Withering + RAW

Gallery: LandscapePosted June 30, 2013211 views14 comments

Today I made the difficult decision to stay on in my day job and continue to pursue landscape photography as a hobby. I was given the opportunity last week to take a paid redundancy package at my work, which could have given me an opportunity for creating a good start in building a photographic business. But after much research, thought, and advice from friends, I decided that I was not ready to embark on this journey just yet. It's a tough market to make a living from, and I applaud and respect immensely those that are able to do it. So, for now, I will continue to work on my craft and build a presence.

This image is another from my 2010 trip to Girraween.

Many thanks for your thoughts :-)

Dave.

D80, 35mm lens, f/16, 1/8sec.

Comments

14 comments

Comment posted by Paul Breitkreuz on June 30, 2013 at 10:54 AM

A very fine image here, David. It would be nice to see the larger version, but verticals on the larger scale can be a bit tough to view scrolling up and down too. At this size the detail is well seen and even down to the small sprout sticking out of the top of the rock on the right.

Good luck with your career thoughts and it's never an easy decision in the end.

Registered on February 25, 2006, 525 Posts, 8448 Comments

Comment posted by Ben Horne on June 30, 2013 at 11:39 AM

The texture of the tree and the rocks work well together. I also like the shape of the tree, and how it is composed within the rocks. I do feel like the image is a bit too "crunchy" though — perhaps from using too much of the clarity tool, or something along those lines. I feel like many of the subtle colors, especially in the shadows are a bit flat, almost a HDR feeling. Maybe a bit more contrast in the mid tones would help with that.

Registered on August 27, 2009, 51 Posts, 959 Comments

Comment posted by Eva McDermott on June 30, 2013 at 12:02 PM

I like the colors and textures David. The background rock's color makes it appear as though the tree has a radiant glow around it. Beautiful image.

Registered on January 4, 2009, 1015 Posts, 13229 Comments

Comment posted by Bob Miller on June 30, 2013 at 12:04 PM

Nice job on the comp- everything flows nicely without any objects pulling attention too much from the whole. The detail you pulled is very interesting and the colors work very well together. I like it.

Registered on January 24, 2005, 152 Posts, 405 Comments

Comment posted by Harley Goldman on June 30, 2013 at 12:30 PM

Really like the detail of the tree against the rock. The light and comp look great. I would agree with Ben about the crunchy look. It has an HDR look to my eye.

Registered on November 19, 2003, 586 Posts, 11271 Comments

Comment posted by scott lanz on June 30, 2013 at 12:34 PM

Very artistic image, Dave. I like the processing; works well with the subject.

Registered on November 14, 2003, 840 Posts, 12902 Comments

Comment posted by Hamed Musharbak on June 30, 2013 at 2:16 PM

very interesting David, i like the textures in the tree

Registered on June 1, 2009, 372 Posts, 2282 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Palmieri on June 30, 2013 at 6:41 PM

Really nice lines and textures. I like this one a lot.

Registered on September 1, 2011, 35 Posts, 748 Comments

Comment posted by Bobby Ho on June 30, 2013 at 9:06 PM

What a fantastic creation! The color contrast and the textures are excellent.

Registered on April 21, 2013, 14 Posts, 23 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Chambers on July 1, 2013 at 3:28 PM

Wonderful Dave! Like Paul, I wish there was a larger version because there's just so much beauty, color, and texture here. Love your composition. A real beauty!

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

Comment posted by Emmanuel Coupe on July 1, 2013 at 6:39 PM

I like the composition and low contrast look of it all and I think you should stay in that direction. I do however feel that the tree has its highlight a bit too much compressed giving strange look to it. I would consider re-working that a bit.

Registered on March 17, 2007, 83 Posts, 341 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Bristol on July 1, 2013 at 6:49 PM

Very nice image, David! Your comp works really nice and then the color and textures are wonderful. Like this a lot.

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Registered on February 1, 2004, 752 Posts, 14140 Comments

Comment posted by Margo Pinkerton on July 2, 2013 at 5:39 PM

I love your composition on this, and from a distance, the photograph stands out in the thumbnails, David.

That said, the HDR feel also stands out, and I am not sure that does this image justice. Many feel that the good thing about HDR is that it brings detail out of the lights and shadows, but that is also the bad thing. HDR can put all the values pretty much on the same plane, and therefore, the viewer's eye does not know where to go.

Had you considered softening/removing clarity/removing contrast from the rocks so that their texture does not compete with the texture of the tree? Just a thought.

Again, though, I like your composition in this photograph.

Registered on October 18, 2007, 39 Posts, 214 Comments

Comment posted by David Edwards on July 3, 2013 at 6:07 AM

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm a bit surprised about people's impression of the image as "too hdr". There wasn't much processing done on it, and just a little shadow opening and slight highlight reducing in ACR with WB adjustment, then some color toning on CS6. I kept it fairly flat and gritty because I wanted it to have that look and print well on canvas. Here is the original RAW image with Camera Raw Defaults set in ACR and no additional processing to give you an idea of the image I was working with. Thanks again for your thoughts and suggestions, I appreciate them immensely.
Cheers!

Registered on December 6, 2008, 142 Posts, 2623 Comments