clippercarrillo on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/clippercarrillo/art/Lost-361514741clippercarrillo

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Lost

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Description

What excited me most at the time was the light on the foreground bushes and grass, and the balloon was gravy, the cliffs incidental, and the sky an afterthought. Since that's nigh on heretical logic in Arizona, you must tell me if the shot contents you or not. Taken in Sedona at dawn with a fixed 300 mm.
Image size
3727x3727px 6.93 MB
Make
Canon
Model
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Shutter Speed
1/256 second
Aperture
F/2.8
Focal Length
300 mm
ISO Speed
100
Date Taken
Mar 12, 2013, 9:14:07 AM
Sensor Size
24mm
© 2013 - 2024 clippercarrillo
Comments12
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Phostructor's avatar
:star::star::star-half::star-empty::star-empty: Overall
:star::star::star::star-empty::star-empty: Vision
:star::star::star-half::star-empty::star-empty: Originality
:star::star::star-half::star-empty::star-empty: Technique
:star::star::star-half::star-empty::star-empty: Impact

Consider that, in our culture, most people read from left to right, top to bottom. This conditions the way most people will read a photograph, and that it can have a significant impact on composition.

So our eyes come into this scene, and at the top left we find the area of highest contrast in the image, which is the only man-made shape in the whole scene, the hot air balloon. This sets up the whole experience of viewing this photograph. The ballon is an intrinsically engaging sight, and has a certain amount of symbolic resonance for many people.

So we see the balloon, identify it and consider its context, floating in front of the cliffs. The right side of the ballon is a highlight and the next highlight in the image is immediately to the right, on the cliffs that taper away to the right. We are left with the impression that that is the direction of movement.

There is second, separate area of high contrast that draws the eye: in the middle of the picture a bright patch of grass is surrounded by four dark bushes. It is such a strong contrast that one leans forward to see if there is something happening there. But there isn’t.

Since you point it out in your caption, I see a couple of areas of light on the foregroud bushes and grass, but there is so much to look at in the top half that it doesn’t hold me. You can bring this photo closer to what you had in your mind’s eye by making it darker overall and slightly increasing contrast. That will emphasize the foreground light elements. If you want to retain the sky I would make it darker, as if you had a red filter on B&W film.

When you post-process a digital photo as black and white it helps to try a range of treatments, darker, lighter, and with more or less contrast. Just for the heck of it I downloaded this and did a simple re-edit.
1) Duplicate layer
2) Blend mode: Multiply
3) Reduce layer visibility to 75%

All of a sudden those foreground streaks of light are much more present. It feels like early morning light.

It is a nice photograph and if the primary theme is about the balloon that isn’t a bad thing.