Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: Jonathan Wienke on July 03, 2007, 12:19:49 pm
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Something I shot on my recent leave. It's a 9-image 1Ds stitch, shot handheld. C&C welcome.
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Hi Johnathan:
Overall I like it, but the trees seem to be a tad too dark to me. I realize they call it the 'Black Forest' for a reason, but I would like to see it lightened up a little. Also the walkway on the left I find distracting. It does bridge the gap between 'yesterday' and 'today', but being where it is way over on the left, it just causes my eye to be pulled out of the shot over to see what this 'intrusion' is to an otherwise harmonious picture.
Mike.
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I like the tonality - I suspect it would display very nicely in a large print. I don't think you need the road/guardrail on the left hand edge though...
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I like the tonality - I suspect it would display very nicely in a large print. I don't think you need the road/guardrail on the left hand edge though...
I'm with Tim here.
I also like the texture in the trees; that's fine work.
Too dark? Only on a too dark display!
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Hmmm...I included the bridge and the figure on the bridge to try to establish a bit of scale to the scene, but perhaps that doesn't translate well in a web-sized image. I intend this to be printed large, the stitched PSD file is 9478x4739 pixels, so I can print 24x48" at just under PPI. Or I could crop a bit and still make a decent 4x6...
The area of Germany where I'm located is commonly overcast, and I wanted to capture that mood; it's not commonly sunny here.
On an unrelated note, does anyone have any comments about the way I did the edge of the image? I haven't really done "artistic" borders before, and am curious what you all think of my technique.
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Maybe include a little more of the walkway for the effect - and put the treeline higher or lower - looks a bit too centered - but nice work and it looks like a beautiful area!
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The area of Germany where I'm located is commonly overcast, and I wanted to capture that mood; it's not commonly sunny here.
On an unrelated note, does anyone have any comments about the way I did the edge of the image? I haven't really done "artistic" borders before, and am curious what you all think of my technique.
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It's not sunny anywhere in Europe at the moment - this is the worst summer in living memory. The consensus forecast is that we may get a sunny day on the 15th July then that will be it until next year
The border is relatively unobtrusive, though, as a rule borders tend to distract from the image. It's more of a personal thing and what works for one person is horrible to another. Therefore, best to avoid divisive adornments.
Nice picture though, can't really add to previous comments, but prefer it to the desert of yore.
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Nice picture though, can't really add to previous comments, but prefer it to the desert of yore.
All in all, I prefer the rain here in Germany to the sun of the desert. It's...calmer here.
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I tend to agree. The road/lookout on the extreme left is a distraction to the eye.
The edge of the image is fine. It adds to the sense of antiquity and is well chosen.
We thought you'd been shot jonathan. You should put in an appearance more often .
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Johnathan, if you like sites like that, don't miss Burg Eltz (www.burg-eltz.de). Hike to the castle in the early morning hours using one of the longer routes. The site is amazing. The castle is still owned by the familiy, is fully intact and furnished. Tours are available.
Cheers
Angela
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Burg Eltz is about an hour from my location, so I'll check it out when I get a chance. I've been very busy lately, and then took leave for a week; my girlfriend visited.
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On an unrelated note, does anyone have any comments about the way I did the edge of the image? I haven't really done "artistic" borders before, and am curious what you all think of my technique.
I forgot!
It was one of the rare cases where I actually noticed the border and thought it looked good.
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On an unrelated note, does anyone have any comments about the way I did the edge of the image? I haven't really done "artistic" borders before, and am curious what you all think of my technique.
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Whether it was an intentional decision or not, the way the border reflects the same kind of shapes and side-to-side motion in the treeline really makes it work for me.
I like the current tonality, but wonder if there might be room for improvement--perhaps the castle could 'pop' ust a bit more.
Place me solidly in the anti-walkway camp. It is an interesting image on its own merits, though: I have a small screen, so when I view it at 100%, I can only see half of it, leading to a very interesting image of a man staring out into the forest and an separate interesting image of a castle. When I make the whole image fit to screen, the visual weight of the walkway and the large amount of fairly negative space between it and the castle draw me away from the main subject.
-Sean [www.larkvi.com]
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I love this image. You did a very, very good job with the tonality of the trees.
Regarding the bridge, what was your intent for this shot? To me, this image is very solitary, very, "middle of nowhere." The bridge breaks that image for me . . .
However, I can see this image working well for a tourist advertisement. In which case, the bridge works nicely. Great work, Jonathan.
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My original intent with the bridge and the figure (my fiancee, BTW) was to give a sense of scale to the image. But the bridge part at least is a bit distracting, so here is an alternate crop without it.
Thanks for the comments and feedback so far.
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Jonathan,
I think you've oversharpened again. Easily to do. I do it myself. There are also white peaks of the castle wall showing through the foliage.
Now you've got a fiancee, it is expected your photographic contributions to this site will diminish. You can't have two mistresses and any activity which excludes your partner is likely to cause trouble, in my experience.