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Author Topic: Ibón de Arriel Bajo, Pirineo Aragonés  (Read 2323 times)

MGH

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Ibón de Arriel Bajo, Pirineo Aragonés
« on: July 21, 2014, 01:31:34 pm »

I took this while trekking in the Spanish Pyrenees.
Thanks for looking, C&C welcome.

Mark.


Ibón de Arriel Bajo by marcodemalaga, on Flickr
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Chairman Bill

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Re: Ibón de Arriel Bajo, Pirineo Aragonés
« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2014, 02:21:47 pm »

Lovely shot. The Pyrenees is somewhere I must get to before I get too old

luxborealis

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Re: Ibón de Arriel Bajo, Pirineo Aragonés
« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2014, 03:40:53 pm »

Wonderful photograph, Mark. Great perspective of a beautiful location!

I notice that the snow in the middle right gets warmer in hue and slightly darker in tone from the centre to the edge, which is a bit disconcerting. Whether this is due to an edge burn (I'm all for edge burns, but they shouldn't be immediately obvious) or old, dinghy snow, you may want to clean it up.

Thanks for sharing.
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Dave Pluimer

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Re: Ibón de Arriel Bajo, Pirineo Aragonés
« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2014, 04:33:30 pm »

You did a lovely job of bringing it all into the frame. Takes me right there. The snow doesn't concern me. with what little there is in the frame, I expect that it's just dirty. But, it's not so much that I find it distracting in the slightest. Great treatment on the water, also.
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Lonnie Utah

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Re: Ibón de Arriel Bajo, Pirineo Aragonés
« Reply #4 on: July 21, 2014, 04:45:31 pm »

I notice that the snow in the middle right gets warmer in hue and slightly darker in tone from the centre to the edge, which is a bit disconcerting.

Quite possibly due to the not exactly white border around the image.
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MGH

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Re: Ibón de Arriel Bajo, Pirineo Aragonés
« Reply #5 on: July 21, 2014, 05:38:55 pm »

Thanks,  yes the patches of snow which are left by late June which is when this was taken get prity dirty.
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pcgpcg

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Re: Ibón de Arriel Bajo, Pirineo Aragonés
« Reply #6 on: July 21, 2014, 05:52:10 pm »

Thanks,  yes the patches of snow which are left by late June which is when this was taken get prity dirty.
The brown snow looks absolutely natural and untouched by any processing to me.  We have lots of dirty snow in the mountains here (Oregon) this time of year that looks just like that and worse.  After a few windy days it gets dirty and after a few weeks of no new snow and warm weather some of it even starts to turn red from algae.

Beautiful photo!  My attention is drawn to the orange and yellow and white lichen on the two rocks in the foreground.  I would be tempted to play with that and perhaps very subtly sharpen/clarify that region just a tiny bit to reward the eye when it goes there.  Having done so I might decide it is best left alone, but I couldn't resist playing with it to see!
« Last Edit: July 21, 2014, 05:58:15 pm by pcgpcg »
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Paulo Bizarro

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Re: Ibón de Arriel Bajo, Pirineo Aragonés
« Reply #7 on: July 22, 2014, 06:39:11 am »

Lovely photo. I wish there was just a bit more room below the rocks in the foreground.

MGH

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Re: Ibón de Arriel Bajo, Pirineo Aragonés
« Reply #8 on: July 22, 2014, 10:07:06 am »

Thanks Paulo,  what about this one then?


Ibòn de Arriel bajo by marcodemalaga, on Flickr
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Ibón de Arriel Bajo, Pirineo Aragonés
« Reply #9 on: July 22, 2014, 11:07:23 am »

Too busy, too muddy, too literal.

MGH

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Re: Ibón de Arriel Bajo, Pirineo Aragonés
« Reply #10 on: July 22, 2014, 04:14:59 pm »

What do you mean by muddy Slobodan, is it something I could improve in post prosessing?
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Re: Ibón de Arriel Bajo, Pirineo Aragonés
« Reply #11 on: July 22, 2014, 04:30:38 pm »

Your second version is better in that "muddy" department  ;) In both, however, the colors are muddy by nature (so-called earth colors), not to mention the dirty snow. While dirty snow might have a documentary value, it has very little attractiveness as a subject of a fine-art landscape photography. Documenting your trip might be a valuable goal in itself and have a lot of significance for you personally, but for the rest of the world it should trascent the obvious (literal), especially if presented as a fine-art landscape.

It could be improved by increasing contrast and saturation, and selective dodging and burning, for instance. Or converting to LAB space and manipulating it there (as per Dan Margulis' book)

The best approach would be to avoid cramming so much similar colors and objects in one photograph, to find an angle that would isolate and concentrate viewer's attention to the most appealing aspects of that landscape. I am, however, aware that the time of year and the environment do not always cooperate, as I was also hiking the Pyrenees in similar circumstances.


« Last Edit: July 23, 2014, 11:06:31 am by Slobodan Blagojevic »
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luxborealis

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Re: Ibón de Arriel Bajo, Pirineo Aragonés
« Reply #12 on: July 22, 2014, 08:39:28 pm »

Thanks Paulo,  what about this one then?


This second one is much "cleaner" looking - even the snow has much less of a brown tinge (as Slobodan also noted). Slobodan is also correct about the difference between a literal (documentary) approach versus an end result that may not be exactly as it was, but is more pleasing to the eye. While this approach doesn't work in every circumstance, it becomes more important if you are trying show beautiful places in their best light.
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Paulo Bizarro

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Re: Ibón de Arriel Bajo, Pirineo Aragonés
« Reply #13 on: July 23, 2014, 07:53:20 am »

Thanks Paulo,  what about this one then?

[

Hmm, I think this second version is too light for my taste, the snow is almost overexposed on the right hand side?

I like the shot, even if it is considered not to be "fine art" material.

Lonnie Utah

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Re: Ibón de Arriel Bajo, Pirineo Aragonés
« Reply #14 on: July 23, 2014, 10:14:19 am »

I like these shots too, and I'm almost reluctant to write any of this, as I don't want to seem like I'm piling on.

First off, it's a gorgeous location. There's an awfully lot to work with in that scene. Good sky, nice clouds, water, beautiful geology, and the list goes on.

To me, looking at the limited slice of what you've shown us, the least attractive part of the scene, are the rough and jagged rocks that you chose as the foreground. To compound this, the scene was imaged towards the middle of the day, and overall the light is rather harsh in the image. I will say this, the high clouds are working for you on the mountains, given you some nice broken light, and providing a very nice sense of depth on that part of the image. If I were PP-ing this, I'd likely accentuate this by utilizing very localized luminance (both positive and negative) and contrast adjustments on the mountainous areas of the image.

Now I think totally understand the choice to include the rocks and stream in the image. My guess is you were looking for movement in the scene, but given everything else around I'm not 100% sure they would have been my main focal point.  I might (I'm sure I would) have included them, but maybe not given them the weight that they have in this image. Guessing here, but I might have tried to move closer to the lake, gotten low and close and gone for more of a reflection off the surface of the lake. To me, the most interesting thing in the scene are the craggy peaks in the background. Going for the reflection essentially doubles their presence in the scene. And FWIW, I hate giving critique like this, as I'm sure you don't have the opportunity to eaisly return to this site and do it over.

So we've got what we've got and there's a lot of harsh "midday" light on those rocks. You were on a backpacking trek, not a photo expedition, so I get it. I'm a proponent that not every landscape shot HAS TO be shot during the golden hours to be good. The light here might be a little harsh but it's even throughout the frame. On the plus side, this is how many people would see the scene if they were to visit this spot, so often times I think that resonates with people as well ("this is how I remember it). IMHO, I think that it can be compensated for by simply decreasing the brightness in that part of the frame (the foreground).  This will serve to decrease the overall impact of this area in of image.  The particular offender is the large prominent rock in the lower right center of the frame. It just about right (brightness-wise) in the first image, but too hot in the second. I'd pull it down even more. Instead of pushing the highlights on the snow to get it to "pure white", try brushing over it with an adjustment brush that desaturates it. As the old saying goes, there's more than one way to skin a cat....

Overall these are two nice images.  Personally, I like the 2nd comp a little bit better than the first (with that being said, there's a very small rock protruding into the snow field on the right side of the frame, about 1/2 way up. Hit that with the clone tool). I think that they are totally workable into something really good. I think that folks taking the time to comment on them, shows they have potential. Keep working on them.

And on a side note, looking at your flickr stream, your Matterhorn shots are outstanding and the Torcal de Antequera is on my "hit list" as well.

Cheers,
L
« Last Edit: July 23, 2014, 10:25:26 am by Lonnie Utah »
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MGH

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Re: Ibón de Arriel Bajo, Pirineo Aragonés
« Reply #15 on: July 25, 2014, 07:42:32 am »

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to comment, Personaly I like the composition of them both but I will rework them in the light of what´s been said.

Thanks
Mark
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