Bare Island

[Rob Wood (Admin)]

I love going to this place, but I can never get a composition that I am 100% happy with. I went for a bit of foreground interest on this one. What would you have done differently?

[LightandShadow]

Gone on a day with more cloud? Explored that small pool for reflections or color? Hung around for that transition from the blue hour to gold? Looked for repeating patterns in the sand? Thought about the most successful previous visits and investigated how today might have changed the view so you can appreciate how each day is new?

Just breathe.

[Retired Grunt]

I keep having my eye drawn to the outcropping of rock on the right, just seems in the way of something to me. Not knowing the lay of the terrain, I would have positioned to the left and have the water/banks edge, point to the sun and include more of the glow. I also wonder if the camera can be placed just above ground level? Low angle foregrounds can be more interesting.

LightandShadows’ first comment about clouds, I have to agree.

Looks like a great place to relax.

[Rob Wood (Admin)]

That rocky outcropping is the bane of my existence at this particular spot. I know exactly what you mean and I have deleted hundreds of photos because of it.. lol

[LightandShadow]

I should know better than to comment on a Shark Tank offering based on my iPad view. On my laptop full size I see tons of potential. That outcropping looks like there might actually be some detail in there that could be made into something on its own. Lots of the repeating patterns in that foreground too. The colors in the land are really nice so resist the notion of converting to b&w. As is, it’s a nice sunrise/set landscape.

[Robert Apple]

Personally Rob, I wouldn’t change it, I’ve gotten jobs based on the fact I photographed places people could actually visit and see, not over processed into something Disneyfied. I quite like it.

[Anne Hornsby]

Rob, I think your focus on foreground interest is right on.   I love the textures and patterns in the rock and sand.   See what you think of this – I cropped down from the top and lightened the rocks/sand.

[LightandShadow]

Just saw an Andy Gibb YouTube that speaks to this issue. https://youtu.be/oy1UCZmiSW4?si=MxKmBC_aA32OVnfe

His point is that sometimes the grand view/wide angle doesn’t work for him so switches to the small, intimate view. He says that it often feels like “giving up” but then goes onto explain that it taps into a different part of one’s sensibility. He doesn’t use any of these words but that’s what I’m taking away.

This dialog here speaks to all of that. @admin-2 feeling let down by this place he so often visits. Feedback from me @annehornsby asking about details. @retiredgrunt makes suggestions about framing and other things that might recover the wide angle and @robertapple as always advocates for allowing the viewer the sense of stepping into the scene.

All of this depends on use and intent. Gibb needs to sell so his evaluation of scenes is not quite guided by that but speaks to how he rates a scene’s potential. He also asks his viewers to describe their own usual approach: wide view is the default vs detail.

Anyway, it’s an interesting set of ideas and his recommendation is to be flexible about your approach to the landscape. Be ready to find interest, not be disappointed that the scene doesn’t live up to today’s expectations.

[Anne Hornsby]

Very interesting LS – I found the Gibbs video thought-provoking.  Thx.

I tend to “go intimate” in Gibbs’ terms quite often because I see patterns and textures of interest at that level.   I just aquired a wide angle lens, so it will be interesting to see my experience with that.

 

[bucweeet]

A couple of thoughts Rob…

I initially started with 16×9 crop and ended up removing even more of the foreground. For my eyes, this provides a wider expanse for the viewer to explore. In this case I used the Crop Guide Overlay set to “Thirds” and in both cases centred the 1/3’s in the gap between the land masses in the distance with the horizon around the top 1/3 linw.

I only edited the second image where I introduced more light into the foreground ‘shadows/darks’ and reduced the highlights and whites slightly. To add a tiny bit of light, I decreased the ‘Contrast’ slightly… but I increased the ‘Clarity’ slightly to introduce more texture into the image… as well (and using LR graduated filter on the sky), I decreased the brightness of the sky, increased the contrast and added some saturation to it.

Only the crop added:

With the editing mentioned above (I find this view tends to highlight the ‘golden hour’ on the far land better):

[Robert Apple]

I like what Paul did with the second one, fits the scene well.

[bucweeet]

Thank you, Robert.

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