Loch Dromma 01

weepete · Aug 20, 2020

-Tech Specs
Canon 5DmkIV with Canon 16-35mm f4L
0.5 sec f16, ISO50

-Lighting
Shot just as rain clouds moved in from the left, the day was a dramatic diffence between clear sunny skies and dark storm clouds around 4pm

-Why did I take the shot?
This is somewhere I'd passed by a fair few times and this area always looks interesting to me with the combination of mountains, water, islands and vegitation. I was trying to beat the clouds to Ullapool and shoot the mountain range to the North but lost the battle with time and stopped while I| still had some interesting light. I've been trying to work on my foreground interest, so spent some time working the scene shooting a few features. This old piece of treestump caught my eye, so I tried to use it to balance out the An Teallach and the island.

Loch Dromma 01 by wee_pete, on Flickr

stapo49 · Aug 20, 2020

Just my thoughts.
When I look at the image my eye goes straight to the log rearing out of the water like some giant lizard and just stays there. For me all the interest in this image is in the background with the lines and colours of the hills combined with clouds. I probably would have used a long lens, if feasible, and concentrated on those blue coloured hills in the back ground combined with the brown sloping hills to the right or something similar.

weepete · Aug 20, 2020

stapo49 said:
Just my thoughts.
When I look at the image my eye goes straight to the log rearing out of the water like some giant lizard and just stays there. For me all the interest in this image is in the background with the lines and colours of the hills combined with clouds. I probably would have used a long lens, if feasible, and concentrated on those blue coloured hills in the back ground combined with the brown sloping hills to the right or something similar.

Thanks stapo, I've got some shots with less prominent foreground, and a couple of verticals that really increase the sky. Interestingly since going full frame I've had a real want for a 24-70mm f2.8 L, but I'm a bit limited currently with lens choice. I love the 16-35mm but it's not always the best choice of lens. I maybe need to try and make more use of my nifty fifty.

I've been trying to get a bit closer to the foreground objects, I guess this time I got too close! Thanks for your advice.

dxqcanada · Aug 20, 2020

Hmm, looking at this image I mentally broke down what interests me ...
foreground shore = no
foreground stump = no
lake relections = no
background hills = no
cloudy skys = no
those lone background trees on the left = hmmm ... that is interesting, maybe that is what stapo49 is looking at also.

weepete · Aug 21, 2020

dxqcanada said:
Hmm, looking at this image I mentally broke down what interests me ...
foreground shore = no
foreground stump = no
lake relections = no
background hills = no
cloudy skys = no
those lone background trees on the left = hmmm ... that is interesting, maybe that is what stapo49 is looking at also.

Fair play dxqcanada, good to know this shot doesn't work for you!

Dean_Gretsch · Aug 21, 2020

I have to say that @stapo49 nailed my thoughts exactly. Once I force my eye to leave that log, I see there is much drama in the sky, the highlights are very nice in the water, and those rolling hills are beautiful. It's just so hard to leave that log though. I know you wanted to balance it with a foreground, but maybe the stones on the left would have been enough? I am definitely no photographer, so please take no offense.

Gardyloo · Aug 21, 2020

I don't know the size of the base image, but I tried a fairly severe crop on it (landscape to portrait) and I think it works pretty well. YMMV or course.

Dean_Gretsch · Aug 21, 2020

I almost always prefer a landscape orientation in landscape shots. Maybe a different angle not showing the log at all? Perhaps from just over those stones in the left of the original photo?

Space Face · Aug 21, 2020

I think the original is fine (the crop is decent too tho a bit of IQ has been lost.

I find for me, the log in the foreground points my eye into the shot. The only thing I'd change is I'd clone out the telegraph poles down the the right but that's just a minor point and my opinion only.

weepete · Aug 21, 2020

Dean_Gretsch said:
I have to say that @stapo49 nailed my thoughts exactly. Once I force my eye to leave that log, I see there is much drama in the sky, the highlights are very nice in the water, and those rolling hills are beautiful. It's just so hard to leave that log though. I know you wanted to balance it with a foreground, but maybe the stones on the left would have been enough? I am definitely no photographer, so please take no offense.

Thanks Dean, and don't worry my skin is pretty darn thick! Indeed I appreciate your thoughts and feedback. It's all useful. I've got another shot from this are without the log, I may post it up but got some others I''m more keen on. Your thoughts and opinions are just as valid as anyone else's so thank you for taking the time to give me your take.

Gardyloo said:
I don't know the size of the base image, but I tried a fairly severe crop on it (landscape to portrait) and I think it works pretty well. YMMV or course.

Thanks Gardyloo, I'm happy just to chalk this up to experience and let that shot go to the cutting room floor, I've got another couple of compositions from this area, one more I think works better than this. Sometimes we try something different and it needs a bit of refinement before we can get it to work. That's one of the really useful things about getting feedback

weepete · Aug 21, 2020

Space Face said:
I think the original is fine (the crop is decent too tho a bit of IQ has been lost.

I find for me, the log in the foreground points my eye into the shot. The only thing I'd change is I'd clone out the telegraph poles down the the right but that's just a minor point and my opinion only.

Thanks Space Face, glad someone saw the rough idea behind the why I composed it like that. Some interesting points have been made and I'm going to work on them, strong foregrounds have never been my forte so it's given me a few ideas about what to look for.

bulldurham · Aug 22, 2020

There are alwas editing things you can do to improve but not necessarily save an image. Perhaps when the scene emerges again, you can shoot at a lightly higher angle and a bit further back to take the stump out of prominence, or you can move left or right to take it out completely. Ilike the fixture but do find it a bit overpowering...so I dinked around and lowered its prominence a bit using a combination of cloning and content aware fill...with cloning, I start with a soft brush at about 35% and build up from there...