This is a photo I shot on my first trip to Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I believe this shot was shot near the Gap Overlook or around that areas. The image was shot on my D70 w/ kit 18-70 lens. It was edited slightly for levels and resized for the web.
As usual, thoughts / comments / suggestions are always welcomed.
I'm not quite sure what your subject is, Matt. From the title, I assume that you're trying to convey an ominous feeling from the approaching storm clouds. If that's the case, I think I would have tried to zoom in a little tighter on the clouds and a few rolling hills, especially on the right 1/3 of the frame. I also think the ridge in the FG is hurting you here by limiting the depth, and is probably hiding a lot of interesting stuff behind it. The whole image seems rather monotone, and really needs some color. I'm not sure of the time of day you took this, but a sunset glow would have made this much nicer.
Sorry to be so critical, but I would rather be honest, just as I hope others are honest with their critique of my work.
Posted by Matt Tucker on July 19, 2006 at 10:50 AM
Bill:
This is exactly the feedback that I am looking for. I will need to go back and see what time the image was shot (I am thinking it was in the PM). Regarding the monotone color -- with this image I was hoping to convey a dark feeling to it as the skies went from bright blue to this in a matter of less than 30 minutes. This was my first trip to the smoky's and it was really wild to see how fast the skies can change -- which is what I was hoping to capture with this image.
--Matt Tucker
Posted by Wayne Rhodus on July 19, 2006 at 10:09 PM
Matt I wanted to wait until I saw this at home before chiming in and after viewing it again I'd have to say that Bill made some great observations and suggestions. The image does convey the feeling of impending rain but there is not enough detail in the foreground to hold one's interest for long. But I'd try the following:
I'd suggest opening the image twice in the Raw convertor and bring out as much detail as possible in the foreground mountains in one pass, then save the file with a unique name and then open it again and optimize it for the sky on the second raw conversion. Open them both in PS, process to suit each file then overlay the layers, mask the upper layer and paint in or out to suit. I'll bet you can gain a lot of detail that is missing from this single pass processing attempt. I'd love to see what you could do with this.
It looks like this place could have some incredible light and clouds given the right conditions. Thanks for posting!
Discussion
3 repliesAs usual, thoughts / comments / suggestions are always welcomed.
--Matt Tucker
Sorry to be so critical, but I would rather be honest, just as I hope others are honest with their critique of my work.
This is exactly the feedback that I am looking for. I will need to go back and see what time the image was shot (I am thinking it was in the PM). Regarding the monotone color -- with this image I was hoping to convey a dark feeling to it as the skies went from bright blue to this in a matter of less than 30 minutes. This was my first trip to the smoky's and it was really wild to see how fast the skies can change -- which is what I was hoping to capture with this image.
--Matt Tucker
I'd suggest opening the image twice in the Raw convertor and bring out as much detail as possible in the foreground mountains in one pass, then save the file with a unique name and then open it again and optimize it for the sky on the second raw conversion. Open them both in PS, process to suit each file then overlay the layers, mask the upper layer and paint in or out to suit. I'll bet you can gain a lot of detail that is missing from this single pass processing attempt. I'd love to see what you could do with this.
It looks like this place could have some incredible light and clouds given the right conditions. Thanks for posting!