general advice though, when shooting scenes like the first shot, start zoomed out and slowly zoom in until you have eliminated everything that is not adding to the picture. As Grant mentioned, you have a great scene there and with some minor tweaks you will be on your way to capturing a fantastic image!
Posted by Stan Rose on September 30, 2010 at 7:59 PM
Man, two critiques and there's nothring left to add
But i like what your doing here, Soubhik--keep looking for these inspiring scenes--the rest will come quickly with practice.
Thanks a lot Grant, Koveh and Stan for your comments and critiques. Will try to modify the images accordingly Last week went quickly through Grand Canyon, Bryce and Zion , will post more pictures in a few days ...
Discussion
6 repliesFor the 2nd, including the sky probably makes it difficult for the camera to capture the full dynamic range of the image, causing the blacks and whites to be clipped. I'd just avoid including that much sky in an image like this and just focus on isolating patterns in the trees. Also, I don't know what f-stop you were using, but a smaller aperture can create more dramatic beams from the sun at the center of the image.
But i like what your doing here, Soubhik--keep looking for these inspiring scenes--the rest will come quickly with practice.