A summit in Norway

[eqesg]

1. in what area is critique to be sought?
Composition, I mainly try to level the picture and put the character on the right as it looking toward the left.
Lighting, I wanted to emphases on how one side of the frame receive a lot of light while the other side is very dark.
2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
I wanted to bring a good landscape, with a focus on the lighting which was really impressing on the crest of the mountain.
3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
Well when we reach that place it was after a quite relax trail,but on the way the landscape was not so picturesque (almost dull). Also during the day it was between short slight rains a mostly windy and cloudy day.
And when we reach the summit this view was striking. I wanted to convey that emotion.
4. what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
I think the picture is ok, I would like to know how to make the picture great.

details:
I shooted handheld with the nex-5 and the pancake 16m at f11 and 1/50s exposure.
in term of post processing I sharped a little bit and crop the top and bottom of the picture in order to give a little more depth in the picture.

(it's my first post, hope everything is alright)

 

[coolthought]

Honestly speaking, this photo is quite good but not great. Having a person in the photo gives a sense of scale and he is position nicely that he is not lost in the mountain background.

Problem, the horizon is almost at the centre.

Hope this will show clearly the thirds.
I will position and frame such that the summit tip and the person is at the nodes of the third.

The side of the mountain is underexposed because of the shadows. I will probably tune it up a bit or just lighten up the shadow by a tad.

 

[eqesg]

Dear coolthought,

Thank you for your comments.

That's definitely right I could have improve the composition, and the ligthings.
I will wait a bit to see if there are more critiques then I will PP the picture again to try to get the best of it.

By the way do you now how to crop the picture to get the "third" right I am using paint.net but I can't find an easy way to do this.

Many thanks!

Honestly speaking, this photo is quite good but not great. Having a person in the photo gives a sense of scale and he is position nicely that he is not lost in the mountain background.

Problem, the horizon is almost at the centre.

Hope this will show clearly the thirds.
I will position and frame such that the summit tip and the person is at the nodes of the third.

The side of the mountain is underexposed because of the shadows. I will probably tune it up a bit or just lighten up the shadow by a tad.

 

[Jonathan Ang]

Honestly speaking, this photo is quite good but not great. Having a person in the photo gives a sense of scale and he is position nicely that he is not lost in the mountain background.

Problem, the horizon is almost at the centre.

Hope this will show clearly the thirds.
I will position and frame such that the summit tip and the person is at the nodes of the third.

The side of the mountain is underexposed because of the shadows. I will probably tune it up a bit or just lighten up the shadow by a tad.

My thoughts. firstly,

the shadows are perfectly fine, they still bring out enough detail. Lightening up will make it lose the whole feel as the tonal range of the original did give.

secondly, don't be overly fixated with the rule of thirds. Learn to move past rules. You can pull off horizons in the middle. Case of point, reflections, panoramas. In this case, the panoramic format is more forgiving...although the more exaggerated the better, IMO.

TS: good job! it's an excellent capture. The lighting is great, and exposure nailed for the mood you're trying to portray. It's only a pity the clouds were not dramatic enough.

 

[daredevil123]

My thoughts. firstly,

the shadows are perfectly fine, they still bring out enough detail. Lightening up will make it lose the whole feel as the tonal range of the original did give.

secondly, don't be overly fixated with the rule of thirds. Learn to move past rules. You can pull off horizons in the middle. Case of point, reflections, panoramas. In this case, the panoramic format is more forgiving...although the more exaggerated the better, IMO.

TS: good job! it's an excellent capture. The lighting is great, and exposure nailed for the mood you're trying to portray. It's only a pity the clouds were not dramatic enough.

Actually, for this particular picture, I disagree with your recommendation of moving away from the thirds and how it is ok to place the horizon at the center. Rules of thirds is not really a rule, but a guide. It is however, a very good guide, and it is there for a reason. One have to learn to move past rules, yes, but in this case, adhering to thirds will improve the presentation of the picture a great deal.

I do find coolthought's frame much better than the original. The extra space on the right of the frame just takes a lot of attention away from that lone hiker. But seriously, if I am to say, I would not choose to crop the picture, but shift the frame to left. Why? The rocks in the foreground and the hiker form a very good starting point for leading lines into the frame. The leading lines being this particular mountain range the hiker is on. But in this current framing, the leading line sort of led the viewer out of the picture. So in the current framing, this is a good capture, but not great. Nice view though.

I agree exposure is ok. But more contrast would have worked better here. and a tad more balancing in the exposures would bring this picture out a lot more.

 

[Override2Zion]

...But more contrast would have worked better here. and a tad more balancing in the exposures would bring this picture out a lot more.

I agree with the contrast portion, if you could get your hands on some photoshop, you can use the levels and curves to bring out the colours, especially the greens in the grass. I shall not comment more on the composition since everyone has already pointed out the rule of thirds.

 

[night86mare]

horizon almost at the centre - not a problem here. but somehow the elements don't fall right here, and i agree with coolthought's suggested crop, which would strengthen it considerably.

i do not agree with lightening the shadows though, there is enough shadow detail here that is visible. lightening them would lead to very, very artificial looking result, since the lighting here is clearly directional, and shadows are to be expected.

 

[coolthought]

for me, I will increase the contrast just a bit and lighten the shadows on the left just enough so that the mountains in the foreground which is far away does not seems merged together with cliff on the left and this will give a better sense of depth.

I quite like the suggestion by DD123 to shift left instead of just cropping right as this will give more emphasis to the left and sense of depth in the photo as the leading line from the hiker leads towards left and to the mountains far away.

 

[eqesg]

Many thanks for all the critiques, very much appreciated!

I tried to put most of it together in the below images.

About the green, I tried to modify slightly the curve to increase it but it was autumn at the time so already the color tends to be a little more brownish. and when I try to increase the green more then it get kind of artificial.

the first try is the following:

I wasn't too happy as the foreground bring some details that distract me.
So instead I try to put to put more sky and there is the second attempts (which I eventually prefer)