Hey guys! Took this shot while traveling in the country of Georgia. I loved the way clouds were interacting with the snowy mountain top and the autumn looking foliage in the foreground ( which was really weird to see considering that just 1-hour drive away summer has already kicked in and everything looked so green. And no, there wasn't much elevation gain )
I'd love to hear your feedback on the composition and post-processing. I was aiming to emphasize 2 focal points – the tree in the foreground and the clouds overlapping the mountain. Let me know what you think about it :)
Good job, Ivan!
I think I've been on Fstoppers too long/too much, as my immediate impulse was to suggest more contrast, and especially more drama in the sky (along the lines of the attached edit) but then I remembered... I prefer a more natural look, such as you've kept here. You've achieved your stated aims, in my view. I like the composition, and the scene's quietly epic, understated tone. Well done.
Thank you for your feedback Chris! And for taking the time to make the example. It makes me quite happy that I managed to communicate my ideas in the picture as I am still learning, means I am on the right track :)
It's funny that I actually did a slightly more contrasty edit for social media ( not as contrasty as your example though, yours also looks awesome ) and was debating whether I should upload it here. But then decided to go with the more natural look here.
Hi Ivan, I agree with Chris that you have done a good job of restraining yourself with a result in a very satisfying and natural image.
With the tools made available to us there is a natural tendency to push the sliders to the right to make an image pop, but to be frank I fall in line with Chris and unless warranted otherwise (eg to apply an obvious creative statement) prefer images that tell a true story.
(BTW - I always revisit my edits after a day and tend to tone back the settings - I find it hard not to overdo in the moment)
I would forget trying to emphasize the foreground tree though. It is too small in the frame and lost within the background of others - I may not have noticed it unless you mentioned but now that you have I'm wondering if the saturation was pumped up to try and make it stand out.
I would be interested to see what could be done with this image if converted to B&W - not to replace but as a second copy providing a different perspective.
Overall a wonderful image and I applaud you on both your composition and restraint in processing.
Thank you for your comment, Alan! To be honest there was a time when I was a big Jared Polin fan and my photos were waaaay to contrasty. Jared has his own style but when it's copied without proper understanding the results are a bit awful. So now I'm afraid of over-editing and push those sliders to the right with extra caution :)
And it's true, it's really easy to add a lot of contrast and pop and once you do add it, it's hard to tone the image down because our eyes are already used to that pop and the result starts to look washed out once we reduce contrast.
I have to confess that I did play with the saturation of that tree a bit. It's an interesting thought that something this small in the frame should not be emphasized unless it's important in the image, I agree with you.
The idea was to give a viewer two spots to rest their eyes when looking at the picture. And so the viewer could go from the foreground to the background and then back again sort of in a loop. But I guess the scene is already quite busy with a lot of detail and something like this would work much better in a more minimalistic composition. In general, though, those composition rules are so interesting!
Definitely will play with the black and white version, thank you for the suggestion! :)
As an afterthought– nobody noticed this image in social media in all groups where I posted. Despite me thinking that this is one of my most solid shots yet. Well, guess the contrast rules, gotta go back to that Jared Polin look =)
Re:
"I find it hard not to overdo in the moment" - don't we all?!
Reflecting on Alan's point about the tree, I see both your viewpoints. Now I can see the extra saturation, which I failed to until now, and agree it probably doesn't help the image.
However, the tree draws subtle attention to itself because its form stands out a little in that foreground vegetation band. I think it is one of those smaller things that keeps me gazing at length upon a subtle, naturalistic image. I go back again and again to some familiar book images in my library, and even some of my own most satisfying images, which I see daily in my office for three years, and yet pause to look at again and again. I don't know if I'd to that for an image that "pops".