Luminous Landscape Forum

The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: Dave (Isle of Skye) on December 06, 2010, 08:29:38 am

Title: Seventeen Below
Post by: Dave (Isle of Skye) on December 06, 2010, 08:29:38 am
Hi All,

My first post here, so please be gentle..

Here is a shot I took near Fort Willaim last year, tried it in a competition, but it did absolutely nothing, so I wonder what everyone else thinks?

Thanks for your feedback.

Photobloke
Title: Re: Seventeen Below
Post by: stamper on December 06, 2010, 10:03:00 am
I think it is a bit "busy". The focal point looks to be the tree that is in the centre but it is overwhelmed by it's surroundings. A longer focal length at the time of shooting or use the crop tool to make the tree look bigger. It is a pleasant image,however.
Title: Re: Seventeen Below
Post by: John R Smith on December 06, 2010, 10:04:58 am
Photobloke

As a first post, this is a jolly nice snow picture. You have a great exposure (not so easy in snow), and it all looks suitably wintry. Now colour photography is not my thing, so I am not too well qualified to make further comment, but when I see this sort of picture I tend to think "calendar shot". Which is not meant to be condescending, as after all there is good money to be made with calendars, but it does not move me. And I think that is because we have a beautiful landscape, but perhaps one where you have not managed to bring something of yourself to it and transform it into a personal statement. Which of course is a very difficult thing to do, but is nonetheless the hallmark of great photography of any description.

John
Title: Re: Seventeen Below
Post by: wolfnowl on December 06, 2010, 12:01:03 pm
As given already, there are two many elements here all with about equal weight and they distract from each other.  If you could move forward to the edge of the water and maybe shoot that dead spruce and the lake you'd have a better image.

Mike.
Title: Re: Seventeen Below
Post by: Dave (Isle of Skye) on December 07, 2010, 08:04:40 am
Hi all,

Thanks for that, it was very cold and was a sort of a grab shot, I had already taken a few shots (hand held) and so had the exposure settings worked out and was just about to run shivering back to the car, when the two canoes appeared and so I took another couple of shots. I now realise I should have had a longer lens on the camera, but only had my 24 - 105 on and not enough warm clothing either and the car was a bit too far away to fetch it quickly.

I have learnt a lot from this shot, whereby seeing something pretty does not automatically mean a "good" image will come of it, without putting a lot more effort and thinking into it.

I have another shot taken just a few days ago which I will post for critique and which I think is much more successful - having already learnt and took on board the lessons from the image above.

Thanks..
Title: Re: Seventeen Below
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on December 07, 2010, 10:42:36 am
I have a few thousand winter images of scenes that were just breath-taking in reality but that produced disappointing photos, even with the right lens.
I look forward to your next post.

Eric
Title: Re: Seventeen Below
Post by: Rob C on December 07, 2010, 02:11:42 pm
Guess I'm too much the commercial animal, then. I think it's damned nice just as it is. I don't subscribe to this thing about 'main subject' as being some kind of unwritten (though many do write it) rule to follow in all instances. What's wrong with just a nice combination of what's there in nature? You can crop in and out of a scene until the cows (frozen) come home, but you are still just editing, so I think this image is great in it's own right. I would have been very happy to have fathered it.

There's something here in this particular thread that takes me back to the 50s. I once joined a company camera club because I had no darkroom at home yet. The club held a competition and I submitted a still life shot of a mandolin, a Chianti bottle and something else I forget. I was told I was far too commercial. Though that intended put-down was delivered by the smuggest of 'seniors' I was very pleased and took it as an unintended compliment. Years later, I took  my son on an 'open day' tour around that factory where I'd started as an apprentice when I was in that club; my turn to be smug: up on the wall in a department a copy of the Barbour Threads Auchindrain calendar, shots from which I posted here in LuLa some time ago. So much for the opinions of the senior, even if he turned out, in a way, to have been correct...

Stick with your instinct, Photobloke!

Rob C
Title: Re: Seventeen Below
Post by: EduPerez on December 11, 2010, 08:05:19 am
Guess I'm too much the commercial animal, then. I think it's damned nice just as it is. I don't subscribe to this thing about 'main subject' as being some kind of unwritten (though many do write it) rule to follow in all instances. What's wrong with just a nice combination of what's there in nature? You can crop in and out of a scene until the cows (frozen) come home, but you are still just editing, so I think this image is great in it's own right. I would have been very happy to have fathered it.

I also like it just as it is; I find it very interesting, specially the colors.
Title: Re: Seventeen Below
Post by: David Saffir on December 13, 2010, 10:36:19 pm
It's a bit busy for me too. Nice feeling of a cold, crisp morning, but just too many elements to allow
the eye to rest in the image and absorb the subject.

David Saffir


GuruShots Photo Critique (http://www.gurushots.com)
If you'd like pro advice and full professional critique
see GuruShots Photo Critique. I'm a contributor there.
Title: Re: Seventeen Below
Post by: Dave (Isle of Skye) on December 14, 2010, 09:25:31 am
It's a bit busy for me too. Nice feeling of a cold, crisp morning, but just too many elements to allow
the eye to rest in the image and absorb the subject.

David Saffir


GuruShots Photo Critique (http://www.gurushots.com)
If you'd like pro advice and full professional critique
see GuruShots Photo Critique. I'm a contributor there.

Is this a genuine critique where you are really trying to help me, or an advert link to your pay per critique web site?

I cannot see the benefit of giving you $6.95 so you can tell me the shot is a "bit busy", and I really am genuinely sorry if I have read this the wrong way, but I already know it is a "bit busy" thanks.

Photobloke
Title: Re: Seventeen Below
Post by: John R Smith on December 14, 2010, 10:10:03 am
Is this a genuine critique where you are really trying to help me, or an advert link to your pay per critique web site?


I think that David is very welcome here, and we appreciate his thoughtful comments, but I for one would feel more comfortable if he left the "plug" for GuruShots out of his posts.

John
Title: Re: Seventeen Below
Post by: David Saffir on December 14, 2010, 01:34:37 pm
ok, guys, I'll tone it down. no offense intended.

David
Title: Re: Seventeen Below
Post by: David Saffir on December 14, 2010, 01:37:47 pm
an added thought: the tree in the foreground right is probably the issue - it's hiding some of your image. I can see the sweeping lines behind it, which I like but can't really
appreciate them with the tree in the foreground.

David
Title: Re: Seventeen Below
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on December 14, 2010, 07:25:02 pm
an added thought: the tree in the foreground right is probably the issue - it's hiding some of your image. I can see the sweeping lines behind it, which I like but can't really
appreciate them with the tree in the foreground.

David

I agree with David's take on it.

Eric