Sunset on Church - Critique please.

BrandonDouglas

BrandonDouglas

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Brandon
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On www.myfinepix.co.uk they hold a monthly (themed) photography competition.
This picture is my entry for the 'Sunshine' comeptition.

I thought that I'd get a sunset picture as I like the way it lights half of the building as it sets and leaves the opposite half dark. So I thought the contrast of light would look good on this church building. Possibly even symbolising heaven and hell (light and dark) but that's just coincidence ;)

Anyhoo, I also wanted a nice sky in my picture, with the whispy clouds. I believe this gives a good effect to most pictures, although I had to re-visit the place a couple of times until I had my perfect sky.

I done a HDR image to really bring out the colours and get a perfect exposure.

The result of the above ideas and settings etc. was this.

5777859288_84be0e644e_b.jpg


I don't think it went too badly, but there's something that I still don't like. I think there may be too much of the tree in the frame ? I'm not sure.

What are your thoughts.
 
Rob_W said:
I like the colours but there's too much sky in the middle and
the church is too close to the left. Maybe would have worked
better just concentrating on the church itself without the tree.
Click to expand...

I was trying to keep the foliage out of the frame (from the left side) because it didn't look very attractive.

Thanks, for the feedback.
 
I understand what you were getting at, but the church is falling out of the shot here. Think rule of thirds and you see the church is mostly in the first third when it should be following the line and therefore crossing from first third into middle third.

A few of other things:

The converging vertical of the church spire is jarring, more noticeable as it is so close to the straight edge of the frame.

The merging of shots has created a double exposure in the bottom right corner which is really distracting

The tree is competing with the church to be the main subject


All in all this has all the makings of a great picture. I like the HDR, which is subtle enough to be natural and add much to the picture. The sky is a peach too and a brilliant capture.

Try a crop taking out the right hand side and lowering the significance of the tree, make it more of a frame, this may also bring the church into the frame more, try straighten the spire while you are doing that, see what you get then. You will likely loose some of the church from the bottom, however may get away with it because of the hedge.
 
I have to agree the edit looks better

I also like the big sky in the shot

And the hdr looks just right to me (y)
 
Off the bat and without reading any other comments.....



Firstly, why the obsession on here of late with HDR - it's not necessary.

Secondly, something odd is happening bottom right

Thirdly, the church spire is seriously on the wonk.

Fourthly - the tree / trees on the right are competing for dominance in the picture.


That will do for now!
 
Lynton said:
Off the bat and without reading any other comments.....



Firstly, why the obsession on here of late with HDR - it's not necessary.

Secondly, something odd is happening bottom right

Thirdly, the church spire is seriously on the wonk.

Fourthly - the tree / trees on the right are competing for dominance in the picture.


That will do for now!
Click to expand...

Should have read the comments.
All has been said, and fixed for that matter :)
Whatever happend in the bottom right was due to the HDR I believe.
And I'm just trying out HDR .. it's not an obsession, just testing it out.
Thank you for the comments. check out the edited version of the image, it seems to be an improvement. Thanks.
 
The HDR is fairly natural and suits the image. Its the composition I have problems with its just all too tight, no space around the church or tree to frame it. If there is no space there then I would probably have taken a different photo. The edit looks better but still too much in the frame.

That is of course just my opinion.

Steve
 
Whilst you have cropped out the weirdest part on the bottom right, the distortion of the spire is still evident due to the angle of your shot.

IMO the top of the spire is too tight to the top of the image.

The saturation is a little too heavy for my taste.

It looks like a lovely location, well worth many an attendance (y)
 
TinaC said:
Whilst you have cropped out the weirdest part on the bottom right, the distortion of the spire is still evident due to the angle of your shot.

IMO the top of the spire is too tight to the top of the image.

The saturation is a little too heavy for my taste.

It looks like a lovely location, well worth many an attendance (y)
Click to expand...

If make it so the spire is straight, then the image still looks odd because the entrance to the church is at a funny angle. So I had to make it half and half.
I suppose everyone has a different taste in saturation.
The location, to be honest, isn't actually very nice. The church itself is though. Thanks for your comments.
 
steve_v said:
The HDR is fairly natural and suits the image. Its the composition I have problems with its just all too tight, no space around the church or tree to frame it. If there is no space there then I would probably have taken a different photo. The edit looks better but still too much in the frame.

That is of course just my opinion.

Steve
Click to expand...

I do see what you mean, and it would be okay if it wasn't for the tree on the right. That would have opened up some better opportunities for me.
 
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