Foggy morning on the Tahquamenon River, Michigan UP

[GlennT]

Our son's school is putting on an art show and encouraging families to submit work of their own. I immediately thought of this shot, as it is one of my favorites in terms of content and feel, but of course it looked better in my memory than when I pulled it back up in Lightroom. I'm still happy with it, but my photography has always been for me and my family. As this will be seen by a fair number of people, I'm open to any suggestions that might improve it. Thanks!


IMG_1652.jpg by tjapkesg, on Flickr

 

[tirediron]

It's a nice, tranquil image. It's hard to make specific suggestions; this is the sort of thing I would spend an hour with going, "Hmmm maybe if I do this...." and just sort of experiment. I do think some careful, subtle brightening of the foreground might help.

 

[GlennT]

That's precisely the rabbit hole I fell into (and do regularly.) I keep tweaking it. I already brought the foreground up some, conservatively. It was a casual spur of the moment shoot when I woke hours before my family (camping) and was greeted by this magnificent fog. It was a scenario I hadn't encountered before. I was setup to shoot across the river, straight into the fog when the guys in the boat showed up. I literally swung the camera to the left, composed, focused and likely haphazardly adjusted exposure (if I bothered at all) and stole that shot and went back to sipping coffee.

Thanks for the insight.

 

[The_Traveler]

What do you think of this?

 

[CmazzJK]

I was just in Boyne, MI last weekend and you guys had alot more snow....

 

[Parker219]

The tree is crooked.





















I really like this photo. Very peaceful.

 

[Warhorse]

I was just in Boyne, MI last weekend and you guys had alot more snow....

I live in the Petoskey area, and we've got a lot more snow since last weekend.

 

[GlennT]

Thanks everybody.

I'm in Grand Rapids, and we got dumped on Friday night. People are making too much of a big deal about it, but I do drive a fullsize 4x4 truck and we have a fairly stout tracked (i.e. tank tread style) snow blower. It seems we always get at least 3 good snow storms, and while we got a lot of snow this weekend, we've had more. The cold temps on the other hand... I don't want to wish for above freezing, but the -20F wind chills are getting old real fast.

What do you think of this?

I like the color of the fog and water, but the mood feels different. I've been trying to be faithful to what I saw that morning. The tree stump and surrounding area feel a little over contrasty to me, but I did feel mine felt a little soft there.

I'll have to see what something in between might look like. I might find myself moving closer to what you've shown if the fog retains the smoothness when working with the RAW file. This was taken with my old Rebel XT (350D), so you can't bring up the exposure too much without sensor noise becoming a problem.

FWIW, I really didn't expect to get much. I just sat there enjoying the peacefulness and found the fog inspiring. I couldn't find much to actually shoot though. Most of the other shots I got feel unbalanced or lack interest right in the middle.


IMG_1649.jpg by tjapkesg, on Flickr


IMG_1634.jpg by tjapkesg, on Flickr



IMG_1632.jpg by tjapkesg, on Flickr

 

[Derrel]

I looked at the original on FLickr at largest size--the quality is there. I would crop the left side, exactly halfway through the top of the stump, which does eliminate the left-most tree trunk, but I think makes the leaning conifer much stronger. I would crop a small amount off the bottom. This will have the effect of bringing the image area a bit smaller, and adding visual emphasis to the scene, and it totally changes the way that stump looks, and the way the scene is "presented" to the viewer.

The trees seen through fog at the top, and the trees seen reflected in the lake need very careful, subtle brightness adjustments. "Goosing" the trees reflected on the lake at the bottom might be an option, with a local area contrast and sharpening boost.

 

[Braineack]

I wish that tree wasn't leaning like that.

also like Lew's edit.

 

[runnah]

Just a stab. The stump and leaning tree are fighting for attention.

 

[Braineack]

I like the b&w, altough the color is not bad at all,

I just wish that damn tree was gone:



crude edit

 

[DSRay]

Looks great, eh. As an old Yew_per I find the leaning tree to be validating.

 

[GlennT]

Ugh. I give up for tonight! LOL

I went through a few iterations and this is the one the boss (wife) approved. I'm just working within Lightroom, and I tried working over the trees a bit with the adjustment brush, but that wasn't working to my liking.

I don't usually spend this time in post. I really appreciate the suggestions, perhaps in particular about the stump as my wife and I both liked that crop. I might look at it again tomorrow, but it is just for an elementary school art show and will be a cheap Costco print.

Thanks everybody!