Into the woods

[Brell]

[IMG][/IMG]

[dje]

Very dramatic, nice work.

Dave

[Tom Barry]

As Dave said, a dramatic shot. I wonder if it would have also been successful without the falling-over perspective.

[pschlute]

Beautiful light.

[Stagecoach]

Well executed Arnold.

[Wavelength]

Great image; did you squat or sit on knee to capture this?

[Brell]

Great image; did you squat or sit on knee to capture this?

With a wide angle lens and on my knee.

[lovelife65]

Fantastic image! Full of beauty and drama. Well done.
No real critiques I can think of.

[Digital]

Arnold, nice photograph.


Bruce

[Manfred M]

Very strong image, Arnold.

This is one of those cases where perspective distortion should not be corrected as the trees from the edge of the frame draw the eye of the viewer toward the main subject. The balance pulls the image a bit to the left, given what the light is doing, but regardless, this is a shot you should be proud of.

[DanK]

I actually tried straightening the trees, just to see what it would look like, and that caused the image to lose much of its power.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Arnold,

That is indeed a great image and the only suggestion for improvement from me would be to see if the lateral Chromatic Aberration* (CA) could be reduced by post processing. If you have PhotoShop, it is relatively easy to do. EDIT: To clarify (see below), if one has PS, one has ACR (Adobe Camera Raw), which is where I had intended this correction to be made. I cannot speak for other RAW converters as I have zero experience there.

* by this I mean the red/green edges to dark branches against the sky, it is an unwanted feature of all lens, more obvious on wide angles. Its nature is to be zero at the centre and steadily worse towards the edges and corners of a shot.

If we shoot jpg, the electronics in most modern (post-2015) cameras correct it automatically, but if we shoot RAW, the onus is on us to fix it during the early stages of Post Processing.

Hope that's helpful,
Dave

[Acorn]

[IMG][/IMG]

There is a tendency amongst some photographers when viewing a picture to immediately take on the mantle of a critic. First impressions are very important and this is a captivating picture. I did not want to look for any warts.

[Dave Humphries]

There is a tendency amongst some photographers when viewing a picture to immediately take on the mantle of a critic. First impressions are very important and this is a captivating picture. I did not want to look for any warts.

Most of us are here to learn, we cannot do that if others do not take the time to consider and comment in a constructive manner, as demonstrated in this thread.

Equally, members are welcome to simply enjoy the images without looking for warts or commenting on them.

To discourage constructive critique (here) is not what we are about though, there are plenty of places on the 'net where critique is not expected, but those places will not help us improve our photography.

[Brell]

Most of us are here to learn, we cannot do that if others do not take the time to consider and comment in a constructive manner, as demonstrated in this thread.

Equally, members are welcome to simply enjoy the images without looking for warts or commenting on them.

To discourage constructive critique (here) is not what we are about though, there are plenty of places on the 'net where critique is not expected, but those places will not help us improve our photography.

That is also the reason why I am a member of this forum. Here in the Netherlands we have a positive characteristic, say what you think, but there is also a downside. In my case I was a member of a Dutch photographer forum. And whatever I did to improve my photos, it was never good, bad, not in the right light or any criticism whatsoever. I am very happy with your response Dave! In any case, I am very happy with this forum and you as members. You will not find such nice words and constructive substantiation to remove the "CA" in a Dutch forum.

[xpatUSA]

That is indeed a great image and the only suggestion for improvement from me would be to see if the lateral Chromatic Aberration* (CA) could be reduced by post processing.

Agreed, Dave -the lateral CA is quite noticeable up in the back-lit branches.

If you have PhotoShop, it is relatively easy to do. <>

A tongue-in-cheek dig at Photoshop being the only editor worthy of mention here -Is it "relatively hard" to do in all others?

[Manfred M]

Agreed, Dave -the lateral CA is quite noticeable up in the back-lit branches.



A tongue-in-cheek dig at Photoshop being the only editor worthy of mention here -Is it "relatively hard" to do in all others?

If I were to nit-pick, I would disagree with Dave as the best place to do this using Adobe software would be in either Adobe Camera Raw or Adobe Lightroom as this is where the lens profile information that is used to do this resides. Doing it in Photoshop or any other pixel based editor is painful. I once tried to fix this issue with a JPEG and it was a lot of work, but doable.

In my experience, this type of profile information exists in other raw convertors as well. DxO PhotoLab, in my experience, tends to have the strongest profiles and does a better job than the Adobe software and Phase One's Capture One software has this functionality as well and performs as least as well as the Adobe stuff. I can't speak for the others as I don't use them very often.

One lens that I own, the Nikkor f/3.5 24mm PC-E lens does not have any profile information in these raw convertors, so doing something about CA is impossible. I suspect that the reason is that the shifting or tilting of the lens changes the distortion and aberration characteristics, so is much more challenging to profile. It is not a commonly used lens, so the work associated in profiling it would be challenging. The shift amount and tilt amount are not recorded in the metadata (I suspect that they are actually not even measured), so this is another challenge. I suppose one could create a custom profile and manually record these offsets if one wanted to.

[xpatUSA]

In my experience, this type of profile information exists in other raw convertors as well. DxO PhotoLab, in my experience, tends to have the strongest profiles and does a better job than the Adobe software and Phase One's Capture One software has this functionality as well and performs as least as well as the Adobe stuff. I can't speak for the others as I don't use them very often.

Speaking for RawTherapee: Under the Transform tab > Lens/Geometry > Profiled Lens Correction -access is given to a boatload of LCP files - many folders' worth.

[Manfred M]

That is also the reason why I am a member of this forum. Here in the Netherlands we have a positive characteristic, say what you think, but there is also a downside. In my case I was a member of a Dutch photographer forum. And whatever I did to improve my photos, it was never good, bad, not in the right light or any criticism whatsoever. I am very happy with your response Dave! In any case, I am very happy with this forum and you as members. You will not find such nice words and constructive substantiation to remove the "CA" in a Dutch forum.

I think what you are running into Arnold is human nature; if someone is interested in "Likes" about their image, I suggest they post in social media. When I post here, I am looking for other's opinions on what works and does not work with the piece I have posted. That doesn't mean I have to agree (or disagree) with the posting, but it gives me something else to think about.

My experience with photo clubs, in the past, was not good and I found them inward looking and centered around cliques within the club. I avoided them for the better part of 40 years after those experiences. I was lucky enough to have found a couple of fairly professional clubs where members were willing to teach and help newcomers to the club. My photography has gotten a lot stronger since I became involved in them.

It's more about how something is said, rather than what is said. Critiques should help the photographer learn and not go away feeling put down. The problem, especially in the internet age is that being polite and helpful has gone by the wayside. There is also a problem with people that are used to getting "Likes" on social media who feel that they are wonderful photographers and anything other than praise is taken as a personal insult. Frankly, a positive comment from a highly respected photographer has more meaning to me than a 100 likes from people who have limited knowledge of the subject.

[dje]

It's more about how something is said, rather than what is said. Critiques should help the photographer learn and not go away feeling put down. The problem, especially in the internet age is that being polite and helpful has gone by the wayside.

Spot on Manfred (and Dave H is exemplary in this regard!).