Western North Carolina in Late October

karlabbott

I wanted to take a few moments to share a few images from the western part of North Carolina that I recently took. C&C is always appreciated:

#1: Elk in Cataloochee Valley in the Late Afternoon:



#2: Cataloochee Overlook:



#3: Cataloochee Valley Elk at Sunrise:



#4: Sunset over Looking Glass Rock near Brevard, NC:

jhefti

One of my favorite places in the world! Never lived there, but spent a lot of time there.

I'm not a landscape photographer, so take this for what it's worth: Somehow the hypersaturated colors work better in the first shot than the latter three. To my eye at least, the colors are too saturated and seem unnatural in their hue as well. But maybe that is just my eye...

karlabbott

jhefti, Thank you for your feedback. I'll definitely consider that -- especially as others opine. Your comment about the hue is quite interesting. There was a lot more red this fall than in the past, especially for so late in the month. In #2, the sun comes in and lights the foliage just behind the fence very brightly -- so much so that most of the left of #2 is overexposed and that required some recovery work. In #3, the color at the top was hard to control as the glow of the sun was quite strong at that point. #4 is right there at the very end of the day for that brief moment where the pinks in the eastern sky are quite vibrant and cause a cast on the whole scene. Would be curious to know what your thoughts (and others) are on this as I continue down this learning path of photography...

kdog

Number 1 is my favorite of the series. The painterly processing (or whatever you call it) works really great here. This is a wall hanger.
Number 2, I appreciate the surreal processing here, although possibly a bit too saturated. Maybe not though. It's a stylistic element that not everybody will like. I don't care for the sky in the upper left though. It looks like it was blown out and recovered in post turning it a flat gray.
The heavy color casts in 3 and 4 aren't really working for me.

Regards,
-joel

black mamba

Hi Karl,

You have certainly recorded some great scenes. The processing, however, diminishes their appeal considerably.....way over-saturated. As Joel said, the first shot seems to bear that approach much better than the rest. Your composition and balance to the photos is fine. Back off that exaggerated saturation and you'll have a much more natural look to your work.

Tom

bradpowellphoto

I just love the first image, the composition and the colours! And I really like how you caught the motion in the leaves of the second image!

denisegoldberg

I love the first image. As others have said, the rest look overprocessed to me. But then again, I'm usually more attracted to SOOC images, so...

--- Denise

byoshi

Love the light in the last 2 shots.

karlabbott

Thank you for all of your feeeback. I've dialed back the saturation and color casts in #3 and #4 and present the new ones here:

#5:



#6:



C&C always appreciated and very happy to have gotten all that I have so far!

jhefti

Certainly better to my eye...in number 5 I might suggest getting rid of the flat blue cast that fills the recesses of the small valley on the upper left of the shot. Perhaps bump up the black point and/or reduce saturation in this area. I think more contrast in the forested mountain section that is in shadow would make the shot more vivid and natural. I might also play with the WB in the open section with the animals, so that the frost looks white.

As I said, I am not a landscape photographer, so this is just what comes to mind when I look at these lovely shots!

Sexy6Chick

Oh how I miss NC at this time of year. Thanks for bringing some NC fall scenes to me when I can't be there to see them. They are all just beautifully captured, great shots!

karlabbott

Sexy6Chick wrote: »

Oh how I miss NC at this time of year. Thanks for bringing some NC fall scenes to me when I can't be there to see them. They are all just beautifully captured, great shots!

No problem! Glad you enjoyed my images!

And a reprocess of #5, let's call this:

#7: