Critique some fall color

[Ben Egbert]

I camped in a grove of aspen while at Christmas Meadows and spent some time wondering around taking aspen shots. I tried to find compositions that allowed for level shooting to avoid distortion, I also tried to not cut off trunks above ground level and to avoid unwanted ground clutter. I did some with cut off tops and some with sky. I did some vertical and some horizontal. I also tried to avoid side clutter, like a messy tree.

Like to get your favorites and any comments that could improve that, or my overall approach to this.

1.

2

3

4

5

 

[JimFox]

Hey Ben,

This is a nice little exercise.

#1 is a nice view, but feels muddy, maybe it needs some more cyan? The yellows and greens feel too red in it.

#2 does feel a little cutoff on the bottom, but more I would use the warp tool or crop that small tree on the left side that's leaning a bit into the shot. I would also clone out that trail marker.

#3 and 4 I think are my favorites of the group.

#5 is interesting and I like the leaves on the ground. I wonder though if cropping the off the top to lose that blue sky would be of help? It would turn it into a 4:5 format or maybe even square, but I think currently the tops of the trees with the sky and clouds ends up competing with the ground. Since you got so much ground in this one, let the visual focus then be more on the ground.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Hey Ben,

This is a nice little exercise.

#1 is a nice view, but feels muddy, maybe it needs some more cyan? The yellows and greens feel too red in it.

#2 does feel a little cutoff on the bottom, but more I would use the warp tool or crop that small tree on the left side that's leaning a bit into the shot. I would also clone out that trail marker.

#3 and 4 I think are my favorites of the group.

#5 is interesting and I like the leaves on the ground. I wonder though if cropping the off the top to lose that blue sky would be of help? It would turn it into a 4:5 format or maybe even square, but I think currently the tops of the trees with the sky and clouds ends up competing with the ground. Since you got so much ground in this one, let the visual focus then be more on the ground.

Thanks Jim, all great comments. I will take a look at them, especially 5. I agree 3 and 4 are the strongest images.

 

[lionking]

Ok, i got few min,
I'll do what i can within the time frame:
1. Love the comp, great abstract, i would fiddle with WB, remove the black top tree, fix the sky(crop a bit and restore some color) would consider bringing some life to those greens and yellows.
2.does not work for me, cause cut off bottom...
3.same regarding dried tops, if its possible(some creativity will be required) would fix the cut off top, of the yellow tree on the right, although its not critical, some life to those colors...
4.sky brightness is ok, the trees a bit dull...
5.need some brightening of the fg, and trunks, less sat in the sky, looks too blue to my eyes...

hope it helped.
cheers!

 

[Ben Egbert]

Here is a crop of 5 for Jim

 

[Ben Egbert]

Here is a redo of 1 for Andrey. By the way, it was snowing when I took this image.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Here is another version of 5 based on Andreys comments.

 

[dan swiger]

As starters, I'm going with 3,4 & 5
In 3, the near cropping at top doesn't hurt as much as it feels more intimate. Maybe a little "distort-stretch" vert to get a little space.

In 4, I would go for a 2x3 crop to tighten view, eliminating the trees at left, etc. I really like the tree color & the ground coloring

For 5, I like Jim's suggested crop. It makes me feel like I 'm walking into the forest.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Ben, just a quick comment. I like the edit of #5. I think the crop and Andreys suggestions really help that.

 

[Ben Egbert]

As starters, I'm going with 3,4 & 5
In 3, the near cropping at top doesn't hurt as much as it feels more intimate. Maybe a little "distort-stretch" vert to get a little space.

In 4, I would go for a 2x3 crop to tighten view, eliminating the trees at left, etc. I really like the tree color & the ground coloring

For 5, I like Jim's suggested crop. It makes me feel like I 'm walking into the forest.

Thanks Dan, I am including a 3x2 crop of #4. I have already done a couple versions of 5, do you prefer one over the other?

 

[dan swiger]

Thanks Dan, I am including a 3x2 crop of #4. I have already done a couple versions of 5, do you prefer one over the other?
View attachment 22223

Ben, I agree with Jim on the 2nd one. Nice!

 

[AlanLichty]

A lot to catch up on here - my favorite of the bunch is #4 and I don't mind the original crop at all. I would be inclined to drag the slider for color temp a bit to the left on all of these - For my eyes there is too much yellow and not enough blue in the color balance.

#1 - I like the redo you posted on that with the more vibrant trees
#2 - agree with the previous comments about the framing of this one - the bottom feels cut off.
#3 - I would be happier with this one with a slightly farther back viewpoint. It feels like you were just a little too close and the trees feel cramped both top and bottom.
#4 - this one was my top choice - still would be inclined to brighten it up just a bit more with a little more blue.
#5 - I actually like the original crop and wish it was either a drastic chomp job that had no sky at all and was just the trunks or back it off a bit more to get all of the trees in the frame.

I would be inclined to brighten up the trunks of the trees in all of these just to get that little extra contrast into the frames.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Thanks Alan, I brightened up #5, sorry I don't have one with complete tree tops.

I also brightened #4 and blued up the clouds a bit. You did not say if you preferred the 3X2 crop so I used the original crop.

 

[AlanLichty]

Nice rework. I did like the original crop on #4 so this worked well. I do like the scene in #5 and the rework helps.

 

[Kyle Jones]

5 is my favorite and I like the lightened up versions. My first thought was actually to crop off some of the bottom, but I like each of your reworked versions