Trees, water & sky

[Manfred M]

This shot was taken about half way between the Pigeon River and Grand Portage, Minnesota. It shows the waters of Lake Superior and the surrounding area.

It contains three simple subjects, the trees on the land, the sunlit water and the blue sky with a few clouds. What struck me was the quasi-symmetry of the scene through a diagonal running from the bottom left corner of the image to the top right corner.





This is one of those images that I conceptualized in colour, but find that the monochrome works extremely well too.

[rpcrowe]

Lovely image. Although the monochrome is quite nice, I prefer the color version...

[JBW]

seems to me that you have learned from the Renaissance painters. Well done.

[Manfred M]

Lovely image. Although the monochrome is quite nice, I prefer the color version...

My thoughts too, Richard. I suspect someone will come along and suggest it would look good as a B&W, so I thought I might preempt the suggestion.

[Manfred M]

seems to me that you have learned from the Renaissance painters. Well done.

Thanks Brian, and while I love the some of the Renaissance painters (more the Northern European ones), the inspiration was a more modern source; Andreas Gursky's Rhein II. He too plays with the sky, ground and water. He takes a very linear, layered approach in his work and I wanted to play with the texture of the trees and saw a more complex interaction with the three elements that make up the image.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhein_II

[JBW]

Thanks Brian, and while I love the some of the Renaissance painters (more the Northern European ones), the inspiration was a more modern source; Andreas Gursky's Rhein II. He too plays with the sky, ground and water. He takes a very linear, layered approach in his work and I wanted to play with the texture of the trees and saw a more complex interaction with the three elements that make up the image.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhein_II

Reminds me of the three bars of colour painting the Canadian government paid one million for a couple of decades ago. I prefer yours. But I'm not going to buy it!

[Manfred M]

Reminds me of the three bars of colour painting the Canadian government paid one million for a couple of decades ago. I prefer yours. But I'm not going to buy it!

I suspect you are referring to Barnett Newman's "Voice of Fire"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_Fire

[Jimr1961]

What I noticed first was the play between positive and negative space. I was reading your entry before looking at the picture and the play was so evident in the periphery. The color as well as the complimenting shapes. Hope I'm being clear. I like it a lot.

[JBW]

I suspect you are referring to Barnett Newman's "Voice of Fire"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_Fire

that would be the one. Apparently my memory made it less of a silliness than it actually was.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Manfred,

A few thoughts/waffle ...

For me, the monochrome doesn't work as a landscape; I find the dark mass of the land/trees, which dissipates very little in contrast going to distance (too much Dehaze?) results in the entire dark mass apparently being 'stuck on top' of the sea and sky layers. I then thought it might work as an abstract (almost), but doesn't because the subjects are too recognisable.

Whereas, for my brain, the colour version doesn't have these issues to quite the same degree, possibly because of the 'receding' nature of the blue in the sky.

I am left wondering whether Dehaze was used on the image though?

Cheers, Dave

[Manfred M]

I am left wondering whether Dehaze was used on the image though?

Yes. I use a touch of dehaze on many of my outdoor shots, especially when shooting areas with / near lots of water. I expect this will change once the temperature falls a bit lower and the the effect of humidity in the air becomes a non-issue.

Polarizer as well; the amount of glare on the water was cut significantly, although that might not be totally apparent when looking at this shot.

[DanK]

A very nice image, well balanced with interesting lines. I too prefer the color. I do wonder about the dehaze. The image looks a very small amount oversaturated to me, but then again, I wasn't there. I'd be curious what it looks like if you backed off the dehaze a very slight amount or reduced saturation a very slight amount.

[Shadowman]

Nice capture, color for me.

[Manfred M]

A very nice image, well balanced with interesting lines. I too prefer the color. I do wonder about the dehaze. The image looks a very small amount oversaturated to me, but then again, I wasn't there. I'd be curious what it looks like if you backed off the dehaze a very slight amount or reduced saturation a very slight amount.

Thanks Dan - I plan to revisit all of these images when I get back home and see them on a better screen. Oversaturation is possible via both through PP and the use of a polarizer during the shoot. The sky and water were amazingly blue in real life and I have already dialed the blues and cyans back a touch.

I chatted about this with a couple of local photographers I seem to be running into again and again over the past couple of days, and these saturated looking colours seem to be normal in this part of the world on a clear, cool day in the fall. We certainly get this occasionally at home too.

[bnnrcn]

This is the image for me with great colors

[IzzieK]

The colour version looks good to me but I find the water a little bit too sharp? So I will tend to prefer the mono version better because it gives it more structure especially around the tree areas. Still too much sharpening in the water but forgiveable in mono than the colour version...I hope I am not too hasty in critique-ing...

[Manfred M]

The colour version looks good to me but I find the water a little bit too sharp? So I will tend to prefer the mono version better because it gives it more structure especially around the tree areas. Still too much sharpening in the water but forgiveable in mono than the colour version...I hope I am not too hasty in critique-ing...

I suspect what you are seeing as sharpness in the water are the specular highlights from the sunlight hitting the water and the millions of tiny waves that the sunlight is reflecting from. They will have the bright reflective spot right beside the dark blue of the water. This pseudo sharpness exists in the original, unsharpened SOOC raw file.

[rpcrowe]

I suspect you are referring to Barnett Newman's "Voice of Fire"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_of_Fire

I think I know the history of that painting. It was originally done as an advertisement for Scotch Brand Masking Tape to show how well that tape masked off areas to paint with a roller

It must have been sold on eBay - one of those crazy auctions in which the price escalates beyond the worth of the item

[ST1]

Colour version gets my vote Manfred, though I suggest that a crop to remove some of the foreground gives to my eyes a more balanced image. The crop I suggest may break a rule wrt moving the horizon to a more central position rather than on a third.