Hello all,
I have posted this before in the Abstract group but I thought I would go ahead and post it here as well. This was actually the first ICM photo I ever took! This was also about 4 or 5 years ago when I was first getting in to photography. I took hundreds more photos that day but none of them came out as well as the first one. I like to think of it as one of those happy mistakes.
I do not do a lot of ICM photography but I do enjoy the technique and the photos you can create. It's fun to just do something different with landscape photography. I am very much a novice at this and am looking forward to learning new techniques and seeing some great photos from this group. Any comments/suggestions are welcomed.
Hi Kyle, thanks for posting. I believe I saw another similar image of yours in the abstract group.
This is an interesting shot = I like the coloring and the pan is well suited to the subject. Some things I might suggest (to suit my own taste);
- the dark sweep of the wave breaking lower left really pulls my eye,possibly leading to the perception that the horizon is not straight. You could try reducing the contrast/shadows in this area to lift (or liquefy to raise the line?)
- I'm wondering if a crop may help balance the image better. I offer a couple of alternatives just to have for comparison/possible additions.
As always, this comes from my own personal perspective, yours/others may differ.
Overall a really nice image and I look forward to seeing what you come up with next.
I do really like the vertical crop you did here as a suggestion for Kyle, Alan. These past several months, I've tended toward shooting more vertical ICMs than horizontal ones, so this really does pop for me.
Definitely something to consider experimenting with, Kyle, if it appeals to your own sensibilities and aesthetic values.
Hi Kyle,
As the group Moderator, I apologize for the delay in posting a response to your image. Been a bit of a hectic week for me, and this is the first chance I've had to get logged in here to contribute anything meaningful.
I'm so glad you re-shared your image here in this group, and for a first ICM photo it's amazing! The colors are lovely, and the mood is serene and calming. I think it's a really solid first attempt, and I hope you've continued, or will continue, working with the technique.
A couple of cc things that pop out at me as I look closer at the image...
There are some sensor/lens spots on the image that can be easily removed in post-processing. For me personally, no matter how stunning an image might be, if I see spots on the image, I tend to feel the photographer has not done their due diligence to present the best image possible. I would just encourage you to take a little bit of extra time in your post-processing flow to go over your images to remove spots.
In my own process flow, one of the last things I do is take my images into Photoshop from Lightroom (I do most of my processing in Lr and then finish in Ps). In Ps, I zoom in on the image to 200%, and then I go over every square inch of the image looking for spots to remove, either with the lasso tool or the spot healing brush tool.
I also think Alan has a good point about the darkness of the lower portion of the image. I can definitely understand where he's coming from with his suggestion, and I do really like the vertical crop he did of your image. I do a LOT of vertical ICMs myself, and I've come to really enjoy verticals. So, that might be something for you to also experiment with.
But, having said all this, I really want to just encourage you to find your own style, technique, preference, voice, and vision with ICM...and in your photographic pursuits in general...and I feel that comes with just getting out to do it as often as you can.
I tend to create images that are not in keeping with the traditional rules of photography most of the time (I have a bit of a rebellious spirit in that sense), and I oftentimes do really like an image that is much darker in one area of the frame and then graduating to lighter. So...especially with ICM, take comments and suggestions in, process them internally, and find ways to use them to help hone your own personal vision.
Anyway, thanks so much for joining the group and sharing your first post! So glad you're here!
Hi Stephanie, no problem at all. Thanks for the feedback. I've known about the sensor spots for a while. Just been too lazy to go back and fix them and then reupload the image. I'll get around to it some day! I do like the vertical crop as well. Looking forward to seeing and trying more of these type of photos!