Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => User Critiques => Topic started by: Tony Jay on March 24, 2015, 09:59:16 pm
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Another for perusal and comment:
Tony Jay
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Beautiful light and setting, Tony. Well seen, captured and processed. Don't the telephone lines bug you, though? They do me. What about cloning them out? I know it will be a bit of a trial, but it would certainly complete the photograph.
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To a degree they do but this is not an unspoilt wilderness but a rural farming community.
Those telephone lines are part of the scene along with the houses and windmills, not to mention the tarmac road and horrible street signs.
Tony Jay
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the backlight and sun are interesting but there is a lot within the frame that isn't. You might look at a crop showing the bottom right quadrant...as way to bring "focus" potentially
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Best landscape I've seen in quite a while. Good shooting, Tony.
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I don't see a crop myself and I think it is perfectly fine. A nice rural idyllic scene. One small nitpick is the paper white that is the sun. A slight infilling of yellow would be helpful. An enjoyable image.
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If you remove the power lines you'll also need to remove the poles they're on. Once you make the scene that primitive you'll have to remove the traffic sign and what looks like a phone or power box on the right side of the road. If you go that far you might as well remove the paved road and replace it with wagon tracks. Once you do that you can fill the wagon tracks with the kind of horse hockey we're seeing in these critiques.
Stamper's got a point, though.
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My list of things I've never seen is much, much shorter than yours, Isaac, and a while back I explained why that's true. Of course you instantly hit the Report to Moderator button, but I stand by my assessment.
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Fine, idyllic atmosphere, Tony, and great light.
There are instances where telephone lines might serve a compositional or documentary purpose. This isn't one of those cases. They are just plain distracting here. Removing them (and leaving everything else intact) would not create any kind of question for a viewer.
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One of the nice things about these fora is that opinions vary.
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There you go, Isaac. Now there's one less thing on your long list of things you've never seen. Bravo!
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I am reminded of seeing an exhibit of paintings of rural New England scenes by, if I recall correctly, Sheeler, who did both paintings and photographs. What struck me in one painting was that every telephone pole was meticulously included, but there were no wires showing at all.
It would be interesting to hear what he might think of the present discussion. ;)
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Don't remember that one, Eric. Fascinating! Most of Scheeler's paintings were more photographic than his photographs.
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Thank you everybody for your comments - much appreciated.
I think I will prepare a copy of this image with the telephone lines cloned out.
I haven't posted many images recently, partly because I haven't been doing that much shooting, but, also because I have spent a lot of time evaluating what I have already shot.
The images that I have posted recently are not "perfect" but they are, I think anyway, very interesting and I need honest assessment of their merits and demerits.
I plan to post several more images in the coming days and weeks anticipating just the kind of helpful input received here.
Tony Jay
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If you remove the power lines you'll also need to remove the poles they're on. Once you make the scene that primitive you'll have to remove the traffic sign and what looks like a phone or power box on the right side of the road. If you go that far you might as well remove the paved road and replace it with wagon tracks. Once you do that you can fill the wagon tracks with the kind of horse hockey we're seeing in these critiques.
Stamper's got a point, though.
It's the way you tell 'em, Russ!
As for Tony's image, I think the power lines are a big distraction in what it otherwise a lovely scene.
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Okay, I surrender. The powerlines have got to go!
My problem is that I'm so used to seeing this kind of scene that without the powerlines I'd instantly jump to the conclusion that somebody's been playing around in Photoshop. There's no way a country road like this could NOT have powerlines running next to it -- unless the powerlines were buried. But if you know what it costs to bury powerlines you realize why they're up there instead of down here.
Without the powerlines you're suggesting a countryside where people are using oil lamps, cooking with woodstoves, and crapping in outhouses. Somehow that image doesn't quite fit this one.
But the vote is in. Tony, you'll just have to get rid of the powerlines.
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Okay, I surrender. The powerlines have got to go!
My problem is that I'm so used to seeing this kind of scene that without the powerlines I'd instantly jump to the conclusion that somebody's been playing around in Photoshop. There's no way a country road like this could NOT have powerlines running next to it -- unless the powerlines were buried. But if you know what it costs to bury powerlines you realize why they're up there instead of down here.
Without the powerlines you're suggesting a countryside where people are using oil lamps, cooking with woodstoves, and crapping in outhouses. Somehow that image doesn't quite fit this one.
But the vote is in. Tony, you'll just have to get rid of the powerlines.
Not every road has powerlines next to it. They could come with another road not pictured here.
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Quote from: RSL on Today at 10:14:32 AM
My problem is that I'm so used to seeing this kind of scene that without the powerlines I'd instantly jump to the conclusion that somebody's been playing around in Photoshop. There's no way a country road like this could NOT have powerlines running next to it…
And the post-processed picture would show powerlines running next to a country road as-far-as the last building.
And that will lead to ambiguity
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Is that a good thing or bad thing?
Ask RSL
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Chalk it up to the difference between documentary realism and artistic license.
Perhaps they are more obviously troublesome because they are simply appearing (levitating) from the right edge of the photograph rather than emanating from a nearby pole.