Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: oronet commander on February 24, 2007, 12:59:30 pm
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Hi all,
Although I've visited the forum many times (and Michael's page daily), I've registered today. This is the first image I put here for you to have your say on it, if you kindly wish
(http://www.ivia.es/rcanet/CPB/CPB_0088.jpg)
It was taken at the base of the Aneto, the highest peak of the Pyrenees (3484 m), and despite its appeareance (she seems to be posing) it is a candid shot of a friend taking a nap after lunch. The photo is quite modified from the original, including a digital gradual filter and the cloning out of a large piece of ice, but I do not feel sure about the blue cast at the snow in the peaks.
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Hello-
Beautiful scene, but I think you may have benefited by waiting for better light and positioning the person differently. The head looks entirely uncomfortable in that position.
Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks a lot for your feedback, James
Yes, the light was quite strong at the moment of taking the shot (it was about 2 PM), although I've tried to soften the scene during the processing, but trying not to make it too artificial. Please remind, though, that it's a candid shot and the girl was, the uncomfortable posture notwithstanding, totally asleep.
Thanks again for your comment
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I think it's a lovely photo. My only minor complaint would be that the deep blue and the obvious gradient in the sky look a little unnatural. Otherwise, I like it. The blue tint to the mountain ice in the shade looks OK to me. I very much like your friend's pose, and think that it's what makes the picture special; it reminds me of just how I've felt when I've been hiking all day in the mountains, and I don't just mean tired, I mean enjoying lying on the ground looking up at the sky and mountains all around me.
Perhaps the picture means more to me than to other people here, since the mountains remind me a great deal of the eastern Sierra Nevada (California), which I know and love.
Lisa
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I reacted to it very much the way Lisa did. I like it too.
And you should be aware that whenever snow is in both sun and shadow, the shadow part will in fact be blue, as it is getting its light from the sky.
The sky itself does look just a bit unreal. I'd tone down the shading a little, but I wouldn't change anything else.
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This is a lousy place for critiques. Check out http://www.naturephotographers.net/ (http://www.naturephotographers.net/)
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This is a lousy place for critiques. Check out http://www.naturephotographers.net/ (http://www.naturephotographers.net/)
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=103150\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
Not sure what you mean by lousy place for critiques. Care to elaborate?
Julie
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Thanks a lot for the new comments It is really helpful for me to see how other people react to this image, since it departs from my usual photography. It's been modified quite a lot and I'm not very fond of extensive processing and, besides, I'm color blind and so never sure about the results.
It's very rewarding to see the image can extract warm feelings from other mountain-loving people as well. Regards
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It's a nice shot,
I don't mind the midday light, not every shot can be dawn or dusk..
I do wonder if the person lying back in the shot is a big enough part of the shot to stand out..
There's a lot of room in the forground to position the walker and bag where you would get more of them and still have a big veiw of the mountains, it would IMO make the shot more dynamic..
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I do wonder if the person lying back in the shot is a big enough part of the shot to stand out..
Thanks a lot for your comment, David
In fact, the role of the girl was my main worry when I shot the picture. It wasn't intended as a portrait but as a landscape with a human being giving some size perspective and humanity to the scene. So, a key point of the composition was giving her the adequate size on the whole of the image, and what you see was my bet then.
Regards
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Thanks for posting your image for comment. I found the girl's neck angle very unnerving - as I have a bit of a fragile neck myself - personally I couldn't get past that.
I hope you don't mind but I have taken the liberty of placing her neck in what I would think is a more comfortable position. I am sure she is enjoying her stretch and the position she is in, and if you like the aspect of her akward position juxtaposed with the serenity of the environment I think the position is fine, but if you want to have her positioning in harmony with the environment, perhaps you could adjust her head a little as in my quick adjustment.
Julie
[attachment=1929:attachment]
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My first impression was, Post Card like. Nice, but then like David Anderson said, I do wonder if the person lying back in the shot is a big enough part of the shot to stand out.. and I agree, I feel the same way.
Regards
Danijela
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I'd argue that the person is the right size. The focus should be on the mountains, not the person, and making the person larger risks changing that. The person "adds humanity" (as one of the commenters above said), and suggests to one to imagine one's self in that place, but isn't so large that she detracts from the main subject of the image.
Lisa
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Julie, Lisa, Danijela, thanks a lot for your feedback
Julie, I like your head repositioning; it gives comfort to the feminine figure and takes out that aspect of forced pose.
As for the girl's size, it is indeed a question of how the image is viewed. For a landscape I think it's adequate, but not for a portrait. In the first case, one could argue if she adds something relevant to the scene, though...
Thanks again to you all
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I like the shot. Putting people in images is a great way to allow people access to the picture--scale, emotion etc... I don't mind the neck.
With that said, no matter what you say, when you put a person in a picture, they will be the subject--or at least an important subject. It is no longer the viewer and the landscape. It is the viewer, the person and the landscape. I think that is a good thing. Since she is the subject, I would have considered moving forward to make her a bit more prominent and moving her off to one side or the other. She is a bit too close to center for my taste. I might imagine that the story of the photo is "Here is a girl that fell asleep looking at this beautiful landscape. If that is the story, what is behind her is unimportant--unless there is a guy with an axe sneaking up....haha.
...and after I say all that, I would still love to have that image hanging on my wall printed 13x19 inches.
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Thanks fike for your insight, which I tend to agree with. It is amazing how much I have meditated about this picture after all your comments