I have had these photos bouncing around my hard drive since November 2012. Every now and then I go to them, to play with them, to hopefully make magic from them. It may be futile but I do like them.
It was a rare fall morning when accumulating snow hit the Temple of Sinawava area of Zion. The snow was quick - but for those brief moments I had winter wonderland on the maples and cottonwoods.
But the images seem too busy. I have done negative clarity, tone curves, and I dunno... got any ideas before I finally chuck them?
So welcoming any ideas so I can make some magic or just move on.
Or maybe these already are magical and I am just blind to the style.
(yes, thinking of making these along with others a 2:1 pano set of three or four)
Posted by Monika Chace on July 3, 2015 at 12:28 PM
hi, Karl
For the first one, you might try cropping the bottom. You could leave a little of the boulder or take it out completely & just make it about the color & texture of the trees. For the others, maybe play with the luminance slider to bring out the leaf colors without the funkiness of saturation. On #2, try cropping the top & left. I know you probably want to show the sandstone, but it appears, to me, to really be about the tree. #3, I think just the luminance for the leaves will make it pop & keep the background. Maybe a small crop on the bottom as the sprinkling of snow is distracting being so close to the border. #4 try cropping the right side out to make it about the white & orange leaves -- that's where your visual mass is, anyway. Don't get stuck on preset crop ratios -- sometimes unconstrained is much better. Hope some of this is helpful!
I think the problem with the 1st image is that (at least to me) it isn't at all clear what the main subject was. I personally don't see any way to make that a worthwhile image. Sorry to say that; I've fallen into the same trap myself too many times. The colors are so mind blowing that you forget the the mind doesn't process the image the same way it processes the scene itself.
The 2nd and 3rd images have real promise in my opinion. The trick in each is to see if you can get the yellow leaves to "pop" a bit more. It's clear that is the main subject; now you just have to make a bit more eye-catching. That might also work in the 4th image as well, but I'm less certain about that. I do recommend cropping out a little of the bottom and as much from the left as needed to eleiminate the tilted slab. The slab and the horizontal snow covered log draw the eye away from the rest of the image.
In the 5th image, the visual attraction are the white leave in the lower left corner. I'd crop from the top and the right side to make those white leaves a larger part of the entire image frame.
Howard - I think your thoughts on #1 echo my thoughts - its so tempting but the flat light light and overall busy-ness of the image give the eye nothing to latch onto. You just dont know what to look at; as fantastic as the colors are. But I'll see what happens if I eliminate the slab.
I have narrower crops which echo the suggested crops for #2, #3, and #5. For this evaluation, I purposely left the uncrop to gather open suggestions and it looks like it is the direction I should go. Just to note, #4 is the more open, less processed version of #1.
It would have been nicer to get closer to all the subjects - but I had a swiftly moving and relatively higher ice-cold Virgin River between me and the other shore - and did not bring the dry suit / boots along to take the plunge :)
Still open to more suggestions - especially if there are techniques to pull a focused element out of #1 / #4.
Karl, to me #3 and 5 are the better two of the set. In #3, I feel the yellow tree needs to stand out more aganist the foggy back wall. You might try increasing the saturation in normal mode, and then again increase saturation in luminoscity mode to make the leaf color pop. Also, you might crop off the snow along the bottom left border.
If I had #2 in LR, I'd try applying a grad filter from the bottom and work to add a touch more contrast and dark tone. Then I'd go to the color panel and work with the yellow and green sliders and see what happens. I think image 3 is a keeper; very atmospheric. As with #2, I'd use the color panel in LR and work the yellow and green sliders to make those colors pop a bit more. As to #1, though it is busy, for me the problem is that despite the color separation in the foliage, there is a lack of depth separation there. I like the suggestion to crop above the rock to create an abstract look.
#3 is my favorite out of the bunch, and a little tweaking as others have suggested, would really make it work. #1 looks to me like a picture that has been over-sharpened (although I realize that's not the case).
Karl, I can't help but think that the judicious use of a circular polarizer would have eliminated a lot of the work in the digital darkroom on these images. Just my dos centavos, CAZ
Discussion
13 repliesI have had these photos bouncing around my hard drive since November 2012. Every now and then I go to them, to play with them, to hopefully make magic from them. It may be futile but I do like them.
It was a rare fall morning when accumulating snow hit the Temple of Sinawava area of Zion. The snow was quick - but for those brief moments I had winter wonderland on the maples and cottonwoods.
But the images seem too busy. I have done negative clarity, tone curves, and I dunno... got any ideas before I finally chuck them?
The essential unworked version of the first image,.
And one more from The Smoky Mountains / Cades Cove... I have tried 2:1 vertical on this to the left.
So welcoming any ideas so I can make some magic or just move on.
Or maybe these already are magical and I am just blind to the style.
(yes, thinking of making these along with others a 2:1 pano set of three or four)
hi, Karl
For the first one, you might try cropping the bottom. You could leave a little of the boulder or take it out completely & just make it about the color & texture of the trees. For the others, maybe play with the luminance slider to bring out the leaf colors without the funkiness of saturation. On #2, try cropping the top & left. I know you probably want to show the sandstone, but it appears, to me, to really be about the tree. #3, I think just the luminance for the leaves will make it pop & keep the background. Maybe a small crop on the bottom as the sprinkling of snow is distracting being so close to the border. #4 try cropping the right side out to make it about the white & orange leaves -- that's where your visual mass is, anyway. Don't get stuck on preset crop ratios -- sometimes unconstrained is much better. Hope some of this is helpful!
Karl,
I think the problem with the 1st image is that (at least to me) it isn't at all clear what the main subject was. I personally don't see any way to make that a worthwhile image. Sorry to say that; I've fallen into the same trap myself too many times. The colors are so mind blowing that you forget the the mind doesn't process the image the same way it processes the scene itself.
The 2nd and 3rd images have real promise in my opinion. The trick in each is to see if you can get the yellow leaves to "pop" a bit more. It's clear that is the main subject; now you just have to make a bit more eye-catching. That might also work in the 4th image as well, but I'm less certain about that. I do recommend cropping out a little of the bottom and as much from the left as needed to eleiminate the tilted slab. The slab and the horizontal snow covered log draw the eye away from the rest of the image.
In the 5th image, the visual attraction are the white leave in the lower left corner. I'd crop from the top and the right side to make those white leaves a larger part of the entire image frame.
Hope that helps you out.
Thank-you Howard, Monika,
Howard - I think your thoughts on #1 echo my thoughts - its so tempting but the flat light light and overall busy-ness of the image give the eye nothing to latch onto. You just dont know what to look at; as fantastic as the colors are. But I'll see what happens if I eliminate the slab.
I have narrower crops which echo the suggested crops for #2, #3, and #5. For this evaluation, I purposely left the uncrop to gather open suggestions and it looks like it is the direction I should go. Just to note, #4 is the more open, less processed version of #1.
It would have been nicer to get closer to all the subjects - but I had a swiftly moving and relatively higher ice-cold Virgin River between me and the other shore - and did not bring the dry suit / boots along to take the plunge :)
Still open to more suggestions - especially if there are techniques to pull a focused element out of #1 / #4.
Karl, to me #3 and 5 are the better two of the set. In #3, I feel the yellow tree needs to stand out more aganist the foggy back wall. You might try increasing the saturation in normal mode, and then again increase saturation in luminoscity mode to make the leaf color pop. Also, you might crop off the snow along the bottom left border.
If I had #2 in LR, I'd try applying a grad filter from the bottom and work to add a touch more contrast and dark tone. Then I'd go to the color panel and work with the yellow and green sliders and see what happens. I think image 3 is a keeper; very atmospheric. As with #2, I'd use the color panel in LR and work the yellow and green sliders to make those colors pop a bit more. As to #1, though it is busy, for me the problem is that despite the color separation in the foliage, there is a lack of depth separation there. I like the suggestion to crop above the rock to create an abstract look.
Karl,
#3 is my favorite out of the bunch, and a little tweaking as others have suggested, would really make it work. #1 looks to me like a picture that has been over-sharpened (although I realize that's not the case).
Karl, I can't help but think that the judicious use of a circular polarizer would have eliminated a lot of the work in the digital darkroom on these images. Just my dos centavos, CAZ