Reflection on San Franciscoby
blancericComment by Louis: Greetings from the Critique Club!
I'm sure you know, but this is a stunning image. It's not merely the uniqueness of the shot, which is at once recognizable yet somehow strongly emotive, it's also the expert choices made in composition.
The polygon of colour represented by the reflected buildings break the image up into interesting shapes, from the gentle "S" upper left, to the hard, almost formal rhombus-like shape at right. The curb lines draw the viewer up through the image quickly, not distracting from the extremely satisfying colours in the water. The reflection itself, the subject and the highlight of the image, has transformed the city skyline into a quivering, inverted patch of colour. The cables that intersect these at different angles are a spectacular counter-effect to the colour, to the rigid lines found elsewhere, and to the structured feel supplied by the buildings.
If anything is to be said, it might be that the colours could have been modified using Curves or similar to an even more dramatic effect (without benefit of seeing the original, this may have already been done). Plenty of noise and artefacting appears in the lowest portion of the reflected sky, which detracts only slightly, and then only on close inspection. Close inspection is, however, invited by this highly emotive composition.
This is a gorgeous picture.
Louis
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