This was probably the most inconspicuous and unidentifiable image I could take on last dollar road. I didn’t get to stop much on the drive as my white knuckled wife really just wanted to get it over with. The late afternoon sun was coursing through the aspens, most of which had dropped their leaves by the time we were in the area. I was attracted to the diagonals created through the leaf litter.
Oh, definitely leave the rock, at least in this composition. It does balance the trees and shadows. Maybe bring up the exposure just a tad in the LLC, “behind” the rock - it feels a bit heavy in that corner. It’s a beautiful scene, and beautiful light.
Looks really good and I like the rock in there. I prefer the color rendition as the gold/yellows really jump. Maybe clean up the white tree edges, especially on the right side?
Adam, this is quite a different take on autumn aspens, and I like the emphasis on the shadows. Definitely keep the rock, it fills negative space and helps balance the composition. It’s not a distraction because it’s place in the composition looks deliberate, and it serves a useful purpose. I prefer the color version myself, the light is so nice. My only nitpick would be to darken or clone away the branch in the ULC.
Thank you all for your thoughts on the image. Bonnie, I agree that the LLC is somewhat dark. Thanks for catching that. Opening up those shadows should allow the rock to come through better. Igor, I hadn’t thought to try it in B&W. It’s an interesting take on the light and shadow. The only thing I think the B&W loses is the color contrast that allows you to see the rock. In monotone, it kind of disappears. I’ll have to play around with it and see what I can do with selective color changes in B&W. Harley and Ed, thank you for pointing out those details. I’ll make another pass on clean up and see if I can refine things more.
i really like this shot. composition and light are superb!!! congrats.
one more vote for keeping the rock. and another one for sticking with the colour version. i agree with @Ed_McGuirk about the ULC - that branch is a distraction. i would also suggest a tiny tiny crop from the left.
I love this image! I brought it into photoshop to see what it looked like with and without the rock. Along the way I decided I liked a little crop of the left and bottom, burning down the highlights just along the edge, and cloning out some branches and distractions along the edge and in one of the light strips. (I did a sloppy job just for sketch purposes)
You know, I thought I had made up my mind about the rock, but after seeing @Brent_Clark’s edit, I think I’m back on the fence. The rock-less version with a crop in on the left and bottom works well and feels balanced to me, and I might actually prefer that composition, at least aesthetically.
So in my mind, it just boils down to the story you want to tell with this image. Is the rock vital to that story? Or does the rock distract from it?
Either way, you’ve got a really nice image here, Adam.
@Brent_Clark,
Thanks for taking a look. I agree that cloning out some of the distracting branches helps quite a bit. And thanks for your thoughts on framing and balancing the image!
