Chris Tylko Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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gdanmitchell wrote:
Since this seems like a sort of C&C request, I'm going to share a few observations rather than clicking the poll buttons. The sky is quite interesting, and I would be unable to resist photographing it, too! The lake surface provides an interesting potential for expanding the sky color into the reflections, and the juxtaposition with the dark forest on the far shore is interesting.
But beyond that I'm afraid that neither quite "does it" for me. Sorry...
My first reaction is to like #1 more than #2. I think there are two reasons. I like the inclusion of the tree silhouette at the lower left, and I find the slightly smoother water more appealing than the somewhat choppy water in #2. Also, in #2 the larger mass of very dark area doesn't add much that isn't already there in the thinner area of the same stuff in #1. In favor of #2, I do like the fact that the colorful section forms a larger portion of the sky than in #1, where there are more darker areas.
If I were shooting this scene, I might try to do something to bring up the detail in the very dark forest area - and this is perhaps more important in the second shot than in the first, since in the second it forms a much larger portion of the overall photograph. I don't necessarily think that I'd want to make it seem artificially light, but I would like to see at least a bit more detail there - enough so that it doesn't seem like a black or nearly black area. This might be done by exposure blending, though you might also be able to recover just enough detail by pushing shadows a bit in post.
The tree in the first shot is an interesting subject. I like the way that it creates a bit of contrast to the rest of the scene and, for me, seems to anchor things a bit. The tree, unlike the forest on the far shore, can remain very dark or even black - it works as a silhouette. There is a compositional question that comes to mind for me, though. The top of this tree, which might be its most important visual center, merges with that dark background of forest and, I think, reduces its effectiveness a bit. I have no idea if there was any way to deal with this on the scene, but a slightly higher position or moving forward a bit might lower it relative to the dark forest. If I did that, I might also consider pointing the camera just a bit higher to move the horizon lower in the frame and include more of the beautiful shapes and colors of that wonderful sky.
My two cents worth... ;-)
Dan...Show more →
+1 ...good constructive critique Dan, well done.
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