Green Cay Landscape

[Harold Davis]

Here's another feeble attempt at landscape photography. How much would a polarizer filter help me in my quest to take a better landscape? or a split ND?

Did my B&W conversion in Capture NX. Added a lot of yellow and a little red. Lightened the shoreline and cropped a little from the bottom. Any suggestions?

Thanks for all your help!!!! I'm a blank canvas ready to learn.

D300, Sigma 50-500 at 50mm, f/16, 1/320s, -1.3EV, ISO 220

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Harold, I am no Landscape photographers and do know diddly about polarizing filters, but I do know photography and I do like this one. The large angled tree and the anhinga serve as compositional anchors. And I love the Anhinga's reflection in the clouds. Now let's see what the experts have to say.

later and love, artie

ps: I would get rid of the other two black bird reflections...

[Maxis Gamez]

Hi Harold,

This image have a nice feeling to it. The only thing that bothers me is that the horizon in dead centered.

[Richard Kowalski]

Hi Harold.
I've been and still am primarily a landscape photographer, but I'm very happy learning bird photography. I really like this shot. As Maxis points out, the dead center horizon line is uncomfortable, and most of the time it is death, but there are times, like this, when it works. Since you have a mirror water surface and the clouds build up through the top of your frame, there is no obvious place to crop, so the symmetry is your friend.

That being said, you mention you cropped a little off the bottom. I would be inclined to leave more on the bottom and crop a little off the top just to get the horizon line away from dead center. Of course there may be distracting elements at the bottom which is why you cropped it in the first place.

I'd crop a little off the left, or better still, would have done this before I made the image. Not much though. I'd keep that little white cloud and a bit of the sky just to the left of it.

You have some tilt to the horizon. Proper leveling in landscapes is a must, so a little ccw rotation is needed.

I don't think you needed a graduated ND on this shot. While there are some bright clouds, unless there is a large area of saturated pixels, you can burn down the highlights a bit. For my own style, I'd also gently burn the shadows of the clouds too, both in the sky & their reflection, increasing their definition a bit. You could also consider processing this image twice, once for the darker tones, a second for the highlights, and then combine the two so all the details captured are visible.

As for a polarizer, pardon the pun, but the rule of thumb is point at the Sun and the arc your thumb traces out as you rotate your wrist is the region that will be most affected by the polarizing filter. I don't see enough sky in this image where a polarizer would make much of a difference. HOWEVER, the reflection in the water would probably be affected and for this image, that is just the opposite thing you'd want. The mirror surface is what makes this image stronger.

I like your sepia like coloration. I usually don't go for that myself, but for this image it works very nicely.

Hoping to see more.

Richard

[Arthur Morris]

The only thing that bothers me is that the horizon in dead centered.

Hi Maxis, To quote George Lepp, when the stuff above and below the horizon is of equal interest, it is fine to have the horizon dead center. And I agree here: to get the horizon either 1/3 up or 1/3 down you would lose all symmetry in the image.

Harold, On a second look, I would actually prefer a bit more space above and below to include the tops of the highest clouds. I still like it a lot.

later and love, artie

[Harold Davis]

wow, thanks guys!! now that's a critique. i will work on all those points and maybe repost later. off to work!!

[Arthur Morris]

Don't work too hard Have a great day.

artie

[Maxis Gamez]

You can always go back to Green Cave and try both ways!! :)

[Harold Davis]

ok guys, here it is. thanks for all the help. i spent a LOT more time on this one than i normally do. hope it paid off. and forgive me if my dodge and burn technique isnt quite up to par. i learned a lot working on it, not sure if it's there yet though.

[Arthur Morris]

I like it but the whitest clouds are over-exposed and detail-less. By far... I also miss the tops of the clouds at the top. I am the guy who voted for the horizon in the middle <smile>

I cropped the image below from the re-post but feel that it would be much better without the hot highlights and with the tops of the upper clouds.

later and love, artie

ps: In the re-post there is too much sky-without-interest at the bottom of the frame. To inlcude that just to get the horion in the middle is convoluted thinking... With this image the horizon belongs smack in the middle...

[Harold Davis]

i'm having some trouble with those highlights and still keeping the detail in the clouds at the same time. i cropped off the top and bottom here. i like it, but i think it's a re-shoot!!

once again, a ton of thanks. great site artie!! with great people. i love it.

[Nonda Surratt]

After all that work and nicely done too, I still prefer the first one:o

[Robert Amoruso]

I didn't read all the comments on purpose so as not to be influenced by them. I just looked at the reposts. I want to start off by saying I like this one a lot.

Horizon dead center: Normally it will kill an image but here it will work as the top and bottom are balanced because of the reflection.

Toning and B&W Conversion: I am just starting to get into doing conversions myself (though I used to shoot B&W film and do my own printing way back when) but I think Harold did a nice job. I would like to see a bit more separation in the mid-tones in the land portion of the image. I like the sepia toning look but would also like to see a straight B7W version as I think that would be more dramatic.

Composition: Horizon mentioned above. I would take a bit off the left side to get the tree closer to the edge. Not a lot, about what Harold did in the last report. Top and bottom crop is fine IMO.