Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: mdg on June 10, 2013, 10:03:47 am

Title: Mt. Agung
Post by: mdg on June 10, 2013, 10:03:47 am
Your thoughts?
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: Harald L on June 10, 2013, 11:03:38 am
Very impressive. Less sky would work more for me.

Harald
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: francois on June 10, 2013, 11:23:00 am
Another beauty… I love it!
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: louoates on June 10, 2013, 11:44:50 am
Impressive image. More impressive with a small sky crop.
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: Slobodan Blagojevic on June 10, 2013, 12:02:50 pm
I like the composition and simplicity. I find contrast a bit too strong...or perhaps the sky too bright.
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: mdg on June 10, 2013, 10:28:25 pm
Very impressive. Less sky would work more for me.

Thank you.  I wanted a square frame for this shot and I considered having a bigger portion of the ground but I don't want the street and houses in the frame so I decided for a bigger sky.  I also considered for one mountain only (still for a square crop) but I don't want to remove the smaller mountain on the left.
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: Jeremy Roussak on June 11, 2013, 03:35:40 am
Thank you.  I wanted a square frame for this shot and I considered having a bigger portion of the ground but I don't want the street and houses in the frame so I decided for a bigger sky.  I also considered for one mountain only (still for a square crop) but I don't want to remove the smaller mountain on the left.

Fair enough. If not less sky, then, at least try a darker sky. It looks as if there's some interest there to be brought out.

Jeremy
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: mdg on June 11, 2013, 05:23:53 am
Fair enough. If not less sky, then, at least try a darker sky. It looks as if there's some interest there to be brought out.

Thanks Jeremy.  How's this?
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: francois on June 11, 2013, 06:28:43 am
The photo is much different with the dark sky. It's more threatening while the first version is "quieter".
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: mdg on June 11, 2013, 07:23:06 am
The photo is much different with the dark sky. It's more threatening while the first version is "quieter".

indeed
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: petermfiore on June 11, 2013, 07:51:28 am
The photo is much different with the dark sky. It's more threatening while the first version is "quieter".


Ah! The power of value structure.

Peter
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: louoates on June 11, 2013, 09:57:56 am
I like the way the darker sky brings out the reverse Z shape that ties the image together. I'd still like to see more cropping off of the sky. Regardless of our micro-managing it's still a masterful image as presented originally.
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: Slobodan Blagojevic on June 11, 2013, 10:09:04 am
...  How's this?

I like it!
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: mdg on June 12, 2013, 07:19:30 am
Thank you for another lesson (bow)
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: BernardLanguillier on June 12, 2013, 08:48:55 am
Nice!

Cheers,
Bernard
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: amolitor on June 12, 2013, 11:44:12 am
I would not go nearly so far, but I would darken the upper left corner to create more of a gradation-to-darker-greys. The original has lovely transitions from light to dark and back again, but too many of them for "breadth".
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: Jeremy Roussak on June 12, 2013, 02:37:47 pm
Thanks Jeremy.  How's this?

It's very different, and I like it. I didn't have anything quite so dramatic in mind but it does work. Is there perhaps a little detail to be teased out of the clouds on the right, which are still very pale? (Just a little!)

Jeremy
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: RSL on June 12, 2013, 04:25:54 pm
+1, except that I'd leave the clouds to the right alone. You have the left slope of the mountain more or less repeated in the large dark cloud, and the right slope of the mountain repeated in the smaller, lower cloud. The last two make a nice leading line upward and to the left. I'm afraid any more work on the clouds to the right will detract from this.
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: wolfnowl on June 12, 2013, 05:07:14 pm
I prefer the original image.  There's a visual cue that the smoke is heading to the left, but the shape of the clouds seem to render an idea of moving to the right, almost as if the image is pushing against itself.  I might try lowering the contrast a little, though.

Mike.
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: mdg on June 12, 2013, 10:16:25 pm
I like the composition and simplicity. I find contrast a bit too strong...or perhaps the sky too bright.

I prefer the original image.  There's a visual cue that the smoke is heading to the left, but the shape of the clouds seem to render an idea of moving to the right, almost as if the image is pushing against itself.  I might try lowering the contrast a little, though.

Noted on the contrast.  Thank you all (bow)
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: David Eckels on June 13, 2013, 09:07:38 am
Might I suggest a -2 stop ND gradient from upper left towards the mountain and ending there. The brightness in the sky is dealt with, the lovely "z-line" is maintained, and the mountain is still the focal point, from which the darker version detracts IM(very)HO.
Title: Re: Mt. Agung
Post by: mdg on June 13, 2013, 12:50:44 pm
Might I suggest a -2 stop ND gradient from upper left towards the mountain and ending there. The brightness in the sky is dealt with, the lovely "z-line" is maintained, and the mountain is still the focal point, from which the darker version detracts IM(very)HO.

I will work on this suggestion.  Right now, I encounter a lot of banding.  I'll try to solve it first.  Thank you.