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A gate, a sky, some mountains…

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A gate, a sky, some mountains…

  • jb7
    Participant

    So I guess this goes in the Landscape section-

    I seldom do landscapes- wet, windy things, and always too far from the car-
    However, last month, there was the annual pi trip to the Mournes,
    this year, organized, but not attended by BM.

    This was taken just outside the nature reserve, just north of Newcastle, on the coast-
    More importantly, right beside the boot-

    Any comments appreciated, particularly from landscapers,
    and any of the thousands of pi members who have never commented on any of my pictures.
    You know who you are-

    Particularly interested in comments on composition, colour, processing-
    and if anyone is up to it, the importance, or not, of cliché in photography-

    Thanks-

    PeteTheBloke
    Member

    I lurve skies like this and it’s a really nice composition to my eye.
    There’s something funny about the green in the foreground –
    looks a bit like out of date film or something. I’m also a bit iffy
    about the brightness all round the hill.
    In balance I reckon the good outweighs the bad.

    Seaview
    Participant

    I will chance my look here and agree with everything Pete said. :D :D Only kidding though the sky is the best part of the image. I do like the composition of the image and I imagine the strange colour of the foreground grass could be down to frost as the field also looks a bit white.

    Dave.

    markclehane
    Participant

    OK, just so’s you can knock me off your “never commented” list. Not a bad image but I think it could be improved by….
    Composition – Too much grass at bottom left. I’d prefer to see the gate and fence being the dominant foreground features. This might mean you’d have to move away from your car a few metres though :shock: Possibly Id have excluded that bit of shrub at the far right as well.
    Colour – All screens are different but it looks a tad flat to me. I wonder how this would look with an infra-red or regular b&w treatment?
    Processing – Don’t know what you did to it so kind of hard to comment but in my opinion it just needs a few tweaks in Curves / Levels.
    Cliches in photography – Arent we all guilty of it at some stage? Seascape with milky water and sunset etc. How bad, if it works it works. There are pros out there making a living from people who love their cliched images I suppose.
    Anyway, all this is just my humble opinion and I hope it’s not taken as critisism.

    Mark

    shutterbug
    Participant

    First thing I noticed was the hill/mountain in the distance, quite dark and a bit of a strange
    colour against the rest of the picture, I would agree with the foreground being reduced and
    you should have had your shears with you and cut a pathway to the gate :lol: Love the sky and
    the frosty grass, as for cliches……….isnt that what appeals? I would prefer to call it popular
    rather than cliched.

    jb7
    Participant

    Thanks Pete, Dave, Mark, and Jenny-

    Mixed views on the composition, that’s good-

    The colour is definitely odd, I’ve just started processing my own colour neg,
    add that to my own digital processing, and it’s an obvious recipe for disaster-

    I did push it too far, then pulled it back a bit-
    I might process it again, to see how it prints, but then again, maybe not…
    Either way, it’s not likely to have any more saturation than this-
    though it’s possible, I just don’t like over saturated pictures-

    I suppose I could crop more off the bottom, but I wanted to retain the proportions as shot, for some reason-
    the texture and detail in the grass is quite nice, if you can see it-

    Pete, that halo over the mountain is a bright patch of cloud-
    it might be a little better bigger-

    Jenny, the mountain was under the shadow of that cloud, really quite dark, not much colour-
    there is detail in it, but quite low contrast-
    but bluey cyany is like the colour-

    My art teacher in school used tell us that the hills were purple…

    Cliché- yes, it has its place, we do tend to seek it out-
    and as soon as something original is put out there,
    the clichés are only about 5 minutes behind, these days-

    Thanks again for the comments, appreciated, as usual-

    aoluain
    Participant

    Nice elements to this Joseph,

    The didtant fence highlighted by the sky,
    the gate nicely positioned in the frame
    and the hills placed on the centre line
    horizontally!

    I think possibly your processing is off
    and is detracting from the scene, there seems
    to me to be too much ‘magenta’ showing in the sky
    but too much as you say cyan in the foreground.

    for me the colours in general are off and could be
    lacking in saturation just a little.

    for me the trees on the right are distrascting also
    they are neither in or out of the frame.

    jb7
    Participant

    Thanks Alan-

    ok, I take it all on board-
    this is a more normally processed version-
    I did quite a few of them at the time, was going gaga looking at this, and it shows-

    Still haven’t printed it, so there still isn’t a final version…

    Thanks for the comments-

    Mark
    Keymaster

    Better than what I got from there JB :).

    I can’t comment on the colour much, does appear a bit strange in the grass.
    Would be tempted to crop a little from the top to say where the cloud top left starts
    and perhaps also some from the bottom or not :).

    Great clouds too.

    jb7
    Participant

    Thanks Mark, looks like we cross posted a bit there-
    But I did take some of your suggestions on board…

    aoluain
    Participant

    I like this better for sure! more natural looking in the sky!
    those clouds are great!

    for me I like big skies so cropping there as Mark sugested
    would be a no no . . . but that is me own personal opinion of course.

    the foreground looks a lot better, nicely illuminated!

    that tree on the right is the only negative thing now . . . for me!

    nice one Joseph

    Klarens
    Participant

    The second version is much better

    MartinOC
    Participant

    I’m not a landscape person, so a superficial comment.
    The colours have much better in the second, particularly the sky,
    also the tree on the right is a bit distracting, both these points already said.

    I don’t like the foreground so much, and wonder what it would be like if you
    avoided the dry grass on the bottom [edit] left. But as it stands the gate is in a good
    place composition-wise. Getting into the wilderness and away from hedges would
    give you a lot more possibilities, time for the wellies.

    DougL
    Participant

    jb7 wrote:

    this is a more normally processed version-

    I like this one better. The green in the grass is much more natural looking. I think it still has composition issues with the grass in the front-left, but it’s a good image!

    -Doug

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