Solitary Pine

Gallery: LandscapePosted December 16, 2010168 views6 comments

I took this image the first week of November in the Zion High Country. I was struck by the textures and color in the scene, particularly the striations in the sandstone and the tenacious root growing out of the rock. I am interesting in knowing if you think that this image works or not. Some have said that it lacks depth, appears too flat, others say that the "illustrative" quality of the work is very appealing. What do you think? And if you think that it needs more depth, what would you do in CS5 to accomplish this? Thanks for your feedback, I value each and every comment!

Comments

6 comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on December 16, 2010 at 9:34 PM

I like this, Barbara. The textures are coming across great. Colors are good too. At least on my laptop. This is one of my favorites of yours. The comp is working well to get across a coherent message of color and texture in the landscape.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments

Comment posted by Raymond D Smith on December 16, 2010 at 9:49 PM

I like the glow you have on the wall behind the tree's Barbara. I think it needs the black point moved to the right a bit. That might help with the depth. Cheers

Registered on January 22, 2009, 12 Posts, 479 Comments

Comment posted by Andreas Resch on December 17, 2010 at 5:34 AM

That's a strong composition with an interesting subject matter. I like it. You shouldn't change anything about the depth. This could have been achieved by a different light situation but would be hard and maybe impossible to create artificially - I wouldn't like that anyway as this is how it was and how it should be presented.

Registered on November 14, 2007, 322 Posts, 6101 Comments

Comment posted by David Cobb on December 17, 2010 at 9:40 AM

A beautiful ponderosa, nice well-balanced comp, and I like the color and form here too.

Registered on December 14, 2007, 312 Posts, 3243 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on December 17, 2010 at 9:54 PM

Barbara,

This image absolutely works for me. The color, texture and detail are all excellent. I really like that you've pretty much filled the frame here and used the cliffs as a backdrop for this tree and foreground.

Interestingly, I also think this doesn't have very much depth to it. but in this case I don't think it's a detriment what so ever. In fact it almost seems like this is a composite of the tree/foreground and the background - but in an appealing way. at least for me. But regarding the comment what would you do in PS to accomplish more depth? Personally, I don't think you can do anything after the fact. Depth, selective focus and all those things are captured and created in the field with choices in aperture, viewpoints, focal lengths, etc. etc. What is captured either has depth, or it doesn't, IMHO.

I think this is an excellent image and you did very well to see, capture and process this one.

lon

Registered on November 24, 2006, 521 Posts, 19147 Comments

Comment posted by Barbara Lee on December 18, 2010 at 2:25 AM

Thanks, everyone, for your feedback. I am glad that you like this work. I certainly do! When I spoke of depth, I meant, how could I separate the tree more from the stone. JP Capinigro has some lessons on dodging and burning edges to create dimension. I have done some of this in the past on certain images, and it does work, but I had a harder time accomplishing this in this image. But, I do like it as it stands, and I am grateful that other photogs who I respect think so to. Thanks for looking and taking the time to comment!

Registered on December 4, 2010, 12 Posts, 11 Comments