[Serkevan]

Shot from the National Park of Teide, in Tenerife, Spain. Taken with a Tokina RMC 70-210 F/3.5 (the very large two-ring version) @ 70 mm. I am not sure about the composition/PP. Criticism appreciated!

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[aleonx3]

Looking at the image, two suggestions that come to mind; first, I would use 'landscape' format instead of 'portrait' format to give a sense of wide-open space. Second, if the road leading to 'nowhere' is the main point of interest in this image, I would try a different angle of view so that the road is taking the direction of viewer (from left to right or right to left) where the composition is more interesting and pleasing.

[Serkevan]

Thanks for the comments! I did take one shot on landscape orientation but I wasn't that happy with the result (also the photo is very shaky, I had almost no time between cars coming and the lens+camera is 1.8kg).

[aleonx3]

I can see this landscape orientation is much better and interesting than the first one; the road is not closed, just elevation heading straight is up and then dip and leading to the right (one can see the road a bit further to right). Unfortunately, the overall image is not appealing (due to lack of sharpness and contrasts) and nothing striking to attract the viewer. You mentioned about the heftiness of the lens, I agree with you, that Tokina zoom lens is a beast and weighs a 'ton'. You could have bumped the ISO a bit to give a faster shutter speed to help a bit more on the sharpness, but then again, you have the k-7 which is not so great if you bump the ISO too high.

[repaap]

I’d say that more pp would be good thing to do. First image is quite fixed at the middle. I’m thinkin that there should be more or less of that road. I agree that landscape one has more interest in it. I’d try to bring textures of that mountain out more and work with colours which are quite greybrown now.

[Serkevan]

In hindsight, I should have taken a couple shots more in landscape to get a sharp one... maybe even with the 50 mm instead but, alas, it was non on the camera.

About the colours, it's a volcanic landscape so there's not much apart from the browns and greys, apart from the odd plant here and there (which looked quite bad if I tried to punch up the greens). On the spot I felt that the desolate colour palette was part of the charm (I cannot recommend the trip hard enough), but I can see how it can fall flat (hah) once it's a picture on a screen.


Thank you both for the comments, they have been very helpful!

[repaap]

Yes, I’m not saying that it should be ’brighter’ just saying that it could add some pop in photo. Also brown is a nice colour.

[Riggomatic]

I like the use of portrait orientation here. My eyes follow the road, up to the large outcropping at the top.
I would have set the road in the image like you were driving down in your lane. (For me, I would have placed the center-line of the road at the left 1/3 of the image.)

If I were editing, I would:


Add a bump in contrast, and warm up the white balance to bring a little more of the orange out in the rocks

That's just my opinion .


But the mystery of the road appearing to just end at the base of the mountain makes the image special.

Thank you for sharing!

[chochichaeschtli]

I also prefer the portrait shot. I think the viewer is harshly confrontated with the high mountain and clouds, as the road leads the view directly to this impressive wall (here i think the somewhat longer focal lenght enhances this impression). While this might not be 'pleasing', it seems much more interesting to me. The landscape shot seems to me just as a roadside snapshot without any message.

Regarding pp, i agree that there could be some more (local) contrast, in particular for the clouds. Is there really full white somewhere?

Anyway, great shot!

[SpecialK]

I like the unconventional portrait orientation, though I would crop off about 1/2 of the sky for balance.