Hi everyone, I am brand new to the forum. I was drawn to participate because I strongly believe feedback is essential for anyone to improve in any endeavor and this seems like a great place to give and receive it. This photo was taken a few years ago, in mid October on a drizzly day along Canyon Creek in the Trinity Alps Wilderness in northern California. This opening provided a composition in an otherwise chaotic forest. I'm interested in what anyone thinks, particularly regarding the color treatment. Thanks!
Canon 5D mark III with EF 24-70 L f4.0, handheld. 1/60 sec, f 8.0, ISO 400, 62 mm.
Welcome to the forum, Paul!
Hey Paul, you asked for some pointers or whatnot, so I figured I'll give it a go. Far as color treatment goes, not sure what you mean, but the colors are great, looks like you went at the perfect time for fall colors! Compositionally, I like the background, but the foreground I'm not as sure about. Personally I feel that maybe going a little wider angle and including more of the rock might help. Or remove the rock and just isolate the trees. I understand this is an older shot and maybe you can't go back there, so just pointers to keep in mind. Over all I like it, the colors are nice.
Thanks Jeremy. I agree that the part I like least is the foreground. I did some cloning, cropping and transforming to get it to this point but it would have been preferable to compose better in the field. Re; colors, I was just wondering if anyone thought they were too saturated, etc. I did do a little duo tone by making the background a little cool.
@Paul Imperia colors look fine to me. I don't think they're over saturated. Were they basically like this to the eye? If so I think it's fine. I didn't notice the duo tone, so good job keeping it subtle (I personally like minimal processing and stuff so I like subtle).
Btw, can't wait to see more of your work!
Welcome, Paul. I'm a newbie myself. I think the colors are great and not over-saturated which I have a big problem controlling in my photos. Maybe getting closer to the rock and getting some detail in the moss/lichen would have gave you an interesting foreground but I can see in doing so you would have had to move more to the right and that might put the cedar(?) trees in front of the colorful trees. Beautiful shot.
Thanks Ryan. Oversaturation seems pretty common starting out. I find that it helps, once you think you're done editing, to not look at the photo for a few days and come back to it. When editing a photo for a long time I think our eyes get used to things, including oversaturation.
Welcome Paul,
I love the background trees and agree it's the foreground that is off, I am wondering if it's actually the log leaning against the rock that looks out of place to me, for me it leads the viewer out of the photo instead of leading it to the middle ground , but I love the colors.
Good feedback, thanks Buddy.
Paul
I like the color. I might have brought that area into focus a little more and done away with the rock. Maybe moved in front of it and used one of the fallen logs as my foreground. To me, the rock is distracting. Just my opinion.
Thx for your comments Scott, appreciated.