A fleeting moment of clearing fog and sun rays: I've done quite a bit of perspective correction (shot at upward angle with an ultra-wide angle lens)

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

I've done quite a bit of perspective correction (shot at upward angle with an ultra-wide angle lens) - still learning how best to accomplish in PS Elements.

I would appreciate your feedback regarding composition, color, and subject interest.

Other suggestions and any edits would be welcomed and appreciated. Thank you!

(Download)

Treepusher Loc: Kingston, Massachusetts

A beautiful shot, and well composed. I love that the light rays on the right follow the line of the trees down the image. Very nicely done. It does appear the trees on the right are leaning pretty hard to the left. Maybe they do, but that's where the perspective correction might help. Other thought on this might be to try a touch of HDR to lighten up the shadows a bit.

Still, a very striking image as is. And of course knew immediately who shot it, lol!

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Treepusher wrote:

A beautiful shot, and well composed. I love that the light rays on the right follow the line of the trees down the image. Very nicely done. It does appear the trees on the right are leaning pretty hard to the left. Maybe they do, but that's where the perspective correction might help. Other thought on this might be to try a touch of HDR to lighten up the shadows a bit.

Still, a very striking image as is. And of course knew immediately who shot it, lol!

Thanks so much for your time and suggestions, Randy. I'll see if I can straighten them a bit more.

Fun to browse "newest photos" and see a pic from a location or style of pp that gives you hint of who shot. Not that we spend so much time on UHH we have 'em all memorized, of course

ebrunner Loc: New Jersey Shore

Linda From Maine wrote:

I've done quite a bit of perspective correction (shot at upward angle with an ultra-wide angle lens) - still learning how best to accomplish in PS Elements.

I would appreciate your feedback regarding composition, color, and subject interest.

Other suggestions and any edits would be welcomed and appreciated. Thank you!

I know that you love to shoot into the sun, Linda. I think, however, in this instance, there is a lot of space above the trees on the right side of the composition that has no detail. I want to really like this photo; but it just misses for me. I also think that the sun rays appear a bit muddy. There is a good foreground anchor with the rocks and there is a lot of detail in the trees. I'm wondering if you could decrease the highlights and the exposure and get those rays to be less harsh? (maybe the wrong word) Perhaps less defined and more dramatic (although the scene is dramatic as it is presented). As for the perspective control? I know the trees are leaning;but this does not bother me at all. You are trying to portray an emotion that you saw when you clicked the shutter. This does not have to be an accurate representation of the trees. If you were taking a picture of a building and wanted the lines straight, ok, I get it. For me this is a different situation and geometric accuracy is not required.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

ebrunner wrote:

I know that you love to shoot into the sun, Linda.... (show quote)

Thanks so much for your time and thoughtful comments, Erich. Lots of great feedback to digest!

ebrunner Loc: New Jersey Shore

Other suggestions and any edits would be welcomed and appreciated. Thank you![/quote]

After making my suggestions I started to think: "Hey Erich, put your money where your mouth is". So here is an edit. Not saying it is better than the original; but it is a bit different. Somehow, I got some funkiness in the sky. Don't know where that came from. Is it just barely defined clouds? I noticed it when I reduced the highlights in that area. I also notice that the original is much sharper. Maybe something got lost in the download. I loaded it to my desktop. Weird. I would think the sharpness would stay the same.
Erich

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ebrunner Loc: New Jersey Shore

Linda From Maine wrote:

I've done quite a bit of perspective correction (shot at upward angle with an ultra-wide angle lens) - still learning how best to accomplish in PS Elements.

I would appreciate your feedback regarding composition, color, and subject interest.

Other suggestions and any edits would be welcomed and appreciated. Thank you!

You know what, after playing with it, I'm going to change my mind. I think the original is much better. Funny how you can get a different impression of a photo after you try to manipulate it a bit yourself. Disregard all that I've said. I think my comments are basically bunk.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

ebrunner wrote:

You know what, after playing with it, I'm going to change my mind. I think the original is much better. Funny how you can get a different impression of a photo after you try to manipulate it a bit yourself. Disregard all that I've said. I think my comments are basically bunk.

LOL, you are a breath of fresh air on a gloomy day, Erich! I have no doubt that my own edits caused your funky sky

Thank you so much for your time and interest.

Frank2013 Loc: San Antonio, TX. & Milwaukee, WI.

Gonna go with Erich on the brightness....but my stab at taming for what it's worth.

(Download)

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Frank2013 wrote:

Gonna go with Erich on the brightness....but my stab at taming for what it's worth.

Thank you, Frank. I like the parts you brightened - trees and foreground - while keeping nice definition in the rays.

I appreciate your time and assistance.

merrytexan Loc: georgia

Linda From Maine wrote:

I've done quite a bit of perspective correction (shot at upward angle with an ultra-wide angle lens) - still learning how best to accomplish in PS Elements.

I would appreciate your feedback regarding composition, color, and subject interest.

Other suggestions and any edits would be welcomed and appreciated. Thank you!

I like the composition. I like the heavenly rays.
I like the pretty colors. the subject gets high praise. The sky is needing something. I have no idea what. To wrap it up I have to say I like the shot a lot.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

merrytexan wrote:

I like the composition. I like the heavenly rays.
I like the pretty colors. the subject gets high praise. The sky is needing something. I have no idea what. To wrap it up I have to say I like the shot a lot.

Thank you so much, Merry. I tried adding some blue to the sky; turned out too vivid to share here - lol - but will keep at it. Appreciate your time!

pfrancke Loc: cold Maine

I like the shapes of the rays and the composition of it - with the rich greens of the backlit hero tree. The lightness on the upper right - I don't know if I like it or not. It is a contrast with the rest of the image, but I can't tell if it balances the image, or if it makes it wobbly. A dark ominous cloud non-sharp there might be interesting.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

pfrancke wrote:

I like the shapes of the rays and the composition of it - with the rich greens of the backlit hero tree. The lightness on the upper right - I don't know if I like it or not. It is a contrast with the rest of the image, but I can't tell if it balances the image, or if it makes it wobbly. A dark ominous cloud non-sharp there might be interesting.

Thanks very much for your time and interest, Piet. This might be a good one to work on sky composites, eh? I have a cropped version where I added some blue - too much to show at the moment, lol, but also there are negatives to removing some of the right side, so will keep at it.

Also I might be able to apply some of the suggestions that folks made regarding my yellow flowers/rock/mountain fog shot.

Thanks again!

merrytexan Loc: georgia

Linda From Maine wrote:

Thank you so much, Merry. I tried adding some blue to the sky; turned out too vivid to share here - lol - but will keep at it. Appreciate your time!