Last Light, Monday
by C_Steve_G

Comment by P-A-U-L:
Congrats on your first ribbon!

Last Light, Monday
by C_Steve_G

Comment by hkpdso:
Sky color is very nice, and the mound on the right is lighted well

Last Light, Monday
by C_Steve_G

Comment by grahamgator:
Beautiful light coming the the clouds.

Last Light, Monday
by C_Steve_G

Comment by primabarbara:
what a dramatic sky!
I know I'm very sensitive about tilted horizons and this one is tilted ot the right imo - if only a tiny degree.
Also I would have cropped this scene more boldly:
on the left side including the first orange cloud, on the right side about half of the trees and at the bottom at least half of the green field.
Eventually this is my personal taste and others might give a different feedback

Last Light, Monday
by C_Steve_G

Comment by roz:
i'm loving the foreboding feel of this scene .. even if it probably didnt feel that way when you were standing there taking the photo ..
the clouds are MAGNIFICENT btw .. the colours of the setting sun just beautiful .. great shot .. :)

Last Light, Monday
by C_Steve_G

Comment by Dennisheckman:
Hello, I am assuming the main subject is the orange light on the clouds since your title says that. But as a main subject, the clouds fall short. They are way too contrasty and too hard edged. There are too many other elements of equal visual weight in the image. They are all competing and none of them are interesting. The whole image is too dark and too contrasty to be appealing. The left and right sides of the frame are balanced well. I think some dodging in the grass foreground could have a big impact. This needs something that leads the eye, and unfortunately there isn't one here. Since there is not a foreground subject, getting a lower perspective may have helped. Having some closer texture of the grass in the foreground would help out a lot.

Last Light, Monday
by C_Steve_G

Comment by JulietNN:
For myself personally, I think this is very good. I would have loved to have seen some more highlights,lightness in the foreground, a bit of dodge and burn a leading light maybe?. Adjusting contrast and exposure in a different layer could have helped with this. The sky is gorg, I love moddy sky's. but saturation and boosting of the colours, would have made this tad more dramatic. But then again, I am a lover of the dramatic. I love how this is pin sharp, you did an amazing job on that. In a Free study I would have given this a 5, in this case as it is a top 2 for me, 7.

Last Light, Monday
by C_Steve_G

Comment by JakeKurdsjuk:
So this would have been my reluctant 1-b. But it still would have gotten a 5 from me in any other challenge. The good news is that I get what you're trying to show me - it's a lovely sky. But the processing is very heavy handed and way over-saturated. I could live with it in the sky if you'd pulled back the greens. I'd also like to see some of the details in the shadowed areas, both near and distant.

Making a picture has two primary steps - taking the photo and printing it. You took a decent photo, so now you need to work on how you print it. You need to dive deeper into the digital darkroom. The sky is the star here but you did nothing to highlight the supporting players (other than the grass which is essentially a extra here that would be better ignored). Isolate the darker areas and show us what's there, if only a little. Let us see how that little bit of valley rolls out underneath. Learn to use a subtle hand to show the viewer something instead of burying it in shadow and color. Every part of the frame is important even if it's only to barely be there. Give it the attention it needs. Let us look at the little things as the sky draws our eyes back to it. As is, my eye keeps going down to the mass of green.

Last Light, Monday
by C_Steve_G

Comment by PennyStreet:
Very pretty light! I believe the horizon is slightly tilted but I love the colors.

Last Light, Monday
by C_Steve_G

Comment by streetpigeon:
Formidable sky and assuredly delivers the last light. The houses are crowded in by the immensity of nature. Diminutive and anxious. I'm not sure whether the foreground green expanse helps the rest of the image or not. On the one hand it adds to the predominant expansiveness, yet on the other hand the bright color is a bit jarring. The feel for nature's grandeur, though, is apparent.