Transitions #1

What makes this shot a good shot ? Imo :

1) The toning from left to right in the sky.

2) The light, which causes the emmergence of this dry grass from the dark.

My problem with the result is just that it ends up a bit too dark overall, and that the dry grass doesn't really emmerg enough, so we can't really sense the light fully, which is the source of all the magic of this image.

Of course, I do not know how your original looks like, but here are 2 versions I would have expected to see uploaded in lieu of this dark version...

Regards.

Version 2 - cropped.

Woah, I really like your second crop. Is there a pattern emerging here? ;-P

 

Just had an interesting excercise with this image and noticed that the photo.net version of my photos, in general, appear darker and grainer than they do in Photoshop. They even appear different than they do when I view the image in a browser window before uploading. So now, what to do...should I optimize for browser or for photo.net? On my screen, the photo.net optimizations appear a little too bright.

 

Here, I've uploaded a version that is a little brighter than the first version posted. I like your ideas but leave mine closer to the original scan of the 4x6 image because I can learn more from the differences between what I have and your suggestions than what I would if I just did as you've suggested.

 

Thanks Again,

Vicki

Very nice. Can't fault Marc's thinking. Could have made the improvement with an ND Grad in the field though....

Ahhh... the ND filter again... so it does more than just turn moving water into a white line. Definately food for thought... Thank you for providing an alternate solution to the problem. Much appreciated.

 

And no, I can't usually fault Marc's comments on aesthetics. ;-))

Critiques and comments welcome. Tried to lighten the grass a little.

Is it still too dark? Thank you for stopping by.

A little under exposed I think. I realise you were probably aiming for the moody look but a bit more light on the foreground grass could do wonders for the image.

Good moody lighting and exposure

Lovely colours and great mood!

compliment!

Great light and good use of selective focus

the dodged/lightened and cropped versions are nice, but they have a different atmosphere to them, I think - I think if you blew this up, the smoothness of the photo, and the selected areas of light would be enough - I think brightening up the picture would ruin the mysterious aspect of the foreground and kill the smooth lighting of the background

Impressive mood. I like what Marc has done with the lightening and cropping. John mentioned using a graduated neutral density filter, which is different from a regular ND. The graduated ND is lighter on one end and is gradually darker toward the other end, to balance out shots with uneven exposure. In this shot, you would use the lighter end on the grass and the darker end on the sky. That would make the right corner much darker, but the grass in the foreground would be much lighter.