Alright let me have it...

[Sirashley]

Okay, I'm always dropping C&C towards other people... I have a difficult time translating my advice towards my own photographs...LOL... Its the damn emotional attachment I swear... Anyway, I shot this a week ago with my sigma 10-20mm... I really like it but what do you guys think? Throw me some C&C

 

[Derrel]

Compositionally, I think it's okay...not great, not bad, but well-balanced. But the processing looks over the top. The clouds and sky on the left are nice and interesting enough to stand on their own as compositional elements that balance out the trees...but the sky on the right hand side, behind the trees looks awkwardly pushed in post processing; there are visibly darker parts of the sky between numerous groups of branches that say, "over-processed!" to me. I think the shot would be better if you notched the saturation and processing effects down about three or four notches.

Emotional attachment is a tough thing to overcome. This shot is okay as a recording of the scene, but it does not rise to the level of art or "landscape". There simply is not enough "going on" to make me want to look deeply or to ponder the picture.

 

[Sirashley]

Compositionally, I think it's okay...not great, not bad, but well-balanced. But the processing looks over the top. The clouds and sky on the left are nice and interesting enough to stand on their own as compositional elements that balance out the trees...but the sky on the right hand side, behind the trees looks awkwardly pushed in post processing; there are visibly darker parts of the sky between numerous groups of branches that say, "over-processed!" to me. I think the shot would be better if you notched the saturation and processing effects down about three or four notches.

Emotional attachment is a tough thing to overcome. This shot is okay as a recording of the scene, but it does not rise to the level of art or "landscape". There simply is not enough "going on" to make me want to look deeply or to ponder the picture.

Awesome man... That's exactly what I was looking for... I thought it looked over-processed, especially in the clouds, but I wasn't sure if it was my monitor (I'm on a relatively new computer without a calibrated monitor) I appreciate that honest critique

 

[JimmyO]

Yeah way over saturated and too much contrast

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

I think it is a striking image, but yeah, overworked.

 

[Jacki]

I think it is a striking image, but yeah, overworked.

+1

With a little less PP, this would be an amazing shot, IMO.

 

[creisinger]

As Derrel mentioned I'd have tried to get a vertical shot of the beautiful clouds without trees. 2 thirds sky, one third ground.

 

[Sirashley]

How's about this as a toned down version

Or is that still overdone???

Lastly, anyone on here know how to calibrate a mac monitor... I'm on a macbook, and I'm not really sure how close this monitor is to true calibration, and its driving me nuts

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

It still looks a bit much. Better, but...

What colorspace are you using on your Mac? AdobeRGB, AppleRGB, or sRGB?

 

[Sirashley]

Actually, I'm using the default that just says, "Color LCD" .. If I choose sRGB... the screen looks alittle bluish... It definitely doesn't look right...Anyway, what's the best way to calibrate this badboy, is there a program? I've never calibrated a monitor, my last computer seemed to be more accurate...

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Hmmm...

By color space, I mean in your editing software. I know people have had issues going from adobe and appleRGB, to print and PC display. (just to be clear, making sure we're on the same page). Internet Explorer won't display Adobe or Apple SRG color information. Safari does, others can chime in on Opera or Firefox.

I haven't had a need to calibrate my monitor. I guess I am lucky. My prints come out as I expect, my images look good across several platforms, including on my iPhone, and at the photo clubs Projected Digital competition.

 

[Dominantly]

What was your intention with the shot?

Personally I feel:

The foreground being so underexposed, and the subject lacking strong appeal, loses a bit of the interest in the photo.
You have a little light hitting the brush at the base of the tree eluding to what appears to be water, but thats it for any detail there.

The silhouetted trees COULD work, but I would imagine it would be only if we could see the whole tree against the blue sky.

 

[Tulsa]

The revised it waay better. Although the foreground is too dark IMO. I think this sort of shot would be good for an HDR... a very basic, not overdone HDR. I love the sky though,

 

[Sirashley]

What was your intention with the shot?

Personally I feel:

The foreground being so underexposed, and the subject lacking strong appeal, loses a bit of the interest in the photo.
You have a little light hitting the brush at the base of the tree eluding to what appears to be water, but thats it for any detail there.

The silhouetted trees COULD work, but I would imagine it would be only if we could see the whole tree against the blue sky.

Well, I originally went out to this site to shoot a completely different shot.. Which I did, and am entering in a contest that is supposed to be anonymous, so in the spirit of being fair, I'm not posting it yet... I stumbled across this shot, and just quickly fired off a few snaps. It just so happened that I really liked it... I did get a critique on another site that said the exact same thing about the foreground, meaning basically that there is too much of it... I think you are right on the money when you said the whole tree against the sky... Luckily, I only live about 5 minutes from this location so I'm going to head back there and try to set up a better shot... I didn't even use a tripod when I took this one, even though I had it on me...LOL... Anyway, thanks for the response...

Bitter, I'm going to do some research in the Mac forums about calibrating the monitor and see what I can come up with... Although my images at times look consistent on other machines, they often times print a shade darker... so I'm definitely going to look into it.... Thanks again

 

[reznap]

Ok I had to try and brighten up the foreground because I really like the photograph. I did a bad job, but I tried... Having RAW and higher res you could do a lot more.