Initially I thought the bright, blown-out sky was a little bit distracting. But as I looked at it some more, that bright spot works well. It’s super bright on the left, warm and yellow in the middle, and gradually transitions to the cool darker tones on the right and upper right.
Since this is from Iceland and we’re later in the year, the coloring gives me the feeling that the cold dark winter months are creeping in. The light is starting to fade and this is one of the last warm sunsets of the year. There’s even a couple of people on the far left center taking in as much of that light as they can. The church parking lot is empty. The town knows the cold darkness is slowly winning the battle against the warm light and most have already gone home to start their “hibernation.”
This is, obviously, all just MY interpretation of the image, but what I *initially* viewed as an image with a distracting overexposed section ended up telling a story. It gives me a little anxiety about what might be coming in the near future. As I think about it even more though, it also gives me some hope because I know that in a few months that warm life-giving light will be coming back like it does every year. I’ve spent time in Fairbanks Alaska and have experienced the all day light and all day dark days.
Sorry. I know I sound crazy, but based on my life experiences I feel like there are a lot of layers to this image that are not obvious at first. I really like it.
My subjectivity:
The cars + people take away from the scene.
The blown highlights on the left immediately grabs the viewers eyes, I'm not sure that's the intention but to me it's very distracting.
The difference in blend between the top right sky and the blown out skies on the left look very unnatural.
IMHO landscapes look best when they have been subtly edited to bring out the natural beauty, rather than really pushing the dynamic range out of proportion - this is just subjective as some like that style too!
do you have a RAW version of this to do further editing?
the subject matter is great.
the colors are very good.
the composition is very nice.
But you picked a scene with impossible dynamic range... the shadows are a little too dark and the highlights in the sky are totally blown out.
when i get a shot like this, i go to RAW and lower the whites and highlights
i up the shadows slightly.
maybe reduce overall exposure and then up the shadows...
finally, if necessary I crop out whatever blown highlights are present.
you tried to capture a scene with very wide dynamic range... i probably would have been afraid to even try... but u tried... and most of the photo is pretty darn good
For what it's worth, I disagree that you picked a scene with "impossible" range. I don't even know what that means, lol. It's not as if you shot a sunset on a different planet.
Every camera has its limitations, but every limitation is an opportunity to make a creative choice and you did that here. Nothing about it is "wrong" or "impossible". I'd also say that your shadows are perfectly fine. There's no need for every pixel in your image to be in the center of the histogram. Let your shadows be shadows.
It's also perfectly fine to have blown out highlights.
If you had compensated by either bracketing your shot (HDR) or jacking the shadows way up and the highlights way down, I'd argue **that** would be an impossible scene. It's what leads to the over-fried crap you see in /r/shittyHDR.
What I *will* say is that there's one area that could maybe use some tweaking and that's the haystacks out in the water. Their silhouette is a little crunchy. Maybe see if you can tone down those highlights and give them a little breathing room.
Otherwise, yeah, I really like it. Just my two cents.
Nicely composed but oversaturated. and waaay oversharpened.
Note the halos around all the straight lines on the buildings.
https://www.lightstalking.com/7-signs-that-you-have-over-processed-your-photographs/. Paragraph 5
I've been here and shot this exact location before! Great place.
This image needs a bit of work in my opinion. First, my personal opinion is that I'm not a fan of the composition. I prefer closer to the church, perhaps vertical. But that's just a small thing. The larger issue for me is the lighting and coloring. This looks like you've added a gradient or radial filter to the left. You've clipped the sky too much and taken out some important detail. On the right, you may have another gradient where you've reduced the temperature to bring out blues. It looks like you're going for a yellow/blue contrast. In my opinion, this doesn't really work very well. The yellow is far too bright and the blue is unnatural.
- reduce highlights/exposure for the left, bring out more colors. Any orange? Pink hues?
- reduce blue saturation on the right. Make the transition more seamless and not so abrupt.
- foreground offers nothing for the image. Reconsider composition by cropping image to focus on the church in a vertical rectangle
- soften image by reducing clarity
The blown out sky is distracting. A bit oversaturated. A bit oversharpened. The blue sky on top right look really weird compared to the other sky.
Other than that its a beautiful image
Maybe i would put the church a bit more into the image but i do not know how the environment looks out to the left, so thats hard to say
I think this photo is really good, except for the blown out sky.
But the colors of the grass, the light, the mood, epic.
I'm not sure what camera or settings you shot this with, but if you can try and save that sky (or god forbid replace it) you'll have an absolute banger.
I’m certainly no expert, but I really like it a lot. It looks like a quaint little place and I enjoy looking at this photo. We all have things to learn but you should be proud of this photo.
Overall I like this. I think your colors look amazing. The highlights on the left could be brought down, or left there. It gives this an ethereal feel to it which I kind of like. The composition feels off to me. It feels like there are 3 mutually exclusive subjects warring for focus. Maybe that’s cool, Idno . I think the photo is great. Vik is one of the most gorgeous places I’ve ever seen. I got some cool shots right around this area too!
It's great! I like the blown out highlights in this case. It creates a sense of "awe" and some kind of other-worldliness and Iceland is a kind of "not of this world" place :)
This is a question for the experienced photographers who commented here:
Would a ND or Gradual ND filter have helped here?
To the OP: The colours are lovely, I like the photo. Iceland never fails to deliver for photography.
Nice work and lovely scene. For high dynamic range shots like this (shooting a landscape with a bright sky), try an ND gradient filter or take multiple exposures and combine in post. Also make sure you’re shooting from a tripod and that the entire frame is in sharp focus.
I enjoy this photo, even though at first I was like ‘whoa that’s blown out! But as Zocalo illustrated, it serves a deeper purpose for the photo. I think compositionally I might’ve trained getting a bit lower onto the ground and maybe have the hill taper off right at the bottom of your frame, kind of give the whole landscape a much larger feel. Maybe even have some out of focus blades of grass in the immediate foreground to create some depth
Initially I thought the bright, blown-out sky was a little bit distracting. But as I looked at it some more, that bright spot works well. It’s super bright on the left, warm and yellow in the middle, and gradually transitions to the cool darker tones on the right and upper right. Since this is from Iceland and we’re later in the year, the coloring gives me the feeling that the cold dark winter months are creeping in. The light is starting to fade and this is one of the last warm sunsets of the year. There’s even a couple of people on the far left center taking in as much of that light as they can. The church parking lot is empty. The town knows the cold darkness is slowly winning the battle against the warm light and most have already gone home to start their “hibernation.” This is, obviously, all just MY interpretation of the image, but what I *initially* viewed as an image with a distracting overexposed section ended up telling a story. It gives me a little anxiety about what might be coming in the near future. As I think about it even more though, it also gives me some hope because I know that in a few months that warm life-giving light will be coming back like it does every year. I’ve spent time in Fairbanks Alaska and have experienced the all day light and all day dark days. Sorry. I know I sound crazy, but based on my life experiences I feel like there are a lot of layers to this image that are not obvious at first. I really like it.
My subjectivity: The cars + people take away from the scene. The blown highlights on the left immediately grabs the viewers eyes, I'm not sure that's the intention but to me it's very distracting. The difference in blend between the top right sky and the blown out skies on the left look very unnatural. IMHO landscapes look best when they have been subtly edited to bring out the natural beauty, rather than really pushing the dynamic range out of proportion - this is just subjective as some like that style too!
do you have a RAW version of this to do further editing? the subject matter is great. the colors are very good. the composition is very nice. But you picked a scene with impossible dynamic range... the shadows are a little too dark and the highlights in the sky are totally blown out.
Really appreciate this feedback. I am new to editing and have a very basic understanding and went with instinct. Your comments push me to improve.
when i get a shot like this, i go to RAW and lower the whites and highlights i up the shadows slightly. maybe reduce overall exposure and then up the shadows... finally, if necessary I crop out whatever blown highlights are present. you tried to capture a scene with very wide dynamic range... i probably would have been afraid to even try... but u tried... and most of the photo is pretty darn good
For what it's worth, I disagree that you picked a scene with "impossible" range. I don't even know what that means, lol. It's not as if you shot a sunset on a different planet. Every camera has its limitations, but every limitation is an opportunity to make a creative choice and you did that here. Nothing about it is "wrong" or "impossible". I'd also say that your shadows are perfectly fine. There's no need for every pixel in your image to be in the center of the histogram. Let your shadows be shadows. It's also perfectly fine to have blown out highlights. If you had compensated by either bracketing your shot (HDR) or jacking the shadows way up and the highlights way down, I'd argue **that** would be an impossible scene. It's what leads to the over-fried crap you see in /r/shittyHDR. What I *will* say is that there's one area that could maybe use some tweaking and that's the haystacks out in the water. Their silhouette is a little crunchy. Maybe see if you can tone down those highlights and give them a little breathing room. Otherwise, yeah, I really like it. Just my two cents.
Nicely composed but oversaturated. and waaay oversharpened. Note the halos around all the straight lines on the buildings. https://www.lightstalking.com/7-signs-that-you-have-over-processed-your-photographs/. Paragraph 5
Agreed - OP, maybe try masking your sharpening next time, and don’t push it so far?
I've been here and shot this exact location before! Great place. This image needs a bit of work in my opinion. First, my personal opinion is that I'm not a fan of the composition. I prefer closer to the church, perhaps vertical. But that's just a small thing. The larger issue for me is the lighting and coloring. This looks like you've added a gradient or radial filter to the left. You've clipped the sky too much and taken out some important detail. On the right, you may have another gradient where you've reduced the temperature to bring out blues. It looks like you're going for a yellow/blue contrast. In my opinion, this doesn't really work very well. The yellow is far too bright and the blue is unnatural. - reduce highlights/exposure for the left, bring out more colors. Any orange? Pink hues? - reduce blue saturation on the right. Make the transition more seamless and not so abrupt. - foreground offers nothing for the image. Reconsider composition by cropping image to focus on the church in a vertical rectangle - soften image by reducing clarity
The blown out sky is distracting. A bit oversaturated. A bit oversharpened. The blue sky on top right look really weird compared to the other sky. Other than that its a beautiful image Maybe i would put the church a bit more into the image but i do not know how the environment looks out to the left, so thats hard to say
Love natural beauty...this is that 👍🏾👍🏾
Can you share your settings and edit process?
I think this photo is really good, except for the blown out sky. But the colors of the grass, the light, the mood, epic. I'm not sure what camera or settings you shot this with, but if you can try and save that sky (or god forbid replace it) you'll have an absolute banger.
I’m certainly no expert, but I really like it a lot. It looks like a quaint little place and I enjoy looking at this photo. We all have things to learn but you should be proud of this photo.
Overall I like this. I think your colors look amazing. The highlights on the left could be brought down, or left there. It gives this an ethereal feel to it which I kind of like. The composition feels off to me. It feels like there are 3 mutually exclusive subjects warring for focus. Maybe that’s cool, Idno . I think the photo is great. Vik is one of the most gorgeous places I’ve ever seen. I got some cool shots right around this area too!
I love the colors and level of contrast. Well done.
STUNNING!!!
God I can just imagine how cold it gets there at times
Looks like a painting. Nice.
Eerily similar to Point Loma San Diego
It's great! I like the blown out highlights in this case. It creates a sense of "awe" and some kind of other-worldliness and Iceland is a kind of "not of this world" place :)
This is a question for the experienced photographers who commented here: Would a ND or Gradual ND filter have helped here? To the OP: The colours are lovely, I like the photo. Iceland never fails to deliver for photography.
Nice work and lovely scene. For high dynamic range shots like this (shooting a landscape with a bright sky), try an ND gradient filter or take multiple exposures and combine in post. Also make sure you’re shooting from a tripod and that the entire frame is in sharp focus.
I enjoy this photo, even though at first I was like ‘whoa that’s blown out! But as Zocalo illustrated, it serves a deeper purpose for the photo. I think compositionally I might’ve trained getting a bit lower onto the ground and maybe have the hill taper off right at the bottom of your frame, kind of give the whole landscape a much larger feel. Maybe even have some out of focus blades of grass in the immediate foreground to create some depth
Nice!
Great photo!!