Winter colours

[Blithe]

Re: Winter colours

The second one is just great. I feel that I could walk through that gate, which is where my eye is first drawn to. After taking in the ferns my gaze is lead into the distance along the fence. The colours and textures are good in my book.

When I went on to read others' comments I wondered where the 'sheet' was. All I saw was an inviting blurred backdrop, that in reality would make me venture further. Only on long and close inspection did the sheet jump out - like one of those 3D pictures when you know what you're looking for. How everyone sees images so differently always amazes me.

[Ian]

Re: Winter colours

Today was the first day in a while that we'd had a clear, sunny day in my part of West Yorkshire (UK), so I thought I'd go out and capture some random images showing the beauty and colour we sometimes miss at these times of year. I've added five of these to my gallery here, but I thought I'd post a few in this thread for comment or critique.

The images were shot at around 2.30pm as the sun was falling. The location is a forestry reserve and reservoir close to Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire, UK. It's about ten miles from my home.

Contrast and saturation have been boosted a tad in all the images, but they're otherwise unmolested.

Hi Tim, this is a pleasing image, but to be strictly criticalk it's kind of lacking a subject to focus on. The vibrant green moss to the bottom of the picture draws the eye, but it's too small to me a primary focus.

Ian

[Ian]

Re: Winter colours

Here's another...

I like this better than the first, but the magenta-tinted landscape glimpsed through the trees looks very odd.

Ian

[Ian]

Re: Winter colours

And the last one...



Thanks for your interest

Now we have a more complete picture - the brook provides some real focus and the lovely surrounding scenery, which is not too dissimilar to that in the first two pictures, now fits into the overall picture much better.

All three pictures are very punchy, plenty of depth and crispness, but it's the third one that comes to life for me

Ian

[Pol]

Re: Winter colours

I feel David is our 'member by proxy'

yeah - I'm always nagging him to join up and post but he steadfastly refuses to get involved in any online forums anywhere.

Maybe it's better that way rather than our 'debates' becoming too public. I was tempted to hit him with the laptop over Tim's 3rd picci - I liked it unchanged, he kept going on about the way his eye was leading. Thing is - he tends to have a different leading eye to me - he also looks through his camera viewfinder with his left eye, whereas I use my right eye.

So - it's not unusual for us not to see eye-to-eye (about all sorts of things.)

Pol

[guymclaren]

Re: Winter colours

This one is the best of the three, I consider them pretty pictures but they don't really do anything for me from the visual perspective. From the tech perspective they seem way better than what I would have done with the subject.

[Bearface]

Re: Winter colours

Now we have a more complete picture - the brook provides some real focus and the lovely surrounding scenery, which is not too dissimilar to that in the first two pictures, now fits into the overall picture much better.

All three pictures are very punchy, plenty of depth and crispness, but it's the third one that comes to life for me

Ian

Thanks for your comments Ian. I set out yesterday to simply capture some autumn/winter scenes and to try to bring the incredible texture and colour available in nature onto the screen. The first shot is undoubtedly quite unconventional in that it trades a balanced compostion for a sea of colours and textures, but in an abstract way I think that it has a place..........I'm just not sure where

The second was more conventional apart from the square crop, but something about the calm river and those colours made me think it'd work as a stand-alone image. Tom's comments about the background patch of sky were interesting, because I hadn't noticed the "drying sheet" in the woods until he mentioned it.......now I can't get it out of my head when I revisit the shot

I think the third shot is fairly safe compositionally, and also the colour / contrast adjustments I made were less severe in that instance. Also there's more to view overall and a decent mix of elements and colour which don't challenge the eyes quite so much as in the first two. It's probably my favourite too, if I'm perfectly honest

Stephen (understandably) questioned the need for me to post such technically ambiguous shots in the knowledge that people wouldn't necessarily like them, but if I'm posting less conventionally composed and processed landscapes and getting consistent feedback about the colours, the contrast and in some cases the compositions, then I'm getting a good idea of how these slightly leftfield techniques / approaches might work for me commercially. The critiques therefore, are invaluable

[Autumn]

Re: Winter colours

I feel David is our 'member by proxy'

I don't understand these posts about 'David' - I can't see a post by him. I feel as though I am back at our Photographic Society where everyone knows something except me.

Who is David?

[Stephen]

Re: Winter colours

I don't understand these posts about 'David' - I can't see a post by him. I feel as though I am back at our Photographic Society where everyone knows something except me.

Who is David?

Sorry Audrey, the thing is you gorra keep up Seriously, you may have heard Pol refer to 'Gert', you know her 'significant other' Well on a good day she uses his proper name, David. As she is bound to show him this "Hi David, have a great Christmas"

[lumix]

Re: Winter colours

And you know what they say, "Behind every good woman there is a great Photographer" Hi David, Merry Christmas.

[Autumn]

Re: Winter colours

Sorry Audrey, the thing is you gorra keep up Seriously, you may have heard Pol refer to 'Gert', you know her 'significant other' Well on a good day she uses his proper name, David. As she is bound to show him this "Hi David, have a great Christmas"

Thank for that Stephen.
I did actually know that Pol's husband was called David, but I thought there must be another member also called David and that I had missed his post. You are right, I should keep up, but I have other/better things to do, like stroking my new camera. and finding an old spectacle case (you'll never guess what I nearly typed instead of 'spectacle') In fact, I have a rather nice fabric paisley one which will do fine for now.

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Winter colours

On my TFT monitor, I see the path leading over a little hillock and out of focus trees, the other side of the field, in the background. The only light colour is the sky and that is just off white.

I really like your subject matter, but I too find the saturation, contrast & sharpening offputting! I prefer the 2nd photo as it seems to tell a story of its own, but find the 3rd could be quite tranquil & peaceful if muted. Really would look great with a bit of mist about!