Hints of Autumn #1

In black and white…
image

This is a forest of oak trees, the morning sun was rising and starting to shine through the trees. Autumn colors are starting! Decided on doing ICM for this scene as it was pretty dark still.

Specific Feedback Requested

Anything , also I converted it to black and white which I’m really liking, I would like your thoughts too!

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
Nikon D3400, ISO 100, 135mm, 1/10, f/4.8
Moved the camera slightly up and down

apani.hill
1 Like

Vanessa, the subtle ICM movement really works well. It provides a nice, mysterious look. The composition with the trees all separate works well too. I like both color and B&W for their different moods. Nice!

1 Like

Thank you @David_Bostock for your feedback as always, I really appreciate it! Glad you like it!

Vanessa, I like the mysterious look, and the camera movement is quite successful. I’m not into acronyms, so it took me a while to figure out ICM - I knew it wasn’t a missile. I prefer the color version as I think the B&W looks a bit flat since there is not much highlight-wise in the image.

1 Like

I’m happy that you like exploring landscapes in different ways. An intimate landscape, that perhaps, I might have walked past. The ICM technique has given the image a very painterly feel. Both images are appealing for different reasons.

The scene may have been quite dark early in the morning, but I wonder if raising “shadows” might work OK for a different version. Maybe a slice off the bottom edge to just below the green shrub in the centre?

1 Like

A great ICM, I prefer the color one. Good separation of the trees. Two ideas that could be tested: Crop away a little bit of the FG. Reduce the brightness of the tree trunks a tad.

1 Like

Thank you @Larry_Greenbaum @glennie @Ola_Jovall for looking and your feedback! As far as cropping goes I actually have another image I’m posting today (that’s why this is labeled #1) which would take care of that. I would love your feedback on it if you see it. Because I think it might address the crop suggestions and the shadows/brightness, even though it seems like to me those are going 2 different ways. Thank you!

Very nice, with a pleasing amount of blur. I prefer the abstraction of the B/W but would explore brightening the midtones.

1 Like

Hi @Diane_Miller , yeah I see what you mean, it does seem a bit dark. I personally thought it looked like a charcoal drawing, one of my favorite art mediums that I’ve always loved and bare trees have always been my favorite to draw!

It is reminiscent of a charcoal drawing.

I much prefer the color version over the B&W, but only if the color version gets significantly brighter. You have some interesting colors here, but the too dark treatment is robbing the colors of their vitality. I looked at the histogram of the color version, and it is all bunched up in the left third of the histogram. Simply increasing brightness to shift the histogram to the right produces this rework, which to me helps the image considerably.

1 Like

Thanks @Ed_McGuirk for your feedback as always! so I guess you’re saying, even if it was dark, as photographers, we’re supposed to make a scene look like we took it at midday instead of dawn?

No that’s not what I am saying. I’m saying that you have some interesting colors here in what would be the midtones if the image was not underexposed. @Diane_Miller alluded to the same thing. To better showcase those colors, I would lift the exposure to make those colors more prominent, since to me they are one of the more appealing things about the image. An image can be very dark and still work, as long as the darkness plays to the strengths of the image. Here I think the colors are very interesting , and would be better presented with more luminosity. Photography allows room for interpretation, and it does not necessarily have to reflect how your eyes saw it at dawn. At least that’s how I would interpret this scene, you may prefer the dark look, and that’s fine, it’s your image. I’m just expressing my opinion of how I would process this.

1 Like

@Ed_McGuirk I understand what you mean… I’m not sure if you saw Hints of Autumn #2 and reworks . But I’d be interested what you think about the brightness/more saturation,warmth on the rework, also the original brightness for that matter. I think it might be a bit brighter because of it being higher up in the trees…

With a reference to my comment above, my thought was to make the image more mysterious. Here is a quick adjustment.

1 Like

Thanks @Ola_Jovall , now I see what you meant! I like it!