Retouched pic.

[Neil]

Comments welcome.

 

[nartreb]

It's growing on me a bit... my first reaction was: those colors are just muddy, and the sky is really weird.

I think it lacks something compositionally - the focus seems to be the sun, is that what you intended?

The standing figure is interesting... he seems to be frowning, or concentrating, and you can just barely see some details of his face. If you had a bit of space to his right he'd make a good subject of the shot.

 

[Mark Schaefer]

I like the retouch. It looks like the old solarized darkroom technique, and perhaps an equivalent digital software effect. Since the original image was back lit, it was probably gradations of gray. Adding the blue and orange hues gives the image an eerie autumnal feel which is interesting.

I believe nartreb is correct about the composition. The sun beams tend to focus our attention toward the top center or to the lower left, and away from the individual. And perhaps either he or what he is looking at should be the subject. And it is not clear what he is looking at. So our eye wanders around the photo a bit without finding something definite to rest on.

 

[Neil]

What made me take the picture were the little pools of ice and the reflections.

In the original the person is a black silhouette and perhaps less distracting. I particularly like the colors of the valley floor and sky but agree with the assessments of the compositional weaknesses. I take most of my pictures on the fly. I see it, I whip out the camera, make a quick composition and shoot one or more pics.

With the cold weather I've switched from glasses to contacts and this means I am less able to see the LCD clearly for assessment and correction of my images on the go. Do any of you have this problem?

I'm going to work the image some more and repost it.

Thanks! Very nice group in here. A P&S guy like me could feel intimidated but that's not at all the case.

-Neil

 

[kmorgan]

Hope you don't mind....

....but I couldn't resist playing with the image a little in Photoshop. I used the Shadows/Highlights adjustment at 25/0 and then did an Auto Levels adjustment to get this:



Kevin

 

[Neil]

I don't mind at all! In fact, I think it's pretty cool you that did it.

But I think you went a bit too far and the orange is too orange and the blue hues are lost. Can you further darken the dark foreground tones, bring back the electric blue and decrease the intensity of the oranges?

 

[kmorgan]

Ok, this took a bit of playing to find combinations that would work. Here are 2 more variations:



and



Kevin

 

[Peakbagr]

I prefer Kevin's 1st retouch.

 

[Neil]

I prefer Kevin's 1st retouch.

Ditto. Much warmer feel.

The image reminds of plasticine porters with looking glass ties.

 

[kmorgan]

The first retouch I did mostly concerned adjustments to overall elements. The last 2 I had to get "jiggy" with it using some more artistic adjustments to change the reality of the pixels that were present.

I like the first change better too.

Kevin

 

[JohnL]

For some reason that I cannot explain, the colors instantly created a surreal feeling in me, similar to some scenes from Apocalypse Now. There is a dreamlike quality to the light and colors; the sepia tone, the shafts of sunlight that you don’t really see but can sense, the small bright spots within the dark areas, almost as if the person is having an out of body experience. The person seems perplexed, perhaps by the two shiny areas in the lower center and lower left, as if he is searching for something. Compositionally, there’s not much you can hang your hat on but certainly it is a photo that caught my attention. For me anyway, here is a photo where the emotional response of this viewer trumps the lack of compositional features.

JohnL

 

[kmorgan]

Actually... the first edit I did with the really orange sky and background could be a hiker in California last week.