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Wednesday Landscapes, 29 November 2017


Leslie Reid

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You are invited to upload one or more of your landscape photos and, if you’d like, to accompany your image with some commentary: challenges you faced in making the image? your intent for the image? settings? post-processing decisions? why you did what you did? the place and time? or an aspect you’d like feedback on? And please feel free to ask questions of others who have posted images or to join the discussion. If you don’t feel like using words, that’s OK too—unaccompanied images (or unaccompanied words, for that matter) are also very much welcomed. As for the technicalities, the usual forum guidelines apply: files < 1 MB; image size <1000 px maximum dimension.

 

This image is from almost exactly a year ago, at Patrick’s Point State Park on the northern California coast. The fog was just dissipating, and I liked the way it glowed when the sunlight hit it. But it was an extremely high-contrast scene, so most of the post-processing was dedicated to making invisible things become visible. In Lightroom I first reduced contrast (a lot) and clarity (half a lot; this to increase the fogginess of the fog), then used adjustment brushes to (1) bring the clarity back into the foreground, (2) lighten the vegetation in the lower right corner (I might have overdone that a bit, but I think I needed the lightness there to balance the composition), and (3) give the path some continuity by lightening it in some places and darkening it in others. I considered cropping from the right to move the path off the centerline, but I liked the spread of the sunbeams on both the right and left, so I left it as is.

 

D01-_MG_5120-2.jpg.91161b7c179718e2ed3a7faa79c96734.jpg

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have you considered converting your image to b&w?

I just got back and found your suggestion--many thanks! The first image I worked up from the shoot I actually did in B&W, and I debated whether to post that one or the color image in this thread, and now you've given me the perfect excuse to post both. This one was taken a few minutes later from a little farther along the path; I think some of the same trees show up in both. I did the conversion here in Lightroom. I'd be very interested in knowing which image people prefer!D01-_MG_5137.jpg.e6ee01e66d8439c017378e9a4658bfa8.jpg

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Leslie, I prefer the second of your photos, not because it’s done in black and white but because I find the composition more compelling. I think the graphic quality of the trees in the second works whereas the bottom, foliage part of the first photo, to my eye, is taking away a bit from the strength and stature of the trees. I think, because it’s got a graphic quality to it, the image may suggest black and white, which for me would be every reason to see if color could add something a little different. So I’d probably go with the second photo in color, which I think softens the graphic quality without working against it. I also think the color can be used to suggest a sense of the layering and depth of the woods, the black and white perhaps being a somewhat less dimensional take on the scene.
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We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!
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