Autumn in Southern Utah

I have been reworking old photos using the Linear Profile technique in ACR as discussed on other posts here in NPR. This was taken in November in Southern Utah. Any comments or suggestions would be welcome.

5 Likes

Tony, this is a great little scene. I like very much the composition and the colors. I have no idea about the linear profile techique, so could not comment on that. I would have tried to increase somewhat the light on the white bush and darkend a little bit the grass in the FG.

Beautiful photo, Tony! I love how the sun is lighting up the tree, the grasses and parts of the cliff! It gives the whole image kind of an impressionistic painting style! The shadows in the cliffs really add to it as well. Beautifully seen!

Really lovely light, and a very well thought out composition here Tony. I love how you use the grass as a frame at the bottom, to me you have included the perfect amount of grass. Whenever you can get a sunlit tree against a dark background, you are in business.

Color is a very subjective thing. My personal opinion is that you have too strong a magenta color cast in the image. Here is a rework with reduced magenta. You may have been aiming for these colors as a creative choice, and if so that’s fine, it’s your image. I also bumped the light s a bit too.

2 Likes

Tony, this is a great scene. I have something similar from Zion NP. This feels like “coming back to life” with the glowing grasses feeding the tree. I really like it. @Ed_McGuirk’s adjustments work well too. Nice image, Tony.

I am new to the network so just starting to participate in the critiques. I like the transition in form and color from the grasses to the tree to the cliffs. I wonder if dodging a bit in the lower left hand corner would help–I find my eye being drawn away from the tree to those grasses due to the luminosity.

Dean do you mean burning the lower left corner (LLC) to darken it?

I like this image Tony, it has a nice painterly feel to it. As others have mentioned, I would lighten the tree a bit and darken the grasses in the lower left. The image brings back wonderful memories of the trees in Zion.

Wonderful composition Tony and color palette. I do like Eds rework as the magenta and purple are a bit to intense for my eye.

Thanks for the responses everybody. At certain times of day in red rock country with high walls, the light can bounce off one wall and cover the other wall with beautiful pink/magenta light. I can’t remember if this location was actually that magenta…it might have been, but I agree with the posts, Ed’s version is better!

The processing, the interpretation is very GuyTalesque. He often uses the colors you have in the original. The biggest issue for me is highly saturated yellows in the llc. They’re dominating the tree. I prefer the original interpretation even though it’s further from the natural colors.

Ah, yes, burning! I still mix those terms up sometimes.