Marlow Pano

[ChrisH]

I shot this as the light was fast declining. The original was quite orange with the dying sun reflecting off the "Heathrow" pollution. I am happy with the sky, however again I am too close to call the river - is it too blue? You often get this effect as evening approaches and with a wind disturbing the water but have I gone too far? Your comments would be gratefully received.



f/4.5 1/800 ISO 100

[Donald]

I am too close to call the river - is it too blue? ... have I gone too far?

I don't know. I don't think so. If you toned it back a bit, then you run the risk, I think, of the water and the sky being too similar and that has the potential to be a bit boring.

As it is, the sky and the water are complementary but there is enough of a difference between them to maintain interest.

I do like the whole image - the composition. Having never been there, it conveys a very clear sense of what I think it must be like. I could see that as a large print hanging in the local pub or restaurant.

[ChrisH]

Thank you Donald - having walked away from it for a while I feel more confident that it works. Large print on pub/restaurant wall? - Oh I wish!

[jiro]

Good job on this one, Chris. I like it, too. I certainly agree with Donald on all points taken.

[MiniChris]

For me, it's not the colors which cause an issue. I think if the imagery was available, I'd have a tendency to add more water and have a little less sky. The overly clipped foreground pushes my eye into the scene too quickly, while the sky tends to push it out too quickly, leaving me little time to stop for a gander in the cityscape.

Using the following method with you is being somewhat presumptuous as I consider your work to be of the highest quality. Yet, I don't think any of us are at that point where we can't learn a new trick or two.

The following two images are tricks I use with my students when the same issue arises (when it is practical, and I can almost always find a way for it to work as it is simple blocking).

While I have been a photographer for a number of years, I didn't start teaching it until 1999 and digital just two years ago in a very limited capacity. My background as an artist was more in printmaking, screen printing and painting. When I taught my painting classes, I'd have my students do what is called an underpainting, a general blocking in of large areas using specific coloring schemes to heighten dull areas of the work or tone down the brights. I found later on, this same technique could be used with my photography kids though I called it an overpainting and it was always done from a scanned or digital image.

In this, I could block in large areas of either concern area in black & white. I used black to represent the darker tones, white, the lighter. In this way, you take out the color issue and bring it down to a visualization problem to resolve. After that, on a digital print, one can work with a mask or two and make it work..for the film kids, it's back to the shutter.

In your image, as I pointed out, it was the space usage which caused me more concern than the color, so I blocked it in one, and expanded on the blocking in the other to illustrate a crop that pleased my eye to a more satisfactory end...and to that end, as always, it is a matter of taste. As to the spacing issue, it's really a tossup, but as to your color issue, I think if you tone down the foreground waters, you'll find two things happening. First, those oranges won't have to compete will all that blue (two completely different shades, but not enough variation in your complimentary oranges to work like you wanted them to). Secondly, because the oranges will work, the eye stays on the cityscape, not on the water or sky.

Original overpainted



Added to and cropped again

[ChrisH]

Thanks for your comments Chris and I am sorry to take so long to respond but I have not been on line until now. First of all thank you for you kind words which are much appreciated.

I found what you have to say most interesting as the original image did have much more water but I felt it was too much , hence the crop. I will certainly go back and re-edit as you suggest and see what happens.

Thanks for your interest, which has been most helpful.