Friday Photo Critique #23
Friday Photo Critique is our weekly community project, where we publish a photograph submitted by one of our wonderful readers, then ask you all to offer constructive feedback on the image.
It’s a great way to learn more about photography, express your viewpoint, and have your own image critiqued. Your response will also be displayed with a link to your website or portfolio, so be sure to enter it correctly when submitting a comment!
Quick Ground Rules
- Play nice! We’ve deliberately chosen photographs that aren’t perfect, so please be constructive with any criticism.
- Feel free to offer any type of advice – composition, lighting, post-processing etc.
- You can also link to photographs that you feel offer a great example of this type of image shot exceptionally well.
Without further ado, here is this week’s candidate for Friday Photo Critique!
The Photograph
Photographer: zdeto
Please let us know what you think in the comments – how would you have approached the scene or taken the photo differently? A massive thank you to everyone who commented last week.
The most constructive and helpful comments will be featured on the site, and you’ll also be given priority to feature your own work in a future Friday Photo Critique!.
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great pic.
nothing to add!
Amazing. I wish I could take stuff like that.
The only quibble : I wish your watermark was more discreet.
Beautiful! My only constructive comment would be that my eye tends to be hover too much over the dark part of the image on the right corner.
Very nice color and balance.
I especially like the way this shooter incorporated the houses in the valley and his treatment of the butte in the lower left.
It’s basically a nice shot, nice color, good use of clouds for interest.
Where the image fails is on the lower half, if feels cuts off especially into the valley area. The photographer would have been better off shooting lower to the ground to bring more of the foreground into the image leading you into the background. And even better would be to have something of interest in the foreground, a wildflower, a structure and then then have that lead to the background
I’m a new photographer, so I don’t think my opinion should weigh all that much. When I saw you image I first thought, huh, what’s interesting? The clouds are cool, the way the land dips is cool, the colors are beautiful and vibrant, but I don’t have one thing that really draws me in. As I’ve learned from past critiques, I’d like to see something catch my eye. Landscapes are tough because there isn’t always that one or even two things that focus my attention. Overall it’s well done, just not a “wow” photo in my opinion…
It’s gorgeous! I love the way the clouds draw the viewer down to the ground. The one thing that could be improved, in my opinion, is (like someone else said) more of the foreground/valley included. Maybe a wider shot? It feels cropped a little too close.
personally, i feel the colors aren’t as exciting as the dramatic sky and sense of ‘vastness’…… converting this to black and white would make a huge difference.
I would actually disagree. As much as I LOVE a good black and white landscape, what’s lovely about this photo is it brings me back to those warm summer days and going for hikes in the hills. If you convert this shot to black and white it’ll take on (to me) a more ominous almost sinister look as you’ll lose all that lovely rich blue sky.
We can see from the shadows and sky that this wasn’t taken around dawn or dusk. Fix that for your next shot to bring out different colors and luminance. I also feel my eye is falling into the valley, there is nothing to lead me to the sky, especially since the mountains abruptly cut the sky. Also, landscapes are typically hi res, back in the day being shot on ISO 50 medium or large format. I would have liked a larger upload to inspect details. A foreground subject would also be nice. Or something in either of the lower thirds to be the central object. Finally, while the colors are well saturated, I find the human eye does not find green to be the most appealing color. A foreground subject in orange, yellow, or red would really help. All that said, I do find the photo appealing.
I’m not much of a landscape guy, but this is really pretty.
My only thought is there’s not (to me) much of a sense of a subject (maybe those low fluffy clouds), so I end up looking at it, thinking “that’s pretty” and then moving on fairly quickly. The sky isn’t so overwhelmingly dramatic that I’m frozen by it, and there’s nothing on the ground or in the valley to really grab my attention, so it ends up being a little bland.
But like I said, I’m not a landscape guy, so take that with a grain of salt. It certainly looks like a wonderful scene and a great day to go for a hike, so you captured and inspired that in me!
This is great!
I think there is symmetry on both sides with the trough in the middle. The sky has good contrast between the blues and whites. The clouds are lined up very nicely with various textures in them. I like the contrast between the dark and light greens. And lastly the mountain range in the back has some shadows from the clouds hanging over them and it just looks sweet.
The horizon is right at the 1/3 mark so what’s to comment on. This is about as good as it gets on here.
The only thing I felt was missing was a focal point. Something that your eye is drawn to automatically. For me it was the sky and the mountains in the back and those shouldn’t be the focus. But I’m sure you will find others who were drawn to something else.
Great Work!
The mechanics of the camera were good, decent tonal range (could push that a little more), the depth is good (would like it to make me feel a bit more overwhelmed with the lens that was used, that could be accomplished with more sky in the composition), given how wide the angle is on the lens is, I hope you shot this more than once and had more of an offset of the valley. Over all it is a good photo. With the curvature of the lens, this image may be a little better if one corrected the lens distortion and cropped some of the right and lower portions of the image field out.
The technicalities of the photo are good, but like Jessica, I didn’t find anything that really drew me into the image. Both the sky and ground feel equally busy, and I don’t feel like my eye is being led to anything specific. I’m trying to picture the photographer standing in this setting and saying to a friend, “Look at that! Check out the _______________! Look at the way that it ________________. Isn’t that beautiful?” I just can’t figure out what to put in those blanks. My best recommendation is to determine what about this setting was the inspiration for taking the photo, and then find some way to showcase it more effectively while minimizing all other potential distractions.
A beautifully crisp image, with lines that draw your eyes down into the lower right valley. It sort of looks like a storm is brewing above the hole. The colours are vivid, yet sort of remind me of Windows 2000- never a plus. That said, it’s a very flat photo- no subject of particular interest. There also seems to be a lack of composition- no rule of thirds (though I had abiding to that), no halves, etc.
I like the colors.
Any idea of the photographer used an polarized filter? Or used Photoshop?
There is absolutely nothing here to criticize; but there’s nothing there that pulls me in either.
I like the polarizer, would use MD filter or heavier one if already used
the horizon isnt horizontal because of the hill in the background… personally i would take the photo at an angle to make the horizon seem horizontal
I really dont like the bush on the right, i rould have aimed the camera more to the left or zoomed in slightly, or moved to the left so the clouds were kept in the frame
My eye went straight into the sky. As Peter mentioned, the beautiful valley floor kind of gets second billing. Maybe a little lighter blue sky would have brought out the grass and trees more.
BTW: where was the shot taken??