away

I like the composition, and the image has the potential to be something special.  However, it seems both too bright and too saturated, as presented here, and the effect is a little distracting.  In particular, I'd tone down the greens in the grass, darken the overall tone a little and the clouds a lot.

I like the contrasts and saturation as a magical realism shot. Well done! 

Beautiful perspective, the colorful is very nice.

Regards.

Zsolt, I have to agree with John. The greens are pushed just a little past natural. I know what you are after. I'm one who likes to push the envelope and see how far I can go with color. I have found that you will never know where the limit is until you pass it. The other thing I see is that the shadows have been opened up to the point of looking milky in some areas. I see it especially in the concentrated group of flowers near the upper middle of the frame. More than anything, the colors are disconnected and inharmonious. In a nutshell, the greens are almost neon like. As far as which direction I would suggest, perhaps isolating the greens and reducing the yellow and green saturation in those areas. Also, bring back some blacks in the shadow areas. I will say that I like the effect of the blues in the rock shadows, so I would leave those. It's a good composition, but the key here is to allow the flowers to dominate the show and subdue the greens so they do not interrupt that concept. I hope this is of some help!

thank you very much for your honesty. actually i agree with you on all aspects, with your suggestions i did an other version which indeed looks much better. i post it soon in the place of the original one. thanks again!

Zsolt,

I find your composition works really well in this photo, sure the colors are very bold but I like it, nice work!

Brendan.

Thanks, Brendan!

ok, now i changed the original photo, what you can see right now is the improved version.

this is a marked improvement for me. Sometimes as photographers, we either connect with a certain image or we don't. Even with your changes, I still don't feel the chemistry with this particular scene as compared to others in your collection. Still, keep in mind that often you will receive comments about your images that are really just opinions. What I mean to say is that most of what I have said is truly opinion. I pride myself on having a fair amount of photographic knowledge, but at the end of the day, much of what I offer is still opinion. Others have commented positively on this image, so I think it is a successful landscape. I just don't connect with it and I'm not sure why. I will offer this though. While I'm not sure of your preferred method for opening the shadows, I often rely on the highlight/shadow adjustment in Photoshop to assist me. The problem with that tool is that the default settings do not work well, so I have reset the defaults with more useful settings. If you are interested in knowing what those settings are, let me know!

really good to read your opinion. i used shadows/highlights of photoshop earlier when i was shooting on film, i really like that effect, but with digital images i found that there are too much artefacts. in the last years i quit that option and look for other techniques. im not sure now, if you mean technical/post processing problems here, or also the whole image?

though i am not sure about many of my photos, i still consider this one as a succesful one. but i am open toany kind of constructive critics.

I'm going to say it is technical and not so much compositional. These mossy rocks are so extraordinary and the flowers are wonderful. Your comp is good, but I find myself glancing repeatedly at the reddish patch of grass at the bottom. I find it more of a distraction than an asset. As I stated before, somehow the green color cast seems to overwhelm the image. Even after deepening the shadows and toning the green back, it still is dominant. More so, the moss on the rocks adds to that greenness. I realize that this is probably close to the actual color palette, so I am not sure how to give you critical advice. "It is just so green" is about all I can offer. Once again, it is just my observation as I see it and is only my opinion. As far as the highlight/shadow adjustment tool, you need to change your defaults. First, make sure and check the show more options box, then slide both amounts sliders back to zero. Set the tonal width at 50 and the radius for about 180 in the shadows and then set the tonal width and radius for about 30 or 40 for your highlights. Then move your amount sliders up until you like what you see. I rarely use more than 5 to 10 for shadows, often only using 2 or 3. As for highlights, I like to set it just above the amount I used for shadows. Therefore, if I used 3 for shadows, I will then set highlights for around 5 or 6. Try those settings with your digital images to see if that helps and if so, save those as your defaults at the bottom ("save as defaults" box). Let me know if that works for you!

many thanks for your advices. yes, i know these settings, but i used a bit harder, that is why the artifacts were strong. with your settings are indeed look very nice. i will consider to use it again. at this image, being layered from 3 exposures, i dont see why should i need shadows/highlights filter anymore? because in the layering process i already chosed the right exposure for everything.

about the greens: being a typical spring mountain photo, i wanted to evidence the fresh greenness of spring in every picture of this serial. and , you have right: it is something similar to the real colors, and the yellow of moss in stones are really similar to green, that is why it is a bit harder to remove lots of green while keeping the stones as they are.

your opinion means a lot to me and it is always welcome.

all the best.

Very, very  nice, space, deepness  and  drama in this image. And the color is fantastic.  Bravo, Zsolt.

Some time we  have  to see  the  place to understand  the  colors at present,  for  those  observers, whom never ben in such places, and may  never  believe  the vibrant colors  exist in nature. I have seen places  like this.