Sunset Flowers

Comments and suggestions appreciated!

Same beautiful spot as another one you posted. Not enough light this time. With your permission you could try to lighten the shadows in P/S, but still the DOF field is not good. Love that spot, Al

Not so sure I agree with Al ... in Kim's original, I find the last rays of the setting sun catching the flower petals on the crest of the foreground stand-out just lovely, back-lit against the dark distant hills. Al's PhotoShop'd version spoils this effect and takes away the drama, at least to my eye. My feeling is that Kim's original is likely more faithful to the view had by someone actually standing there -- this is one of those pictures that you need to look at for a while to truly appreciate, letting your (dark-adapted?) eyes be drawn into the shadows containing green foliage and blue wildflowers in the foreground. Those details are unmistakably present in Kim's original, if one simply takes the time to look and admire ... (and tilt your LCD monitor just right (!-), until the foreground shadows are neither "black" nor "silver gray", but deep green and richly detailed ...).

In it's original form, this one probably isn't a shot appropriate for a magazine advertisement, i.e., granted the foreground wildflowers in shadow don't leap off the page and grab the viewer's attention as they're casually flipping the magazine pages.... But as a gallery piece (or, albeit more mundanely, as computer wallpaper?) that one would view at length (and again at just the optimum LCD monitor tilt, where the screen's dynamic range is maximum :-), I believe Kim's original works really really well.

So please folks don't quickly conclude "not enough light" and rush by this one ... the more you look at it, the more you'll see, and in that sense it's a real treasure. Thanks Kim for sharing it. --Jim

Thanks Al and Jim! I think I agree with both of you...I posted this last night, and as I look at my monitor in the morning light, it looks a lot darker than it did at night. This morning I can't see the glow on those flowers like I could last night. Sooo, if you can see it the way it's supposed to look, the flowers do have a golden glow to them which subtly lights them up. So thank you both, and thanks, Jim, for the kind words. This is one of my favorite spots to hang out, in any season.

Personally, I prefer the alternative shown by Al; these are beautiful flowers that need to stand out a bit more. If you had only included the background flowers (which are partly illuminated and give the subtle lighting that you were after), then I think your original shot would have worked better. In fact, that would have eliminated the empty spot in the lower right corner, and that also may have been an improvement.

This is what I had in mind....I also tried to add a bit more contrast to the sky.

Stephen, thank you! I do like your crop; I think I'll try a similar one. I think I really need to go back to this place and try a few more shots...:) I really appreciate the suggestions and help!

Thank God for beautiful places, flowers, and eyes to enjoy them all with and thank goodness for PhotoShop and cameras. And God bless photographers like you. ~Sky

And God bless you...you're such a sweetie, Sky!

I really don't want to enter into this debate, almost like you've lost control of your photo.

Very nice photo Kim. What was your area of metering?

Hi Dave...I can't remember what the metering was. It was almost dark (I got there a little too late), and I didn't have a tripod with me. I printed this out, and it prints out to my liking, with the flowers quite vivid. I have others that are lighter; I just like this one the best. I'm thankful for all the feedback; that's what is sometimes so hard to get on PN!

Kim, I couldn't agree with you more. Honest feedback with suggestions like you've received on this photo is unfortunately not the norm. What I was trying to suggest was, the more varying examples we see, we can loose sight of the emotions or mood we were attempting to convey with the original. This is a photo that sets-up a definite mood in my opinion and any changes to the lighting, changes the mood. Sorry I wasn't clearer.

I agree, Dave. Sometimes the mood I want it to show doesn't have the same appeal to others, and that's okay. I'm just happy to have comments and suggestions.

Hi Kim - long time no see! There is a moment at sunset when things begin to fade into darkness that you have captured here. The darkness in the flowers is affected by the light in the sky, and this simply was that time of day, dusk, when colors become very rich and very dark. It's true about the mood, and yours is what you saw at the time. It's a lovely shot and I think like this one, since my favorite time of day is just this moment. I think that the lighter green plant at the bottom of the left third of the shot is perhaps a bit bright, which probably makes the crop seem to work better. Cover it up with your fingers and you'll see what I mean.

Hi DL, thanks! I did crop it (not here, though), and I do like it better. Thanks for stopping by!