Chichen Itza, Mexico I

All comments and ratings appreciated.

Great shot, love the composition, maybe the figure at left could be taken out, 6/6

I like the composition, but there are 3 things that kind of bug me:

 

1) There seems to be a critical lack of sharpness in the ruins. That could be because of compression artifacts when compressed for PN, camera motion, too much sharpening in PS, or something like that.

 

2) The sky doesn't seem natural, given the lightning on the ruins. The sun on the ruins seems to be coming from fairly low in the horizon to the left and slightly behind the camera, while the light on the clouds seems to be coming from directly behind the camera and much higher in the sky. Is this sky from another photo? Or maybe over-polarized?

 

3) The person in the lower-left takes away some of the mystery and solitude that seems felt from the photo as a whole

Thanks for your feedback. The sky is natural and is the sky that was there when the image was captured. However, I did use a polarizer on the lens. Some people like the effect, some don't. Some like the figure on the left to give perspective, some don't. I listen to everyone.

I often like the effect of a polarizer, too. It may be just a bit overstated in this particular photo. Probably very low humidity there, and you're nearly at a right angle to the sun, both of which will increase the sky-darkening effect of the polarizer.

Ah, the great Mexican Pyramids. Often built as sacrificial alters as opposed to tombs. Nice shot, easy to look at.

Cheers!

 

Eric R Thibodeau

Lovely photo Amitai and a very good composition.

I think what seems to be the issue about the sky, is the fact that the tonality is different. It kind of pulls the eye up and away from the main subject. something maybe again with the compression and the Adobe RGB? I just casually brought the tones down on the sky and it seems like it's a bit more neutral now.