Viren Bhatia
February 2025 - Old Town in Fez
About the Image(s)
The attached photo titled Old Town in Fez was taken in Fez, Morocco. The image was taken in the afternoon when the sun was at its peak. Aperture f8, Shutter Speed 1/1000, ISO 100, focal length 24mm.
The image was taken from a mountain and it gives a bird's eye view of the old town of fez.
Minimal post processing was done to adjust highlights and shadows.
Happy to receive any inputs for improvement.
5 comments posted
Hi Viren. What comes across to me in this image is the old town sprawling across the landscape. It is too bad the mountain you were on was not yet a bit higher - I think that sprawling effect would have come through even stronger.
I think there are a few things I'd bring up with the image as is. First, there is a lot of blue sky in the upper left which is not that interesting, and I don't think helping in terms of being negative space. Second, I think perhaps because of the mid-day timing, and perhaps your editing to compensate for that, it is lacking a bit in contrast. Finally, there is not a strong focus. The town is obviously the subject, but the fact that it is "sprawling" leaves things without a focus. I think the nearer piece of the town in the lower left could be that focus, but then I'd perhaps try some things to enhance that and giving more 3D effect at the same time - rendering that closer piece of the town sharper and a bit more contrasty and saturated for example.
You might also try seeing how this works in B&W. That often helps deal with the mid-day conditions. I took a cut at a B&W version below. I've obviously done a bunch of stuff - cropping, dodging and burning, sharpening and blurring to give it depth, etc. It is a different depiction. You can decide whether there are ideas in it that help or not for your vision of this image.
Posted: 02/12/2025 17:35:49
I think there are a few things I'd bring up with the image as is. First, there is a lot of blue sky in the upper left which is not that interesting, and I don't think helping in terms of being negative space. Second, I think perhaps because of the mid-day timing, and perhaps your editing to compensate for that, it is lacking a bit in contrast. Finally, there is not a strong focus. The town is obviously the subject, but the fact that it is "sprawling" leaves things without a focus. I think the nearer piece of the town in the lower left could be that focus, but then I'd perhaps try some things to enhance that and giving more 3D effect at the same time - rendering that closer piece of the town sharper and a bit more contrasty and saturated for example.
You might also try seeing how this works in B&W. That often helps deal with the mid-day conditions. I took a cut at a B&W version below. I've obviously done a bunch of stuff - cropping, dodging and burning, sharpening and blurring to give it depth, etc. It is a different depiction. You can decide whether there are ideas in it that help or not for your vision of this image.
Posted: 02/12/2025 17:35:49
Hi Robert. Thank you for your detailed critique of the image which I always appreciate. It really helps me to improve my photography. I will keep your suggestions in mind in future. Posted: 02/14/2025 05:02:23
Hello Viren,
What an amazing overview! My thought is that this is the kind of image that could benefit from some upsizing so that the viewer could start to better distiguish the amazing variety of built form. Your image could be on a large wall in a gallery setting.
I tried to increase the resolution of your image to 6X in Topaz Photo AI Software.
I then chose a tiny portion of your image to display to you so you could get an idea of the level of detail and also to stay within the 1mb maximum image size allowed.
Cheers, Rick Posted: 02/14/2025 00:13:49
What an amazing overview! My thought is that this is the kind of image that could benefit from some upsizing so that the viewer could start to better distiguish the amazing variety of built form. Your image could be on a large wall in a gallery setting.
I tried to increase the resolution of your image to 6X in Topaz Photo AI Software.
I then chose a tiny portion of your image to display to you so you could get an idea of the level of detail and also to stay within the 1mb maximum image size allowed.
Cheers, Rick Posted: 02/14/2025 00:13:49
Thank you Rick for your useful comments and I do appreciate that I should have focused on a smaller portion of the vast landscape so that I have an element for focus. Posted: 02/14/2025 05:03:20
I would go for a panorama aspect ratio i.e. crop out good amount of the sky but keep the clouds though. I would a bite more saturation of the overall image and work on the vibration of the greens. Great Work. Superb Image. Posted: 02/17/2025 02:38:10