Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: William Walker on March 04, 2011, 02:13:38 pm

Title: Karoo Train Line
Post by: William Walker on March 04, 2011, 02:13:38 pm
Hi

It would be interesting to know what you think of this picture.

Thanks
William
Title: Re: Karoo Train Line
Post by: Jeremy Roussak on March 04, 2011, 03:04:49 pm
It's appealing. I like the way you have the tracks off centre.

Jeremy
Title: Re: Karoo Train Line
Post by: Andres Bonilla on March 04, 2011, 04:11:47 pm
Quite a dramatic sky!! I love it!!
Title: Re: Karoo Train Line
Post by: LKaven on March 04, 2011, 05:38:44 pm
I like it, but I think I would have liked it more if parts of the clouds weren't blown out.
Title: Re: Karoo Train Line
Post by: popnfresh on March 04, 2011, 07:14:58 pm
I like it, but I think I would have liked it more if parts of the clouds weren't blown out.
If it was shot in RAW it might be possible to do a highlight recovery in conversion.
Title: Re: Karoo Train Line
Post by: William Walker on March 04, 2011, 10:52:17 pm
I like it, but I think I would have liked it more if parts of the clouds weren't blown out.

I only noticed the blown highlights once I'd posted it. I checked the original and found that they were fine there. I'm not sure what happened in the translation?!

Sorry about the size of the file - I was sure I'd sized that correctly too! Thanks for the comments.
Title: Re: Karoo Train Line
Post by: LKaven on March 04, 2011, 11:02:38 pm
It is kind of mysterious.  I mean, I can't figure out why those hot spots would be there in reality at all.  Looking forward to an updated rendering.
Title: Re: Karoo Train Line
Post by: William Walker on March 05, 2011, 05:20:23 am
OK Luke - I think that is a bit better!
Title: Re: Karoo Train Line
Post by: LKaven on March 05, 2011, 08:54:50 am
Booful!
Title: Re: Karoo Train Line
Post by: AndrewKulin on March 05, 2011, 10:05:23 am
I really like this shot, the clouds, the straight tracks leading off to the buttes in the distance, the additional interest when digging around such as the lone tree and old white car.  I bet it would look fantastic as a print.

I am curious how did you get the high point of view for this shot?  I can't imagine there being a bridge crossing of these tracks.
Title: Re: Karoo Train Line
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on March 05, 2011, 10:28:51 am
I really like this shot, the clouds, the straight tracks leading off to the buttes in the distance, the additional interest when digging around such as the lone tree and old white car.  I bet it would look fantastic as a print.

I am curious how did you get the high point of view for this shot?  I can't imagine there being a bridge crossing of these tracks.
Without the tree, the car, and the mountains on the right, the off-center tracks wouldn't work, but it all balances very nicely. Nice shot.

Eric
Title: Re: Karoo Train Line
Post by: Patricia Sheley on March 05, 2011, 12:20:12 pm
William, Strongly prefer Version#1. So much of the original quality of tone thrown away in the second...And as Eric notes above the delicate dance of balance requires the tree and white car to do their part...their quality lost in second...

Would seem that you could very subtly address perceived hot spots with carefully masked adj, only in those areas...
Title: Re: Karoo Train Line
Post by: Jeremy Roussak on March 05, 2011, 12:37:21 pm
William, Strongly prefer Version#1. So much of the original quality of tone thrown away in the second...And as Eric notes above the delicate dance of balance requires the tree and white car to do their part...their quality lost in second...

Would seem that you could very subtly address perceived hot spots with carefully masked adj, only in those areas...
+1

Jeremy
Title: Re: Karoo Train Line
Post by: RSL on March 05, 2011, 02:14:04 pm
I think I'm with Patricia and Jeremy. There's nothing wrong with highlights being blown when the highlights are specular, which these clouds nearly are. In fact, in most cases if you don't let specular highlights blow you'll end up with a grungy looking picture. But on my own monitor the problem with the original isn't that the clouds are blown but that the transition from gray to blown is too abrupt and looks like posterization. I'm not going to try to demonstrate a solution working with a web-quality jpeg, but I suspect some work with Viveza on a raw original could preserve the bright edges of the clouds without clobbering the specular highlights and the white car.

I really like the picture. It reminds me of South Park in the Rockies.
Title: Re: Karoo Train Line
Post by: William Walker on March 05, 2011, 02:52:39 pm

I am curious how did you get the high point of view for this shot?  I can't imagine there being a bridge crossing of these tracks.

Hi Andrew - in fact it was from a bridge.

Thanks for all the other comments too - I really appreciate them!
Title: Re: Karoo Train Line
Post by: popnfresh on March 05, 2011, 09:03:22 pm
I think you dulled down the highlights too far in #2 and you also lightened the ground--through the application of a B&W photo filter in Photoshop I would assume. I liked the darker ground in #1 far better. The clouds no longer look white but gray. Perhaps there's a happy medium in there. But i would restore the brooding tonality of the ground you had in #1.
Title: Re: Karoo Train Line
Post by: William Birmingham on March 06, 2011, 03:24:13 pm
I would have loved to see the (polarised) blue of the Karoo sky.
This scene does leave an impact.

Greetings from Gauteng.
-- Will
Title: Re: Karoo Train Line
Post by: donaldt on March 07, 2011, 09:12:35 pm
I was about to say too
its a cool shot
the tree does a good job to balance the right side (though a bit small)
only thing is that it perhaps needs an object as a focal point
somewhere closer to the camera maybe a train on the track (if possible) or something interesting

Without the tree, the car, and the mountains on the right, the off-center tracks wouldn't work, but it all balances very nicely. Nice shot.

Eric