Critique #15 Theme *Landscape*

[Gabriel M.A.]

I have absolutely no problem.

 

[RayPA]

Before anybody comments on this, I'd like to know if there's a consensus this qualifies as "landscape":

This is a beauty, and another one that looked better on my Mac screen last night. It still has that glowing dusk (or sunrise) quality, but on the Mac screen the subtle color shifts really came across.

I love the low/water level angle, the foreground expanse of water, and the beer sign. 😀 My eye enters the image at the low point of the suspension cables, the brightest point, slightly off and above center. That's a good point. It can probably be moved slightly left and more into a third by cropping out the extraneous foliage peeking in on the left side. The softness on the upper right corner is a little bothersome. I'm not sure what you can do there. I agree with putting the cable into the upper right corner. That always adds a certain amount of dynamics. You may be able to drive that cable directly into the corner and eliminate some of the softness with a slight crop, but I would be leery of pulling the entry point toward the center. However, the higher horizon and perspective may let you get away with centralizing it. 😕 hmmm 🙂

I really like the image. The colors are wonderful, and the mood is quiet and serene. It would make a gorgeous print. Nice work, Gabriel. 🙂


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edit: yup! back home on the Mac, it opens up nicely and the sublties in color are excellent!

 

[raid]

Stunning Photo

Stunning Photo

OK, here is mine:

"The Golden Gate", 50/2 coll. Summicron

(hope two bridge posts are OK ...)

Cheers,

Roland.

Roland: This is a stunning photo of the Golden Gate Bridge. I love it. I wonder how you got the golden glow! Another persepctive would have been to have a different foreground, maybe some more water. Excellent work.

Raid

 

[raid]

Dark Waters

Dark Waters

Before anybody comments on this, I'd like to know if there's a consensus this qualifies as "landscape":

Gabriel,
This is a very nice photo, but I am troubled by the large space of dark water on the left and on the bottom. The dark water is needed to amplify the rosy glow of the sunset on the right. Maybe some cropping from the left and from below would frame the image better. Well done.

Raid

 

[raid]

Postcard

Postcard

American Basin

Moskva 5 6x9 Reala

AOI (name would help):
This is a beautiful, postcard like photo of the landscape. I may have experimented with getting close to the red and yellow flowers in the foregound and having them add some punch to the beautiful scene.

Raid

 

[raid]

So much beautiful color...

Here's a b&w "landscape"




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Ray: What a beautiful scene if it hasn't been for the traffic light! On each side of the traffic light pole the scene is beautiful, so cropping may not do it here.

Raid

 

[RayPA]

Here is my image; it is about sea oats at sunrise time during a hazy summer morning.

beautiful composition using natural elements. Nice choice of format, too. I feel it could benefit from a bump up in density as well as a bump up in contast. It could be my monitor, but it seems a little dark and a little flat. Beautiful shot that makes nice use of the sun. 🙂


🙂

 

[RayPA]

American Basin

Moskva 5 6x9 Reala

The images here have all made good use of large expanses of space, and that's a strong point here as well. The low vantage point makes me feel immersed in the scene. Great Dof and very sharp too. The focal point of the image is the mountain range and a strong compositional element is the hint of a 'S' curve that is snaking its way up and into the image toward the range. The color balance feels a *little* on the cool side. Very nice image. Smart composition. Beuatiful location. 🙂



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[RayPA]

View attachment 31058

Lake Como, New Jersey
Leica M6 / 50mm Summicron
HP5/D76

It's a bit hard to tell if five or more are participating. So if this thread is over the limit, I'll remove my post

Yay! Back viewing on my Mac!

This image is nice with the bend in the lake providing a very nice line to follow. I think compositionally it is very good. It is dark, however, and whereas visually the dark foreground is OK, losing the tree detail as the branches come in off the sky and cross the distant shore is problematic for me, especially on the far left tree. I think the image is just a tad past that threshold of dark and into too dark. I really enjoy what's happening with the sky and the lake. I think I see what you're after. The opening in the sky is very nice, like a last burst of light. I think you may be able to work this one by bringing the density up a little and working the burn and dodge tools to open the shadows while keeping the detail and quality of the sky. It's a peaceful fleeting moment just before the darkness engulfs everything. Good eye. Very nice composition.

🙂

 

[AOI Photo]

Raid.
Overall I really like this image. I especially like the placement of the sun just peeping into the frame. It's an unusuall approace to landscape, and the colors of the sky are beautiful. I do think the overall toen is a little dark,a nd lightening it would really be great. Oh and I'm Jason by the way.

Roland
Just Beautiful, the golden light, the featherlike qualaties of the plants, the sharp justting agleof the rock. A new look at a famailiar subject. The only thing I could say as constructive criticisim is that I might crop in a little from the left, making that hard angle of rock run right to the edge of the frame.

Gabriel.
Love the two bridges and the reflection of the closer one in the water. I feel a little tightening up from the bootom would help a little. Roight now I tend to focus a little more on the back bridge, and I think the crop would change that (hope that made sense)

Ray.
I'm really drwn to this image. I think the unspoiled nature of the beach, coupled witht he presenceo the streetlight suggests the gradual encroaching of man/modern times, into the beauty of the beach. Extremely nice. The figure is a nice echoing of the line of the pole. I would crop out the street entirely as I think the streetlight makes a better point if it is the sole modern aspect of the photo.

Jshelly
I like this image compositionally. Initially I thought it was a shade too dark, but the more I look at ot the more I like it. Rather than lightening the foreground or the trees, I would try and open up the right side of the sky a little, to let the dark tree stand out a little more.

As always a great collection of different images.

 

[jshelly]

Thanks for the feedback.

This was one of those take a quick walk around the lake before the sun disappears and shoot like your on the street shots. It's a great feeling when you hang your negs to dry and a frame grabs your attention.

I'm comfortable with street shooting and know absolutely nothing about landscape except keeping the horizon level so I guess I sort combined the two here

This is fun, excellent idea Ray!

 

[xabi]

Does it qualify as landscape?

 

[raid]

View attachment 31058

Lake Como, New Jersey
Leica M6 / 50mm Summicron
HP5/D76

It's a bit hard to tell if five or more are participating. So if this thread is over the limit, I'll remove my post

This is a nice photo. The tree on the right is more dominant than the tree on the left, and I would crop out the left 25% of the photo to allow the right tree to be the focus point.

Raid

 

[raid]

Does it qualify as landscape?

Why not? I like it.
I would crop the left 25% and get closer to the rails.
Make me actually "feel" winter.

Raid

 

[raid]

Let's get going here ... before this thread is outdated.

Raid

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Here is my image; it is about sea oats at sunrise time during a hazy summer morning.

Interesting crop -- and I mean interesting in a positive way, not in the usual way it's been used to say "hmmm". I'm not quite sure of the entirely dark third bottom, so if it's cropped a little bit more so that there isn't that much dark space; if enough is cropped to make this a square crop, that would perhaps make it even more balanced. That's my opinion, I'm not much in the know of landscapes, to be honest.

I like how the sun's disk is half in the frame; conveys the sense of sunset, reaffirming what one feels from the sillouette and the semi-golden pinkish tones of the clouds. It's all as if you're peeking from below, getting ready to go to sleep.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

"The Golden Gate", 50/2 coll. Summicron
Roland.

I think pretty much everything has been said that I would have said; very nice mood and light captured here. There's a nice diagonal across the frame, and the rule of thirds can be seen applied from various points of view (two from the Bridge as a reference, the cliff, etc.) Well seen and well exposed.

If anybody were to be an incorregible nitpicker, they'd probably complain about the tree profile on the top left corner. Not I.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

American Basin

I'm seeing two photos here. One is the full-frame you're showing, and the other is the top half, beginning from either just below or just above the exposed rock.

The vastness of the scene is well conveyed here, and the greens, blue and gray dominating it are coming across well. I see the zig-zag drawn in the middle, and you worked that into the photograph, that was good. Yet I wonder if the crop I mention in the beginning would make this a stronger photograph, where then the mountains and sky dominate, making them even more majestic, rather than the green drawing much of the energy on the photo. But that's what I see, perhaps not what you had in mind.

As a graphic display of grandure, I think that's been communicated to me, at least, and in that it has succeeded. Also knowing that a folder camera was used to compose this, this is an even bigger accomplishment, at least in my eyes.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Lake Como, New Jersey

Here I can see that the shadow (i.e. "dark" areas) is the biggest intended player, of course, and it is used with great effect. The main horizon, splitting the frame in half, yet another major line as if ripping the scene down from left to bottom right, in an energy countered by the light of the sun hidden from the blanket of clouds and the front tree.

The sky from the left top corner balancing the "solid" bottom right corner does not escape me, as neither does the gradation of light to grey from left to right, as grey to dark, from top to bottom.

I like it very much, so much dynamism.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Does it qualify as landscape?

An urban landscape. The drawing of front to top, from right to center, and back...all that's man-made so static, cut right in the middle by people moving across.

Cold, so still and cold, yet there's life. Somewhere.

I would only suggest cropping the left edge of the frame, enough that it removes the countering fence, and the patch of dead grass/brush, so that the main flow drawn by the tracks is more uniform.