Wood Violets and Ferns

Description:

I found an unusually large patch of Wood Violets on the forest floor while out exploring near Pulpit Falls in southern New Hampshire. What attracted me to this small scene was the way the ferns intermingled with the violets. I recently posted a shot from this same location of just the violets over in Flora Critique. So for here in landscape critique I decided to go with a wider view that picked up the ferns as well. I went looking for waterfall shots, and was happy to come away with this as well. The color combination of violet and green appealed to me a lot.

Specific Feedback Requested:

Any critique or comments are welcome

Pertinent technical details or techniques:

Is this a composite? (focus stacks or exposure blends are not considered composites) No

Rework with new crop, increased vignette and more yellow green color separation.

5 Likes

I am new to the network so very much in the learning process of these critiques. I like the spatial arrangement of the three ferns in the middle and the violets nicely spaced and surrounding them. The ferns in the upper right hand corner help lead my eye back into the photograph. While I seem to generally be drawn to the central ferns, I do find my eyes wandering a bit so I wonder if some dodging in the center or somehow separating the hues of the ferns and other leaves a bit more would help.

What a beautiful collection or color and shapes. I agree that the ferns add a lot to this image. They add a level of complexity and therefore richness. If it were me I would clone out all the flowers along the edge of the frames. Actually a crop off the left side helps the composition but it does break down the overall format of the image and I believe that you like your images in certain formats. When I’ve seen such composition they are often vignetted. It might be a good idea to do so after the crop,

What a lush looking intimate scene, Ed. The color combination of violet and green appeals to me also. I also find the water drops on the violet’s petals to be a nice touch as is the spacing of the ferns in the image. My only suggestion might be a little crop from the left, but this certainly works for me as is. The soft lighting is particularly exquisite.

The color combination, light, and diagonal positions of the ferns all add up to a splendid image Ed.

Such freshness and vibrance. Lush, lush, lush. And I don’t mean your drinking habits, lol.

Great find and framing. It’s tough to say when with images like this and I think this is very good. There could be a tiny bit more room at the tip of the bottom-most fern, but that could introduce more “problems” than it solves. I see what might be straw or raspberry in there, too. The textures are a delight and my brain isn’t tired of looking. Print it!

Ed, I probably would not have even seen this composition but you did and photographed it beautifully. It is a great combination of ferns, flowers and color. Works for me as it is here.

Sneaking up with Fern Quest huh…this is a beauty Ed. Love the color palette and diagonal comp of ferns as well. I wonder if darkening the forest floor a bit would accentuate the entire image? Well seen as usual.

What a beauty! I love this type of image; what’s not to love? A wonderful mix of colors here. My only suggestion would be to consider a bit of crop from the left as there seems to be a little too much open space there to my eyes. It’s pretty fully saturated currently, but I love these colors so I might be tempted to up the saturation a wee bit (don’t know that it actually needs it, but just a thought).

With a small crop

Really nice Ed. I love the shiny look of the leaves, and the water droplets. The combination of different types of leaves adds even more interest. I agree with Igor about cleaning up the flowers along the edges. Those are a bit of a distraction to me.

Wonderful!! You captured a lovely mix of elements and shades of green! I would clean up the edges a bit, too, but I always wonder if that sort of thing is too OCD.

@Diane_Miller @Nick_Bristol @Igor_Doncov @Craig_Moreau @Mario_Cornacchione @Kris_Smith @DeanRoyer @Ed_Lowe @Eva_McDermott @Bill_Chambers

thank you all for your comments and input, you’ve given some good suggestions.

I think shifting/separating green and yellow a bit might help, more green on the leaves, more yellow in the ferns. It would not be true to life, but it might help color separation.

The flowers along the edge are what they are. The issue is worse along the bottom edge, but I don’t have room to crop there without clipping the fern. The problem is the violets were so dense that almost any zooming in or our just created new edge issues. For example Bill Chambers rework cropping from the left places more emphasis on the ferns, but it also introduces another set of clipped violets on the left.

The original raw file had more space on the bottom . So I have done a rework (posted back up top for comparison) where I have shown the extra space at the bottom. I think it is slightly better, but as you can see some violet clipping is unavoidable. Rather than go full OCD and clone stuff away, I decided to add a stronger vignette along the edges to reduce the brightness of the cut off edge violets. I also shifted yellow and green trying for a bit more color separation.

The color enhancement does improve the image. I do, however, like Bill’s crop for the arrangement of flowers. Nice work.

A wonderful image raised another notch!

Hi Ed, I personally like the image as presented. I don’t see a huge difference in the remake and I think overall I’m not too much into vignettes unless it just happens naturally. I think you captured the colors and depth beautifully imo. I also like the water droplets on the violets!