A quick visit to a new location last week revealed some minimalist shots. This was the best of the series. I like the image and its shadow. Its ghostly companion just under the water is also cool. But I have two questions for everyone: 1) Does the bright water reflection above the branch interfere with the image? I had little luck cloning it out in post. 2) Is there a better location for the branch than dead center (rule of thirds?). Of course any comments are welcome.
Nikon D810 with a Nikon 24-120 f/4 lens. Lee Filter ND grad. Manfrotto tripod with RRS ballhead.
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Quite an intriguing photo Marc. I like the simplicity of it. As far as the location of the stick, for me, the location creates a very stable photo. This would be a personal interpretation as to what you wanted to portray? I did notice a bit of something slightly to the left and about a 1/3 of the way up on the stick, it does distract me some. As for the bright water reflection, I would remove it, but there again, this is personal choice. I think it could be removed with a maskā¦ . pretty sure others would have better ideas on specifically how to do that.
Real nice simplicity. I would be inclined to crop down from the top to eliminate the bright area. I like the change in composition. Besides, I think it would be really tough to clone out that bright area, given the subtle color and light changes. It would be beyond my skills, anyway. Good image.
It was fairly easy to clone out the bright area using Tony Kuypers TK7 Combo, which contains a feature called āColor Cloneā (granted, itās an advanced technique). I also cloned out the dark thingy in the water to the left of the branch. Iām not sure itās an improvementā¦I like them both.
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Marc, great vision on your part to see this image. I agree that the yellow color at the top is a distractions that detracts from the minimalism. I would not crop it away, having the negative space above adds to the minimalist feel for me. Thus I think the rework offered by @Tony_Siciliano is the perfect solution. Iāve used TK Color Clone before to remove limited flare artifacts, but Tony has done an amazing job with his rework, it did a flawless job.
I could go either way on leaving/removing the ghost log companion, I think both ways work. Removing it enhances the minimalist feel, but leaving it in adds a little sense of mystery too.
Removing the color cast is the way to go, but my basic and admittedly dated Nikon post processing software doesnāt support add ins. I will give it another try, however. Thank you for the comments.
