Rainier Rock III

Your comments and suggestions are most welcomed.

Pleasant style in this series. I like the forlorn feeling of this locality you have created added by the mist in the background.

This one, on the other hand, I wasn't sure of at first, but after looking at it for a while, I think it might actually be better than the second, in that its simplier in directions, but at the same time has more atmosphere and will hold my attention for longer.

 

The cairn like pyramid in the foreground is interesting, but continuing the lines in either directions creates a cross.

 

The strange left leans of the trees may push too much weight in that direction, but the slight right pull of the camera's postion and the barely visible background are balancing it out.

 

Its got a slightly surreal feel to it, and I really like the muted colours in these. Yep, this is hitting me emotionally, whereas the second one feels colder. Interesting, but less feeling.

 

This is my favourite.

Thanks Mario. The creation or capture of mood is something I think is essential in landscapes.

 

Stephen you really got this series. The second image while the easiest to like upon initial viewing, does not possess as much atmosphere. This one is much moodier. Thanks for taking the time...

While all of the series does an admirable job of capturing a noir-ish mistiness, this one is my favorite. There is a lot to look at here, especially the indistinct background horizon, which gives the image a sense of size and space. It is beautifully composed, lending a sense of compactness within the size and space of the background.

 

My only regret here is that the mist laden sky is so featureless. To test that thought, I did drop in a suitably misty sky on a download copy and for me, it really completed the image. I realize that many people positively recoil at the thought of such outright manipulation and truth be told, I am sometimes among them, but you might give it a try even if the notion horrifies you. It makes an amazing change in the image and there is learning in that.

 

Apart from any critique, I've been reading about a technique that might interest you. Dan Margulis has just published a book called "Photoshop LAB Color: The Canyon Conundrum and Other Adventures in the Most Powerful Colorspace". Margulis, who was the original inductee into Adobe's Photoshop Hall of Fame, has a lot of offbeat opinions but some of the advocacy for using the strange LAB colospace as an editing vehicle makes a lot of sense. When used best, LAB offers a simple way to separate and intensify subtle colors without wholesale skewing of hues, etc. The fact that it best used for images of subtle color is what makes me think you might be interested in fooling around with it.

 

Attached is the above image with with some steepened A,B curves, as an example. While still subtle, it really does pull out the yellows, reds and greens.

 

For a less subtle example, I borrowed your "Caldron" image and really pushed the AB curves. I think the results are interesting although not necessarily better. I'll post that one over there.

 

If you are interested, there is a lot comment circulating the Web and some free chapters available for DL. Do a Google search or let me know if you need the links.

Interesting... the word 'forlorn' came to mind and I see it has already been used. Forlorn, fallen, forgotten.

Pat, thanks you again for sharing so generously with us your skills and knowledge. Your rework here in the LAB colorspace suggest some rather interesting and tantalizing possibilies. I was unfamiliar with Dan Margulis' work, but plan to look further into it.

 

Yea too bad about that sky. But I'd be rather uncomfortable putting in a new one. Maybe I'll come around to doing that some day, it not as if I would be killing somebody...

 

Thanks again Pat for sharing...