Such a peaceful scene on a rainy November morning in Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The rain had just subsided for the most part and everything was so fresh and clean. The air was thick with the pleasing aroma of evergreens and the rain really made the colors “pop”.
Nikon D810 w/ Tamron 24-70 @ 52mm, 1/80 @ f/8, 500 ISO, Tripod
Any general comments, suggestions, and honest critiques are welcomed and greatly appreciated. I would really like any comments on sharpening, i.e. is it effective, too much, too little? I processed this on my lap! top and it’s late and my eyes are tired and pretty much worthless when it comes to fine detail, especially on such a small monitor.
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
Beautiful, Bill! I love the layers and the great color. I might back off the highs just a bit in the foreground grass. I find that overwhelms things just a bit, but otherwise, real sweet scene.
Bill, I can buy in on Harley’s idea here on the crop in the FG. But that was not my main idea here. I might also crop the left to make the scene a bit symmetric if you will with the other right tree. I think that really brings our focus to the main area in the center. I think the two crops will make this one work really nice.
As always, just subjective thoughts and ideas and not any nits at all.
I like this more contemplative composition. It does indeed convey the freshness of a rainy day. I can almost feel the excitement of a walk on such a day. It does feel a bit oversharpened. There is a gritty feel to it. Dropping the exposure just a tad does seem to bring out the colors a bit more but the luminosity is kind of important for the mood of wet air.
I do like the pastoral quality you captured here, Bill. The meadow is nice and would actually want to see more more of it. I like peering into it through the old dying stalks. I am in the camp of cropping some of the foreground grasses and I would also lose the small slice of sky. I think the fall tree colors and smokey mist in the hill sides would stand out more. Regarding the sharpening, I think maybe the image is a tad crisp, but actually would not have looked in that direction or commented unless you mentioned it, so for me it is not an issue. I find myself “softening” a lot more of my autumn images.
Bill,
A beautifully quiet image. I can almost feel the wetness after a rain, or heavy morning dew. I like this composed as presented, but perhaps a drop in the lights could improve this a bit.
The sharpness look ok to me. It’s always a tough one especially with a scene like this with tons of small details throughout. I especially like the bg hillside and fog. Well done!
Lon
