Thank you to everyone that participated in the "Intimate Landscapes" assignment. The assignment was to compose an image of the natural landscape that illustrates the relationships between harmonious elements within the scene. Participants were reminded to use the composition techniques discussed in previous assignments to lead the viewer into and through the scene, convey a sense of depth, and evoke an emotional response in the viewer.
We had a tie again this week for
People's Choice, with Naomi's
The Forest image and my
Cascade at Peaceful Valley Ranch image both receiving the same number of votes.
The Forest
Cascade at Peaceful Valley Ranch
Ideally, a waterfall or cascade image should be taken in low contrast light and when the light levels are low (such as in the early morning, late evening, or under heavy overcast conditions). Otherwise the light reflecting off the water will be too bright and high-contrast, and you won't be able to use a slow shutter speed to blur the motion of the water. Because we were teaching that morning and I didn't have an opportunity to take the shot in the morning, I was stuck with trying to produce a useable image at 1 PM in the afternoon. I used a polarizer filter to remove the reflections from the water and reduce the exposure (a polarizer filter will reduce the light reaching your sensor by about 1.5 stops) and waited until a cloud moved in front of the sun. This allowed me to set an aperture of f20 and a shutter speed of 1/5th of a second, which was slow enough to cause a pleasing blur to the water. (Normally I would prefer not using apertures smaller than f16 because of blurring caused by diffraction, but in this case it was acceptable since the primary subject (the water) would be blurred anyway.)
I'll reveal one other "secret" to the image. At the time I took this image I had a 28mm lens on the camera, which didn't provide a wide enough field of view to include both the bottom of the cascade and the rock in the background (which provided depth to the image). During the fleeting moment while the cloud was in front of the sun, I managed to shoot an image that included the rock in the background, and then quickly reframe and shoot an image that included the bottom of the cascade. I brought both images into Photoshop CS3 as layers and then used the "auto-align layers" function in Photoshop to align the layers and blend them into a single image.
I've awarded Naomi's beautiful
The Forest image
Editor's Choice for Artistic Merit and
Editor's Choice for Technical Merit. As I commented in the gallery, I loved the way this image very effectively invites the viewer into the scene. The diagonal lines lead the viewer to a place beside the center ferns were they can imagine standing and looking up to their left at the light coming through the trees. As Sean said in his comment on the image, it makes me want to be there.
The Forest
Naomi was kind enough to post the original image, and explain how she had processed it to arrive at the final image. I've posted her original along with her description of how she processed it as a way of helping others learn to visualize the possibilities in an image.
Well I have to say it is the least processed of my photos. I rotated, then cropped out the tall trees and sky to make it "intimate" resized, increased shadow and increased highlights , then increased colour saturation slightly , then usm [unsharp mask]. That's it!Congratulations Naomi, and thank you for sharing this beautiful image with us, along with your description of how you processed the original to arrive at this wonderful final image.
I've awarded Tom's (Kermit's) image
Honorable Mention. Although this image is better defined as a macro image instead of an intimate landscape, it is a beautiful image and I know Tom put a lot of work into it, refining the composition many times, and using focus stacking and selective sharpening to produce the final image. Focus stacking and selective sharpening allowed Tom to produce the beautifully detailed flower, while keeping the background pleasantly out of focus.
Alstroemeria
Thank you again to everyone that participated in the intimate landscape assignment.
P.S.
You are also invited to add your comments on these images to this thread. If you are the originator, you can add more detail about the image, or if you have a comment or question on someone else's image, please feel free to post a reply to this thread.
