LPS#6 - Curvy possibilities (4 photos)

photogmomma

No clue why, but I'm in a sepia/monotone mood this week. LOL! I have links to color versions (or similar photos) below two for comparison.

What are your thoughts? Are these contenders? If so, which is your favorite? Any other comments? Oh, I haven't decided on titles yet, they're just for reference.

Thanks!

1. East River (This one doesn't look very interesting in color, unfortunately. But converting it really made the river stand out. )
2. Skunk Cabbage (I love this in sepia, too, but wanted to try B&W. You can see something similar in color here. )
3. Many skunk cabbages (I love the frost on them, but not sure it's obvious - and it's certainly not necessary for the contest! LOL!)
4. Glacier Lily (I just felt "curvy" stood out more in monotone. You can see it in color here.)

A little more about the Glacier Lily - this flower LOVES the cold. When I shot these photos this morning, it was about 28 degrees out. When it warms up and the sun starts to hit the glacier lillies, they start to get brown as if burnt. Even if it's only in the 50's. They're about 3" tall with a gorgeous yellow flower and spring up at very high altitudes (above 9000' around here). You can also pop of the heads and eat them! They're sweet and quite yummy in salads.

Probably more than anyone needed to know, but....

Anyway, any of these speak to you for this round? Thanks!

urbanaries

They are all great, but the first one definitely sticks out, in terms of the contest theme! You always find such amazing scenery to shoot, just breathtaking!

photogmomma

urbanaries wrote:

They are all great, but the first one definitely sticks out, in terms of the contest theme! You always find such amazing scenery to shoot, just breathtaking!

Thanks, Lynne! I live in an amazing place for sure!

Thanks for your feedback. It's funny, that's one my hubby suggested, but I wasn't able to figure out how to take it until this morning....

LiquidAir

As is, I think I like the river meander best, but I am not wild about the sepia tone on it. Generally I prefer mono chromatic treatments on shots with more contrast; this one feels a little flat to me. The Glacier Lilly has potential, but I think you need to get closer to the flower.

photogmomma

LiquidAir wrote:

As is, I think I like the river meander best, but I am not wild about the sepia tone on it. Generally I prefer mono chromatic treatments on shots with more contrast; this one feels a little flat to me. The Glacier Lilly has potential, but I think you need to get closer to the flower.

Thanks! I'll play with the contrast on the river to see if it pops more. Or play with some of the underlying tone. I've tried this one during the day when there's more contrast/interest in the hills/mountains, but you lose the river.

As for the flower, I totally agree. I may try to reshoot it with my other lens at some point. I do thing the river is stronger, even though I think the flower is so cool.

Thanks for your feedback!

Nikolai

The river
with the others

LiquidAir

photogmomma wrote:

Thanks! I'll play with the contrast on the river to see if it pops more. Or play with some of the underlying tone. I've tried this one during the day when there's more contrast/interest in the hills/mountains, but you lose the river.

What I find in the river is that many of the foreground trees get lost in the grass. I think what it really need is better separation between the trees and the grass in tha background. The conifers really pop, but I think they don't cover enough of the image area to really set the tonal range. If you can darken the grass in the background and lighten the trees that might be just the ticket. Otherwise, it might be worth looking for a slightly different vantage to shoot from with a different mix in the foreground.

photogmomma

Thanks, Nikolai!

LiquidAir, what are your thoughts on this? Pretty much the only thing I could do would be to go down the hill a bit , but i might be too much in the trees - and it's a steep slope. If I can drag my lazy tush out of bed early again, I may try this once more.

But I"m now wondering if sunset would work better, now that i think of it. Sunrise was just to camera left and sunset would be behind me - and it might give more contrast if the light were coming from another direction. Hmmm.... If the lighting looks right, Ill try it again.



(I actually redid it before your comments - I can brighten the aspens a bit more, but I'm afraid it will be *too* much. This photo just doesn't have a tremendous amount of contrast because of when it's taken.)

Elaine

I definitely like the river...what a great view! I agree with Liquid Air about the contrast and sepia tone. The second one looks better to me. Did you try any sort of subtle vignette? I'm wondering if that would help the river pop even more? (I'm kinda into vignettes these days, so that's something I would at least try, but ????) I usually like sepia too, and maybe this shot works best in that, but I am wondering if there isn't just some tweaking that could be done with the color...not quite so brown maybe?....oh well, that's just me. Obviously you know what you're doing, as an alum of SF #1. :ivar

EDIT: I really like #2 as well, but I think the river speaks "curvy" more strongly!

NanaMo

I agree with the others. It needs a little more contrast ....maybe the time of day will help do try later in the day...and you won't have to get "your lazy butt" out of bed early!! rofl

Great subject and really conveys the theme.

Maureen

Tessa HD

that river is amazing! i would looove to see that in person. where is it? it's so incredible how something meanders like that naturally. i've been trying to find something along the same lines, but nothing has come close to the amount of curves your river has!

Tessa

richtersl

That winding river is a great choice!! The sepia looks very nice, but as others pointed out, the photo could use just a little more contrast. With the sun behind you, the trees in the foreground would pop and the river would also be nicely illuminated. If you get a chance to do that, then a color version as well as a sepia version of this scene would be gorgeous.

Montesa

#1 is very cool
#1 immediately caught my eye. I really like the winding river and I think the sepia gives it an extra punch. I know a lot of people have a problem with sepia, but I think it really works for some pictures.

The only thing that kind of throws it just the tiniest bit for me is the set of trees on the right bottom, but you can't move them without losing the view you got. I wonder what it would look like vertical instead of horizontal?

The other shots were excellent as well, but #1 was my favorite!
~Montesa

JillG

Hi,
I agree with the others. I like this meandering river for the challenge. I like the redo you did
Jill

erich6

The first one is really neat but I agree with others about fixing the contrast. I think the key here is increasing the contrast of the trees. They're your connection to the river. Also, drop the brightness of the grass in the foreground which I find distracting.

I can post a modified version to illustrate what I mean if you'd like.

Erich

photogmomma

erich6 wrote:

The first one is really neat but I agree with others about fixing the contrast. I think the key here is increasing the contrast of the trees. They're your connection to the river. Also, drop the brightness of the grass in the foreground which I find distracting.

I can post a modified version to illustrate what I mean if you'd like.

Erich

Please do! I always appreciate people doing that!

I'm also going to try to get back out there tonight and reshoot, if possible....

As a side note, I took several shots of the river, but I just remembered today that this was a quickie! ! One shot, more for remembering and then came home and *really* liked it!

Thanks again, all!

photogmomma

richtersl wrote:

That winding river is a great choice!! The sepia looks very nice, but as others pointed out, the photo could use just a little more contrast. With the sun behind you, the trees in the foreground would pop and the river would also be nicely illuminated. If you get a chance to do that, then a color version as well as a sepia version of this scene would be gorgeous.

It definitely needs to be after the sun is off the hills, though. I did several just before the sun went down and the river was not a main piece of the photo.... But I think right after sunset, it'll still be bright enough and have more contrast then it did in the morning.

Thanks so much!

Montesa wrote:

#1 immediately caught my eye. I really like the winding river and I think the sepia gives it an extra punch. I know a lot of people have a problem with sepia, but I think it really works for some pictures.

The only thing that kind of throws it just the tiniest bit for me is the set of trees on the right bottom, but you can't move them without losing the view you got. I wonder what it would look like vertical instead of horizontal?

The other shots were excellent as well, but #1 was my favorite!
~Montesa

I'll try it vertical! Hadn't thought of that.... Thanks!

photogmomma

Playing around a little more.... This is actually a different shot taken at the same time - showing more of the hills....

Better? Still need to reshoot?

Thanks so much!



The trees in the lower left bug me, but can't be cropped otu because I'd lose a major curve in the river. BUT! This would be easy to reshoot with those trees gone - just move to the right a little bit when reshooting.

Thanks!

LiquidAir

I like this new one quite a bit more. In this version the river feels a bit more framed by the hills which keeps the eye on the money. I still find myself squinting to pick out details in the low contrast. One thing to try is to shoot this just as the sun peeks over the ridge into the valley. You want the lowest sun angle you can get so take a look to see whether morning or evening is better.

photogmomma

LiquidAir wrote:

I like this new one quite a bit more. In this version the river feels a bit more framed by the hills which keeps the eye on the money. I still find myself squinting to pick out details in the low contrast. One thing to try is to shoot this just as the sun peeks over the ridge into the valley. You want the lowest sun angle you can get so take a look to see whether morning or evening is better.

i really appreciate your feedback! i'll figure it out...

erich6

Here's a quick touchup I did on the photo you posted. You probably can do better working from the original and spending a bit more time being careful with the tonal adjustments....

Cheers,

Erich


Original:



Modified:

Swartzy

For what it's worth Andie
I love the shot....I hate the color. That brown/grey/white or whatever that preset is takes away from it. I'll bet with the color version the river could easily be the focal point..right now it's there but doesn't keep my viewing interest. Even a really good black & white conversion with some dodge & burn would look 100% better than this lightroom thing (just my opinion....you can beat me later)

photogmomma

Swartzy wrote:

I love the shot....I hate the color. That brown/grey/white or whatever that preset is takes away from it. I'll bet with the color version the river could easily be the focal point..right now it's there but doesn't keep my viewing interest. Even a really good black & white conversion with some dodge & burn would look 100% better than this lightroom thing (just my opinion....you can beat me later)

! I'll beat you later!

Okay, okay! I'll play some more.... The color version is really bland and boring. I can change it to B&W, but it's not that much different than this. And I dont' mind minor dodge and burn, but I don't want the photo to make/break on that, though... (I'm no Ansel Adams, that's for sure!) The lighting wasn't right for a reshoot tonight (too many clouds) so hopefully tomorrow!

One thing I've definitely found - you have to really love sepia or you really hate it!

Thanks for the honest feedback! I really do appreciate it.

photogmomma

erich6 wrote:

Here's a quick touchup I did on the photo you posted. You probably can do better working from the original and spending a bit more time being careful with the tonal adjustments....

Cheers,

Erich


Original:



Modified:

Thanks so much Erich! I can see the tonal changes you made! I'll see what I can do to incorporate some of them... and hopefully a reshoot makes it easier to do that.

I always like seeing what others do with my photos! Thanks again!

erich6

You're welcome.

Swartzy

Wanted to mess around with this
So.....here it is....now (at least in my mind's eye) the focal point is the river....cropped it some too.

photogmomma

Swartzy wrote:

So.....here it is....now (at least in my mind's eye) the focal point is the river....cropped it some too.

How DARE you!

Seriously, thanks! I really like what you did! This is actually a different shot than I entered - the shot I entered is darker than my original, but not as dark as yours. I may play around a little more - I like how it really pops out the river!

Thanks so much for playing with it!