The Beauty of a Forest Reflected

[Brownbear]

This is Rice Lake located on in Lynn Headwaters Park on the North Shore of Vancouver. The lake is stocked with trout but the only time I see any fishermen is when I'm departing for the day, so still no figures in my landscapes.

f/9 SS 1/40 ISO 320 Focal length 10 mm

[purplehaze]

That is a beautiful scene, Christina. I love the contrast of the yellow and green, and the lovely blue-green colour of the lake. I am wondering if it might benefit from having the yellow highlights on the left brought down a wee bit, and a slight vignette along the bottom and up the sides to include the green trees. I tried doing this myself, but it was hard to do without blocking up the darks in the middle reflection. Easier done on the RAW file I would think. I guess what I am finding is that the lightest part of the frame is the left quarter and I am wanting to guide the eye more to the middle. Don't know if that makes any sense in the context or not; for you to judge.

[TonyW]

I too think this is a beautiful scene, with good colours. The subtle view of the bottom of the water and the ripples on the surface add a lot of interest. My only reservation is that it looks symmetric. I wonder whether moving a bit to one side might have given a better composition. Without knowing what was there, it is hard to know what could be done.

[Brownbear]

Hi Janis,

Yes, it is a beautiful place.

Thank you so much for your feedback and advice. By the time the sunlight reaches the middle trees and reflection, the sunlight on the other trees is indeed bright. In the version I posted I decreased the highlights and burned this part, and dodged some of the middle trees and reflections but I could sense they were still to bright. So after I read your post I gave it another try.

This time I was a bit more aggressive in doing the same, but I also lightened the middle section using shadows (10)...

I added a vignette using the lens correction tool because any other way made the vignette too obvious. When I did this I could see a wee bit of banding in the upper right hand portion of the sky at full size.

Here is my edit...

Edit #1



PS I just released that I also darkened the right hand side, and I think I lightened the trees in the middle a little too much. That said for learning purposes your advice has been very helpful. Thank you.

That is a beautiful scene, Christina. I love the contrast of the yellow and green, and the lovely blue-green colour of the lake. I am wondering if it might benefit from having the yellow highlights on the left brought down a wee bit, and a slight vignette along the bottom and up the sides to include the green trees. I tried doing this myself, but it was hard to do without blocking up the darks in the middle reflection. Easier done on the RAW file I would think. I guess what I am finding is that the lightest part of the frame is the left quarter and I am wanting to guide the eye more to the middle. Don't know if that makes any sense in the context or not; for you to judge.

[deetheturk]

Lovely image Christina, what a beautiful place

[Brownbear]

Hi Tony,

To the left the line of fir trees extends quite a ways and they all look the same... To the right the lake curves and a large peninsula with tall fir trees gets in the way and are too tall to fit in the scene. Nevertheless the next time I visit I will explore other possibilities that are less symmetric.

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts. Appreciated.

Thank you.

I too think this is a beautiful scene, with good colours. The subtle view of the bottom of the water and the ripples on the surface add a lot of interest. My only reservation is that it looks symmetric. I wonder whether moving a bit to one side might have given a better composition. Without knowing what was there, it is hard to know what could be done.

[Brownbear]

Thank you David.

I hope to find a fly here one day, so I can try capturing a beauty like yours... Alas not one one fly to be found here, anywhere. I expect that it is very likely the fishermen have been using them for bait and depleted the population.

Lovely image Christina, what a beautiful place

[purplehaze]

Hi Christina,

I think you're making progress, but personally I wouldn't vignette the sky at all (you can see how it darkens the top of the trees), and I would only take it from the bottom up to the top of the green trees. I would also make it stronger at the bottom, and even it out such that you still have the directionality of the shadow in the RH corner that you had before, but it is more subtle and less blocky than in the original. I think you have several options for drawing attention to the middle. I think your darks are about at the right place, so maybe you could add some mid-tone and highlight contrast, or added sharpness, just to the middle area. Or maybe it is fine as is, and you just need to make the foreground a little darker to help guide the eye up there. Very glad if I have helped. I know it has helped me as I have encountered challenges like this myself in the past, where the natural lighting is somewhat at odds with the composition.

[Brownbear]

Hi Janis,

Thank you for taking the time to advise further. Great feedback and truly appreciated.

I don't have much experience with vignettes so I'm going to have to figure out how to create a partial vignette. I will try again in a few days time, including your other suggested edits.

Thank you.

Hi Christina,

I think you're making progress, but personally I wouldn't vignette the sky at all (you can see how it darkens the top of the trees), and I would only take it from the bottom up to the top of the green trees. I would also make it stronger at the bottom, and even it out such that you still have the directionality of the shadow in the RH corner that you had before, but it is more subtle and less blocky than in the original. I think you have several options for drawing attention to the middle. I think your darks are about at the right place, so maybe you could add some mid-tone and highlight contrast, or added sharpness, just to the middle area. Or maybe it is fine as is, and you just need to make the foreground a little darker to help guide the eye up there. Very glad if I have helped. I know it has helped me as I have encountered challenges like this myself in the past, where the natural lighting is somewhat at odds with the composition.

[Stagecoach]

Hi Christina,

Calm looking scene and those nice early morning greens again. I too wondered about the symmetry of it but of course we don't always have other options.

I'm sitting back and learning from Janis's ideas and can see an improvement already on the second version so look forward to the next

Grahame

[IzzieK]

Very nice place, Christina. When I first saw the first one, I have only one word: WoW! I love that the foreground led my eyes to the whole scene...I have no nits about this one for sure.

[Otavio]

Hi, Christina. A very beautiful place. Nice calm water, that really works like a mirror.

I was just wondering about the time of the day you shot this (was it golden hour?). Somehow, it looks to me that this was not the proper light for the scene and there would be a better time of the day for this scene to look even better!

Waiting for your confirmation on how long after the first light of the day you shot this. I am probably wrong, though!

Well done.

Cheers,

[dje]

Very nice indeed Christina, a beautiful capture.

Dave

[John 2]

That's a lovely capture Christina and I prefer your second edit.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done,

[bnnrcn]

Hi Christina This is a lovely scene indeed. I wonder about the time of the day you shot this as Otavio does. I like the reduced highlights in the water in your edit but I prefer the livelier and contrasty greens and yellows in your original.

PS. I call your first photo as 'original' and second one as 'your edit'

[terrib]

This is very beautiful Christina. I really don't have any nits (as Izzie puts it). I think sometimes symmetry is good and in this case I very much like it. I think the first version looks more natural and I much prefer it. To me, the yellows get muddy in the second one. I like the contrasts all around on the first.

[Mike Buckley]

Wonderful image that perhaps can be improved only by capturing the scene in better light. The symmetry works perfectly for me.

Consider cropping a little off both sides. Regarding the partial vignette: if your vignette tool doesn't allow you to erase part of it either by reducing its strength in certain areas or by eliminating it in certain areas, simply use a brush with very soft edges to hand paint the vignette.

[Downrigger]

Gorgeous - well seen and captured. A spot worth continuing to work at too.

I wondered whether a circular polarizer might have afforded some interesting options, only to see you're at 10mm, where the effects vary across the frame sufficiently to be generally be unusable.

[Brownbear]

Thank you to everyone for your comments, feedback and advice. It is indeed very helpful to have several extra pairs of eyes!

Grahame... I especially like this particular bank of trees and I''ll be visiting again to explore other compositions. Janis's suggestions have been wonderfully helpful and it is nice to know that you are also learning from this image.

Izzie, Dave, John 2,John (Shadowman) and Terri... Thank you as always. It is helpful to hear your preferences for the edits and symmetry.

Otavio and Binnur... Your question on the time of day this image was photographed made me think that perhaps I lost the golden hour feel. I photographed this at 6:39 am in the morning about 20 minutes after sunrise... Therefore I started from scratch lowering the original exposure by .40, please let me know if my edit reflects this or if it's too dark.

Janis...

A very special thank you to you! Here is my edit following your suggestions (as well as a slight decrease in the exposure)

I selectively added mid-tone contrast to the bank of trees and sharpened this area more. I also added a darker vignette just to the bottom of the image, but I extended it only to the base of the reflections of the trees because I want the reflections to stand out. I've learned a lot from your suggestions. Thank you!

My edit, which I suspect is a bit dark but I'll eventually I will manage to get it just right.

Edit #2



Image 2

Another view of the scene for those who asked about the composition options. (photographed at 6:23 am) I was on the rocky peninsula situated on the right hand side of the image in order to capture the scene in the first image. Beyond this peninsula is another one. I think the next time around I will just zoom in on that bank of trees.

f/8 1/13 sec ISO 100 Focal length 10 mm



Thank you to all!