Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: jgille on April 14, 2008, 12:30:58 pm
-
How would you improve this picture ?
Cheers
(http://www.juliengille.com/forums/morning-countryside800.jpg)
-
How would you improve this picture ?
Cheers
(http://www.juliengille.com/forums/morning-countryside800.jpg)
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=189436\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
Probably too much (my thoughts) going on. Maybe walk around even behind the tree and use the fence (if at all possible) to serve as a leading line into the tree
You have more than one leading line but they don't lead to anything rather distracting. I am assuming that the tree is the central subject , if so the rest of the stuff in the image should add to and not detract from the central focus/subject of the image.
Try and simplify the image
-
You have more than one leading line but they don't lead to anything rather distracting. I am assuming that the tree is the central subject , if so the rest of the stuff in the image should add to and not detract from the central focus/subject of the image.
Try and simplify the image
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=189439\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
Thank for you suggestion, I will try a square composition with the tree as main subject.
Best Regards
-
My first thought when I looked at it was that the image was 'tilted'. I don't mean that the horizon was off balance, but that with the fence dead center in the frame, there seemed to be too much on the right half of the frame and it was as if the image was leaning to the right.
Mike.
-
To the right?
-
Here is another cropped version of the picture that I have done after your comments.
Is it better ?
Cheers
(http://www.juliengille.com/forums/morning-countryside800v2.jpg)
-
Do you like it more? It's a matter of taste rather than right and wrong.
For me, I prefer the first version - the road leads they eye rather nicely - it holds a "lazy S" which my art teacher when I was 8 told me was the most beautiful of shapes to the human eye - and he's right because he was big and hairy and enchanted me - partially through fear!
Back to the subject. You can't make a photo (as supposed to a photo-montage) "better" after the fact - only maximise it's impact. A good place to start is by burning in the sky. I use a well feathered levels adjustment layer for the purpose. Don't go crazy, all you usually want to do is better define the clouds.
That said, this photo just doesn't "do it" for me. Technically it is competant but it neither improves my understanding of the planet nor bowls me over with the beauty of nature. I admit though, I am hard to please with landscape work - I'm a city girl and don't "get" the mundanity of the countryside. Sometimes I have to drive through Brecon to see a friend. My passengers often marvel at the beauty of what surrounds us....whilst I appreciate it, it's terrifying like that art teacher was to me, it is enormous and unfathomable and I am not equipped to deal with it. A city of 8.5 million however, has never intimidated me.
I digress....
"Improvement" to me would be a long wait until the next frosts come and an alarm clock to capture dawn frosts. Move around to the right slightly to shoot as well. Whilst I like the lazy S, I also agree that it is overcrowded with the hedgerow on the right hand side being too much, you needn't remove it so much as lessen it. Or move back and shoot with a longer lens.
-
the way I would have shot it
[attachment=6126:attachment]
Sorry that sounded a bit haughty, I just think the interest is the fence/road not the tree.
Bob
-
Here is another cropped version of the picture that I have done after your comments.
Is it better ?
Speaking for myself (not that I CAN speak for anyone else), I prefer this version to the other two...
Mike.
-
How would you improve this picture ?
Cheers
(http://www.juliengille.com/forums/morning-countryside800.jpg)
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=189436\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]
Maybe it's just me, but I can't shake the feeling that the horizon line is tilting down to the left. Makes me feel like I just downed a 12 pack of Labatt's and can't find my car keys.
The lighting is very nice, the potential s-curve of the fence and road are pleasant, but that mass of formless vegegation on the right kills the simplicity needed for a really strong image. jgille's crop helps a bit in that regard, but then the road is oozing out of the picture frame on the right and that doesn't work either.
-
For me making the path or road the main subject is effective. There is a certain balance that this kind of crop adds. I like it as a B&W as well. What do you think?
-
With the crop you have here the tree on the left is appearing out of nowhere and hanging in mid air. Also the bushes on the right don't have enough tonal separation so it becomes one gray mass. I prefer the subtlety of the colour...
Mike.