Taking time to explore near home. The light helped me focus on this stream. I am including an uncropped version which I initially thought was strong but the LLC began to bother me as much as I like the leaning tree in LUC. Nonetheless, I cropped it and think this may be a stronger composition as is simplifies the scene.
Specific Feedback Requested: Does the cropped version present a stronger composition leading to the sun lighted area? Any other comment of course welcome.
Pertinent technical details or techniques: 50 MM F/11 0.8 SEC ISO 400
Is this a composite? (focus stacks or exposure blends are not considered composites)
NO
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Lovely scene. I think I prefer the cropped version. Only nit I’d add is to consider adjusting the color in the water as there seems to be a bit of a magenta cast. The shutter speed though is great for providing just the right amount of texture IMO.
To be honest I like both versions equally. No, you’re right. The cropped looks better. Maybe it’s because the sunlight is better distributed in it. I like the composition of the water better in the first image. That swirl on the left is pretty good. I don’t know if it’s my imagination but there seems to be some purple in the water area.
Igor I understand your dilemma all the swirls in the image are so beautiful. Cutting the two trunks it is not easy but cutting only the half of them may be possible and not disturb so much. Anyway I would have chosen the second image.
The purple cast in the water do’nt disturb me.
Mario, I really like the cropped version. It simplifies the scene and really focuses on the water and the lighting. Nice work. I’d probably try to get the color cast out of the water too.
Oh boy…here I am to complicate things. I agree about the color cast, but I like the row of leaning trees so here’s my version of your energetically tranquil scene -
I adjusted the color balance in ACR plus a graduated filter because there seemed to be an obvious line in the tree on the right above the water. And added a little warming filter as well. Hope you like it and use it for further consideration of your image. It is a terrific little brook.
Mario, A very beautiful scene you captured! I really do like the whole scene as you shot it but also enjoy the crop version. In the crop version I wish there could be a little more room on the left side along that tree. I can see if you widened it you would start to bring that leaning tree into the frame but maybe you could just a little and then clone it out. Just a thought. I quite like the way this looks!
Other than the blue/purple water, I llke the processing of your two original images, you handled the light here very well. In terms of composition, I strongly prefer the cropped version over the uncropped one. First, the S-curve of the brook comes through much stronger in the cropped version. Second, all the nice light on the trees is in the right half of the uncropped version, so for me the cropped image does a better job of showcasing that light. And third, the cropped version eliminates the leaning tree on the left of the uncropped version. Strong diagonal lines like that have a lot of visual weight, and for me in the uncropped version it pulls me away from the center. In the cropped version there is still a leaning tree, but at least its more or less in the center of the image.
Kris, I like the crop maintaining the trees but miss the full sun-light area. BTW, that is a natural line/shadow demarcation on the right but I used a radial filter to blend it as it appears unnatural, I agree. I do think the darker bottom brings one’s eye to the sun light.
Ed I like your rationale for the cropped version and see the points. Thank You
It’s 6 of one and a 1/2 dozen of the other. You might burn in the two bright areas entering from the center left in the cropped version (don’t you hate observations like that?). I still think the leaning dead tree is really interesting and some attention should be drawn to it rather than having it sitting in shadow.
@Mario_Cornacchione, nice reworks. Thanks again for sharing. One more note on the color cast, did you per chance adjust the global tint White Balance slider? Forest images frequently get a greenish cast, so I wonder if you handled that by bringing the WB more toward magenta which could have imparted the cast to the water.
As a related aside, @Eric_Bennett posted a super informative IG story on how he handles color casts a couple of weeks ago. Here are the notes I jotted down from how he approaches common color cast situations:
Main problems:
Green, cyan, red, and magenta
Common problem situations:
Red skies can cause warm casts throughout
Blue skies can shift more cyan than blue
Green forests translating green cast to trunks, etc.
Snow and water (falls, rapids, foam) trend more blue
Fixing these casts:
Shoot in auto WB to give best RGB histogram and reduce clipping
Forests: desaturate the greens first then adjust the temp and tint WB sliders gently, maybe in a selective edit.
Snow/water: desaturate the blues and cyan a bit to fix the blue cast in the snow
Very warm red-orange light: target the red channel and desaturate/adjust color
Blue skies: select the sky and desaturate and shift a bit from cyan to more blue
Beautiful images, Mario.
In general, I prefer the uncropped one. I like the swirls in the water and my eye is pulled to the bright part of the water anyway. But… I less like the dead tree on the left, hanging over the water. I think it is distracting. Well, it was there and you can’t bring it back to life. So that makes it a draw for me.
