Valdai Lake at winter

[Denethor2006]

Hi everyone.

I want to share with you some of the winter photos of the lake Valdai that is located about half-way from Moscow to St-Petersburg in Russia.

I would greately appreciate and comments and critique. I know these photos are not ideal, so I'd like to hear what is wrong in order to improve.

Thanks in advance!

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[wolfnowl]

Hi There:

For the first one, I'd say that the branches provide more distraction than a 'frame' for the photo, if that's what you were looking for.  Also the off-center horizon is very distracting.  For the second one, I'd really like to see you open up the shadows on the bottom so that the barn isn't so easily lost.  The third one has more potential, although you could accent the 'misty' look.  Also I'd crop off that cone-topped metal thing from the right as it's a distraction from the clump of trees.

I'd start there anyway!

Mike.

[Lisa Nikodym]

My opinions:

The first and fourth don't work very well in terms of composition.  I agree with Mike's assessment of the second, though I would also have cropped the bottom somewhat lower, to show more of the barn and its surroundings.

The third one is very beautiful, and everything (including the composition) works very well, and it communicates the "winter" feeling very well - that one's the "keeper" here!  If I had taken that one, I would have been very proud of it.  (Though I agree it would be improved by cloning out the cone thing.)

Lisa

[pete_truman]

I agree with the others and really like the third picture. But suggest you crop the right hand side to remove the cone shaped thing. Holding an piece of paper against the screen over this just makes the image. I wouldn't crop the sky as the graduated tones across the whole view work nicely. Really nicely composed (apart from the thing on the right hand side).

The first image is neither a photograph of the background or the tree framing it. If the view had been taken from a higher viewpoint (if you don't mind climbing trees in that weather!) it may have had a better balance, but there's little subject matter to focus attention of the viewer. Perhaps you could arrange for a person to cross the view at the right time!

The second image feels confused and I struggled to find anything that kept my attention. My eyes wandered round the view without being guided in to anything. However there is some interesting subject matter that could be better framed in my opinion.

The fourth image doesn't work for me either I'm afraid as there's nothing that really pulls my attention into the image. If you were at more of an angle the row of trees and mist could work, but I would also increase the contrast a bit to give the image more of a bite.

Hope this helps,

Pete

[Denethor2006]

Hi everyone!

First of all, thank you very much for your comments, they are very appreciated!

The first photo was intended to show a subtle ornament the tree branches can create when bare. So the subject was to be the trees in the foreground. So, I guess, the only thing to 'cure' this one would reaaly be to climb a little higher and snap the branches against the water of the lake, not against the trees and mist of the opposite shore (thanks, Pete, for this one; but making anyone to cross the view would be hard, because the lake wan't frozen yet then  ). Apparently, trying to make the background more washed out wouln't work because of high contrast between trees and mist, right?

About the other ones, I tried to use your advises and attached the results. I'm a very newbie with image processing programs, so I don't know if I opened up the shadows in the second one the correct way. I also tried to crop it (unfortunately, there is no way to crop down, what's in my first post are the full-sized pictures, without crop).

With the third one it took me quite a long time to understand if I'm not leaving too much empty space between the trees and the right border of the picture. Decided to leave it as it is, hoping that this better stresses the detachment and lonelines of the group of trees.

I also tried cropping the last one, but, I'm afraid, it didn't help too much (no more than crop helped to improve the second one, actually).

Thank you for taking your time to comment my photos and to read this many letters

Koly.
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[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Big improvements in all three of these. The best of the lot is still #2 (the old #3), which is quite stunning.

[sinc]

The best by far is the old #3 (a great shot). The new #3, now #2, is not as good. It might be OK to get rid of the canopy, but cropping off the top was a mistake.