River-w-Milky-Way
by glockguy

Comment by bassbone:
Al, first off...that is one amazing sky! Where was this taken?

Things I see about the image:
1) the sky is the real subject of this image IMO and I think it needs to have more than 25-50% of the real estate. Did you take any other images where the sky is a much bigger portion of the scene? This iamge seems to be looking straight ahead up the river bed, and I think some looking up more would even be more dramatic.

See the recent Blue Ribbon winner for what I am talking about - the sky is the star - and the horizon is very low indeed.


2) As with many landscapes, centered horizons seem to be give a very static look. Placing the horizon at the bottom third would help out with point 1.

2) the foreground seems a bit cluttered to me. I can see why the logs are of interest to you, but the bottom of the image is distracting to the overall scene. One way to fix this would be to crop the bottom of the image a bit. This might also help you with removing the centered horizon.

3) I do like how you framed the sky and edges of the scene with the pine trees on each side. , but it seems like there was even more 'height' in the trees that you could have used to extend it up to the sky more.

4) The image is quite a bit underexposed. A minor adjustment of Levels (see below) can bring a lot more finish to the image, allowing the foreground to be seen while preserving the night time feel.

I hope you don't mind but tried a quick edit on this by adjusting the levels (moved the midpoint from 1.00 to 1.15 and whites from 255 to 200.) This allowed the stars in the sky to be a bit brighter and the foreground to brighten as well. Second, I tried a crop to frame the sky with the pines even more and cropped out the low foreground to move the horizon down a bit. And third, I added a bit more sky into the image to show see what it might look like with a higher perspective. The crop isn't great and it is a bit elongated in the horizontal direction, but it gives you the idea.



Message edited by author 2012-09-09 06:53:02.

Fire Over The Badlands
by glockguy

Comment by Gordon_1:
Good composition too get this effect from the stars ...nicely done ..

Fire Over The Badlands
by glockguy

Comment by blindjustice:
Like Kokopelli or some similar spirit dancing in the night sky.

Fire Over The Badlands
by glockguy

Comment by sophiawood:
We are breathing some of this smoke this month. Beautiful shot - 10

GO CANADA
by glockguy

Comment by Gordon_1:
Nice composition i dont feel its as sharp as should be i like the colors they work well

Memphis Belle
by glockguy

Comment by Art Roflmao:
One of my top picks. Great job, excellent finish.

Memphis Belle
by glockguy

Comment by blindjustice:
Great detail.

GO CANADA
by glockguy

Comment by LandzEnca:
I never really have the right skills to take sports photos. I find it difficult to frame moving subjects correctly. Focus is also tough. The actions usually happen much faster than i can set the correct exposure. If i try to submit a sports photo in DPC, i will probably get hammered down in comments and votes. My final score would probably land below 5, and i think i would agree. Your entry is not much different from my own sports photos. So having said that, please do not be upset if i gave your entry a score below 5.

GO CANADA
by glockguy

Comment by Denielle:
Nice color selection... would have liked to have seen it a little sharper in detail on the person, though.

Memphis Belle
by glockguy

Comment by Denielle:
I really like this. Would have liked to have seen the face a bit softer though.