September Prairie - Repost

Gallery: LandscapePosted September 19, 201164 views9 comments

I made this image at Lake in the Hills Fen last week. In late summer the little bluestem grass ripens to a rich maroon and the various goldenrod and sunflowers reach their peak.

It was an unusually calm day so I made five exposures at f/8 aligned and blended with PS CS 4 to achieve greater DOF.

Please look at the larger image to see the finer detail.

Nikon D700; Nikkor 24-85 @24; 1/100s @f/8, ISO 200, tripod

Comments and criticisms always welcome.

Comments

9 comments

Comment posted by Andreas Resch on September 19, 2011 at 11:55 AM

DOF-blending in such a wind-prone scene must be hell of a ride and it looks like you succeeded. Sharpness is nice which I find crucial in detail-based shots like this one. You can think about cropping away the very top with the dark hedges in the center and the small ones on the left. So close to the frame they might pull the eyes away in the wish of seeing more. Another idea could be to work on the brightness distribution a little bit just to pull the eye into the center a bit better - basically that would be darkening the foreground a little and adjust the vignetting of the left corners to the ones on the right. Just a bunch of minor observations.

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

Comment posted by Bill Chambers on September 19, 2011 at 12:14 PM

Lovely variet of colors and textures. I do find the emptiness of the ULC to be somewhat bothersome but, overall I like this a lot.

Registered on April 10, 2005, 753 Posts, 21216 Comments

Comment posted by Preston Birdwell on September 19, 2011 at 12:45 PM

You did an excellent job with this, David. I agree with Andreas' suggestions and would add that a touch more contrast and perhaps a slight bump in saturation would look nice.

--p

Registered on November 1, 2003, 471 Posts, 5188 Comments

Comment posted by Dean Sauskojus on September 19, 2011 at 2:02 PM

Great DOF David. The mixture of plants and their colors flow well together for a nice prairie shot. I would crop the top just slightly so my eye isn't wondering around up there wondering what that dark spot is and those bushes in the ULC. Nice job.

Registered on September 29, 2009, 137 Posts, 2659 Comments

Comment posted by Chris Chamberlain on September 19, 2011 at 11:34 PM

This is a beautiful and excellent shot. Just add Andreas and Preston's suggestions to taste and it's done!

Chris

Registered on March 13, 2007, 500 Posts, 8365 Comments

Comment posted by Lon Overacker on September 20, 2011 at 1:46 AM

David,

This is lovely. And I would like to echo the excellent feedback from Andreas and Preston. I initially thought this was on the bright side, but have since decided that it just has an "airy" or fluffy look and I like this quite a lot. I'd mostly look at the slight crops that have been suggested.

Excellent PS work with the blends.

Lon

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

Comment posted by David Schwaegler on September 20, 2011 at 8:23 AM

Thanks so much for your helpful comments.

Here's what I did: a bit of cloning and cropping to get rid of the shrubs at the top; warmed the white balance from 4050 (as shot) to 4200, darkened and saturated the foreground tall boneset (white flower), darkened the left side corners with gradients to match the right side, and added contrast and clarity.