Hi everyone,
I'm looking for some feedback on the editing and crop of this image. Any other comments are of course welcome too.
I was in a bit of a rush taking this photo, so I didn't quite have enough time to get the crop/composition spot on on location (The black outline is the crop I'm leaning towards). I'm still prettty happy with the result, and I haven't really done much editing to this. I'm not 100% confident about the composition here, but I think it works. This was taken in Scotland, a few days ago.
I think a lot of negative space in the sky at the top makes the mountains look more impressive imho
Thanks for your thoughts Jason, I'll give that a try!
Or a portrait crop that keeps the leading lines in the foreground and the sky.
I think your proposed crop is pretty good. I would prefer slightly less room at the top, but that's me.
I love the leading lines of the foreground rocks that point to the background mountain, although I think the foreground could stand a teeny bit of burning (or a bit of dodging on the background mountain) to reduce the disparity between the two.
I'm attaching my crop suggestion as well as a B&W conversion. Neither includes any burning/dodging.
Thank you Phillp. Good call o the dodging/burning, I already did some burning to the foreground, but I could defenitely increase that a bit. For the crop, I think I'll end up somewhere inbetween your suggestion and mine. Thanks again for your time and feedback!
Quick edit on phone. Something like this maybe.
Did you mean to cut off this much on the bottom or was that your phone?
Yes. I was going for a big sky ultra wide view
Got you, thanks. Not quite what I'm looking for in this shot, but an interesting idea.
Lol all of this is totally subjective. Exposure, focus, etc aside.... this is mostly opinion!
My suggestion! Wonderful capture!
Thank you Radisa. To be honest, this one isn't my favorite. I was already a bit concerned about the image's balance because I have the main subject and the most interesting & brightest part of the foreground both on the right side of the frame. Your crop would accentuate that a bit too much for my liking. But nonetheless, thank you for your suggestion.
In this picture, the sky is also important (I would definitely do a different crop in the case of a clean sky) so in post processing you can point out the leading lines in the clouds that almost all lead to the top of the mountain which is good. Usually, people do not think that way, but the sky plays an important role in the composition. And you should not forget the space for vignette if you decide on it.
Yes, I got really lucky with the sky that morning. Compositionally, those are probably some of the best clouds I could have hoped for. I'd agree the sky is important. My thought was to have the 3 main sections of the image (very subjective) all roughly the same size. So that's 1) the sunlit foreground, 2) the midground and mountain, and 3) the sky (see below for how I've divided it up). In your crop the sky would be about 45-50% of the frame. But maybe that's overthinking it a bit too much. I'll give your crop a try on print as Alan suggested. Thanks again for all the helpful input.
Beautiful image & lighting. Just to offer yet another suggestion.... the majority of the visual weight in the image is on the right. You could try cropping from the left and a little right to try and maintain a better balance.
At the end of the day, the crop that you feel is correct for you is the best choice.
Including for the sake of comparison.
Thank you Alan. The compositional balance was one of my worries as well. The reason I didn't crop in from the left as much (and I was considering a crop like tis at first) was that I felt the sunlit slope on the far left is still part of the main subject and needed a bit more breathing space. Also the main leading line (in my mind anyway: the thick green one) would come a bit too close to the edge as well. But I'm torn as well, I completely agree that there's more interest on the right. I also usually like to center peaks like this. But the left side of the mountain feels too much part of the main subject for me to cut it so close to the edge.
Anyway, thanks a lot for making me think about this again, it's much appreciated.
Sounds good Lukas, it is evident that you have put a lot of thought into the composition.
I would suggest at this point you perhaps print out your top compositions and disengage for a while. At some later point display all and select the one that grabs your attention.
I know from my own experiences I can over-think things and have to sometimes force myself to trust my gut feeling .
Thanks Alan, that's a really good suggestion. I think that's probably the best way forward.
I suggest you post the original uncropped version, and your crop, Lukas. I like your crop, but I could only confirm this by taking the image into software and literally cropping outside your image area. The black lines make it hard for me to see both the crop and the original.
Looking at your crop, I think I'd like more sky as I find it a little bottom-heavy, and am inclined to crop off more of the rock there. Much as Jason says.
Maybe others don't have trouble seeing the image(s) for the lines as I do. You've generated a lot of interest here!
I really like the composition. I only tightened up your crop a bit to avoid the dark lower right corner. (I have a thing about this) As the others have said, it will eventually come down to what you are comfortable with. We all have our perspectives. Here's my quick and dirty edit. I tried to make it as if I had taken the shot and what I would have done with it. Have a great Wednesday.
I love the subtle colours in this image Lukas! Good thing with your framing is that it allows you to manipulate the crop to further enhance the image!
This is what I have in mind mate with the crop.
Thank you Danny!