gdanmitchell

A very interesting image. The light area at the upper left seems a bit distracting to me - have you thought of editing it out?

 

Take care,

 

Dan

I know exactly the spot where you took this... :-) I've spent quite a few evenings up on those rocks watching the sun set.

 

Although this image seems quite dark, there is something about it that reminds me of some of the very early and classic black and white photographs of Yosemite.

 

Dan

Nice effect produced by the curved grass stalks and their reflections.

An interesting thing about this photo is that it has the quality of an shot from a early climbing expedition back in the BW film days. I think the low contrast and grainy texture contributes to this.

Pedro, another very nice image. I like what you do with long exposures, both here and in the shepherds cabin photo I just commented on.

 

The luminous, burnished quality of the water on the left side and in the center is nicely done.

 

As in the other image, I wonder if a bit of dodging to selectively increase brightness in a few spots might be effective. I know that this could also go too far and perhaps defeat the effect you are trying for, but to my eye I think that it might work.

 

(If I were playing with alternate crops, with this one I might try cropping just a little bit of the darker portion of the water at the very bottom, and consider whether that would be an improvement or not.)

 

Again, nice work.

 

Dan

The centered format (house in the center at the 1/3 down point with similar trees on either side) works well in this image - it creates a feeling of static calm that I think is appropriate for the subject. The effect of the blowing tops of the grasses with some of the still grasses showing through from underneath is nice and well done.

 

If I were to try anything different with this very nice image I might...

 

- see how it would look to create a more squarish framing, probably by losing a bit of the sky at the top of the image. (I think most of the interest lies on the horizon and in the foreground.)

 

- perhaps increasing the brightness of some of the highlight areas such as the blowing grasses - some dodging might do the trick.

 

- you might even try a bit of dodgin on the little building itelf.

 

Just a few ideas - in any case it is a very nice photograph.

 

Dan

I love the abstract forms of old building with texture and character like this one. (When I first saw the photo I was reminded of one of mine from Bodie, California that also features old buildings with wooden paneling.

What appeals to me in this photo: I like the simple triangular shape and the way you have placed it in the frame. The texture of the very weathered paneling is interesting and its stubbornly horizontal orientation creates an interesting contrast with the angled roofline. I find the partially visible lower door to also be interesting, suggesting that there must be something beyond the frame.

Two things that I might do differently if it were my photograph: I feel like there could be greater contrast between perhaps pure black in the shadows of the building and the brighter highlights where the wood sticks out a bit and could perhaps get closer to real white - I'd play with curves and/or levels to try to achieve this. (I have to admit that the subtle effect of midtones may be your intent.) Secondly, the boundary between the sky and the building to me appears to show a lot of feathering and the glow around the building seems a bit overdone to my eye. This is a hard thing to work with, I know. I like the lighter sky around the edge of the building roof, and I wonder what it would look like if the whole sky were made lighter more like that.

Very interesting image - a subject I'd like to photograph!

Dan

What I like: I like your use of a narrow depth of field to isolate the white flowers from the background. I also enjoy your use of very black tones in a good portion of the image - not all monochrome images let the relatively pure blacks come through. The slighlty diagonal angle of the branch adds interest and draws my eye from right to left across the image.

 

What I might change: I would like to see a bit more white in the flowers, especially the bunch in the center of the frame. I know that you run the risk of letting the bright parts go completely white here, but you might be able to bring up the mid tones in any of several different ways: a curves adjustment on that area alone, dodging to bring up midtones and perhaps the highlights. I think you might also increase the apparent brightness of this area by slightly darkening the edges of the frame, even going to far as to create a slight vignetting effect. (A bit of this is already apparent at the lower left and right.) To my eyes, the sharply focused darker plants along the left edge and, to some extent, the light flowres along the right edge pull my attention away from the center - I might consider darkening these areas a bit, and I might even try to blur the left side foliage a bit.

 

That said, very nice idea for this photo. Keep up the good work.

 

Dan

Nice work. The photo also attracted my attention via the thumbnail.

 

I'm used to seeing a lot of coastal landscapes shot during the very early morning or evening - closer to sunset or sunrise. The light is perhaps more difficult that the time you shot this one, but I think you have done a wonderful job with it.

 

The sense of spatial depth is very effective for me - going from the detail of the foreground rock, though the rocks behind it, to the large rock near the left border and those beyond the surf, to the very small pillar near the far right below the clouds.

 

The texture and color of the beach has been handled very nicely, as have the colors and levels of the clouds and sky.

 

I'm OK with the centered position of the foreground rock for the most part. (I don't have any fetishes about _alway_ following the so-called "rule of thirds.) I do feel a bit like the right side of the photo feels a bit more empty than the left side. The set of foreground rocks curves away to the left toward the large, dark rock, leading my eye past the detail of the small rocks in the lighter patch of sand. If I were there and shooting the scene again - and I'm not, so for all I know what I'm about to suggest wouldn't be possible ;-) - I might try a camera position just a bit to the left of this; in other words, rotating myself around the rock to the left a bit to open up the curve among the foreground rocks. (I realize that the real scene might render this idea fairly worthless... :-)

 

But that is just me second guessing what I really regard as a very nice shot. I'll be this makes a beautiful large print.

 

Take care,

 

Dan

A photo of one of my favorite places...

 

What works for me: I like the exposure of the underwater lakebed surface in the foreground, the shape of the boundary of this area, and the way the pattern of reflective ripples on the water's surface lead the eye into the distance. The overall tone of the image is dark (and perhaps a bit on the warm side, right?). The rocks in the lower left provide a balance to the tufa formations at the upper right. I like the thin band of the darker ridge across the lake at the left. The position of the cloud above the tufa was quite fortuitous. There is a nice triangulation between the lower left rocks, the upper right tufa, and the cloud at the upper left. The photo captures a sense of the tranquility of the shore of this lake that I'm familiar with from visiting many times both early and late in the day.

 

What doesn't work as well for me: The foreground rocks... I'm not comfortable with the way the bottom of the frame cuts off the rocks - I feel like I'm missing something at the lower edge of the rocks. Also, for me these particular rocks do not provide enough interest. As rocks go, they are a bit... just rocks. :-)

 

Thanks for sharing the photo. It gives me an idea or two for my next visit to Mono.

 

Take care,

 

Dan

This was a very nice scene and well worth capturing.

Pros: You obviuously did a good job of capturing an extremely wide dynamic range, including some subtle colorations on the sand and water. Not certain, but did you combine two differently-exposed image to produce the composite? (ND grad might have been possible, but I'm guessing the former was the case here.)

Cons: To my eye at least the foreground actually looks a bit too unnaturally light compared to the sky. This is a very tricky thing to work out since, in fact, the foreground actually does need to be brighter in comparison to the sky that it "really"was when you took the shot. The danger is taking this a bit too far. (One thing that usually captures my attention in this regard is when the reflecton of an image object is noticeably brighter than the original object.)

If you want to play around with this a bit, a few techniques that I've used with similar images include:

• Perhaps a bit less dramatic darkening of the sky.
• Perhaps some levels and/or curves adjustments that could take down the average brightness in the foreground while keeping some the highlights relatively bright.
• Perhaps some work with color balance/saturation in the two sections of the image.
• Perhaps a more gradual transition between the darkened area of sky and the lightned foreground rock/sand. Possibly make the transition area a bit wider and let the water right below the horizon go a bit darker.
• Perhaps introduce a bit of pseudo-vignetting in the lower corners to provide a bit more dark balance to the foreground.

Also, the froth on the waves seems somewhat too blue to me - perhpas de-saturate blue there a bit.

Some of these adjustments can be done locally.

But, all in all, a very interesting scene worthy of a photograph and worthy of some careful post-processing.

Take care,

Dan

A ton of good stuff to like in this photograph.

 

The composition is wonderful. The foreground rock leads the eye toward the upper right rock, and it leads toward the more distant rocks at the left. The light portion of the sky on the horizon sits between these two rocks. and the light areas on the beach around and behind the foreground rock lead towards it. And of course, the dark tones create a very moody effect.

 

Good work

 

Dan

Does anyone read these messages?

No. ;-)

Dan

(Nice photo though - interesting abstraction of the shapes and textures of building walls, stairs and balcony, and slightly cloudy sky.)

Hi again Alexander. Regarding sharpening...

 

A few things to try:

 

First of all, in general I think (and it seems that you agree) that most of the image could do with less sharpening.

 

Second, you might try sharpening different parts of the image differently. In photoshop you can use masks or selections to apply sharpening independently to different portions of the image.

 

Third, you might achieve some of the same effect by selectively altering levels and/or curves. For example, it is possible that a levels/curves adjustment could be used to increase the contrast between sky and branches, thus requiring less sharpening there.

 

Take care,

 

Dan

What works for me: I like the combination of the yellowish browns with the slightly odd blue of the sky. The different light sources are interesting - and were a challenge to manage no doubt: the backlight of (I presume) the moon, the light on the side of the building at the lower left, the light coming in from the left that illuminates the sides of the tree branches, and the very bright light in the doorway/window just right of lower center. The slightly off-kilter effect from tilting everything to the left works for me in this photo as well. The tree fills the frame nicely and leads my eye from lower right toward the main part of the frame above and to the left. The juxtaposition of the straight angles of the house and the complex, busy pattern of the tree and its branches is interesting.

 

What doesn't work for me: The image looks over-sharpened to me. I see what appear to be sharpening halos (from unsharp mask?) around the smaller branches and along other edges. While I think I understand the effect you were striving for with the surface of the bark of the tree, to my eye the contrast looks a bit excessive.

 

The photograph does provoke an emotional response for me, and that is a good thing. I'm not sure I can quite articulate it, but there is something a bit spooky and almost Halloween-like (in a good sense) about that complex tree leaning to the left with the bright moon behind it.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Dan

Excellent photograph in many ways: formal composition, interesting play of light and dark areas, very dark and almost medieval mood.

 

Dan

Very nice handling of some difficult lighting. The group of three pots at the front left is a nice touch in what would otherwise be an almost completely symmetrical composition.

There is a lot to like in this photograph. The forms of the rocks are interesting in and of themselves, having sort of organic forms. Also, the shapes of the clouds at the upper right mirror the overhanging part of the large, lighter colored rock and, to some extent, the roundness of the rocks. The contrast between the light colored rocks and the dark colored rocks is dissonant with their similar shapes. To some extent, the dark sky counterbalances the lighter stuff in the bottom and on the lower right.

 

For me, it seems like there is perhaps more sky than necessary at the top of the frame - I wonder if you experimented at all with different crops? It might also be possible - though maybe you have already done this - to dodge some of the lighter areas on the rocks to make them even lighter.

 

Very nice work.

 

Dan

Quite a perspective, nice handling of the broad range of tones, and interesting composition.

 

Take care,

 

Dan

Very nice concept and execution. I think that downtown Seattle is a very interesting place to shoot and this reminds me that I want to get back there soon.

 

I like your framing of the central building with the edges of the foreground buildings. The opposing diagonal of the foreground building in the lower right creates a nice bit of visual dissonance to what might otherwise be an overly symmetrical image.

 

The dark quality of the shaded side of the central building creates a slightly ominous effect for me, which is one valid "take" on this urban environment.

 

One thing that I might like to see a bit differently would be the handling of the sky and clouds. This was obviously a scene with extreme dynamic range and by exposing to capture details on the shaded sides of the buildings it looks like the clouds were blown out somewhat. (It is hard to do otherwise with a single exposure of a scene like this, and ND grad filters would be of no help here.) I wonder if there is any way to regain some detail in the sky? Can you do a separate conversion at a darker setting and then use masks to bring back a bit of sky detail?

 

(On the other hand, one could argue that too much sky detail might be distracting. Following that approach, it might be interesting to try reducing teh sky detail even more...)

 

Bottom line: I like this image quite a bit and think that the concept works well.

 

Take care,

 

Dan

I think this is a very impressive photograph of a stunning scene. I think the panoramic format works very well here and that having the peak extend almost to the upper margin is fine.

 

I often struggle with how to deal with large dark masses on the sides that extend above the main subject in the distance. (yes, I shoot in Yosemite Valley... :-). I think your choices of how much of this material to include work well. I played around a bit with ideas about cropping out a bit of the dark masses on the sides, but I think they are necessary here to frame the lighter subjects in the center.

 

If I were working with this image I might try to get just a bit more detail out of the shadowed foreground area on the left. I don't think I'd want to go so far as to make the whole area lighter, but I might try to bring up a few of the highlights to create a bit (but not too much!) more visual interest there and decrease the weight of that large dark area. It may be possible to do something similar on the right side. I'll also admit that there may be details in the print that are lost in the web-based jpg image.

 

(You might - with the emphasis on "might" - be able to crop just a tiny bit off the left side perhaps...)

 

I'm not so sure about this, but I might experiment a little bit with increasing the contrast (perhaps via levels) in the peaks to the right of the silhouetted tree in the center. This could turn out to be a bad idea and perhaps you've already tried it and discarded the notion.

 

All of that said, this is a very wonderful photograph with much interesting detail worth lingering over.

 

Take care,

 

Dan

 

BTW: I'd like to amplify the previous poster's comment about the value of producing an outstanding photograph of a familiar and often-photographed scene. If anything, it is a greater challenge to the photographer to take a familiar scene and produce something of note with it.

very humorous shot... ;-)

 

Dan

I really like this photo a lot. I did not see the color version, but I suspect that it may not have been as effective as the monochrome seen here.

 

Observations:

 

I like the way that the frame is split into two triangles by the division between the motorbikes at the lower right and people in the upper section.

 

I also enjoy the inclusion of a number of icons of young malehood: the machinery of the motorbikes dominate the foreground, the young men are clustering together in "jaunty" poses look like they own the world as they smoke (and the cigarettes are also one of these icons.), and there is an almost obscured your woman passing by on the other side. (Am I correct that her eyes seem nervously directed toward these fellows as she passes?) Lots of visual interest in this image.

 

Fine work.

 

Dan

Excellent photograph. Some observations:

 

Wonderful composition with her eyes angled in toward the center of the frame and toward the viewer. Very nice handling of the light from the right on her shoulder and right side of face and the lighting in the shadowed area of her face. Very striking eyes immediately draw my visual focus. Her expression and the angle of her head are captivating.

 

I also like the combination of the warm but somewhat subdued tones of her skin and lips in comparison to the dark and blueish tones of the light in the window/door behind her. The very squarish and angular forms of the windows provide not only an interesting background but also an effective contrast with the softer forms and textures the woman's shoulders and face and hair.

 

Even the slightly angled curtain draws in towards her body on the right side and the perspective lines in the windows on the left lead toward her face.

 

Really outstanding work.

 

Dan

Nice portrait, but I don't understand the title you gave it. There doesn't seem to be anything ominous about this image to me.