A storm brewing at the Henge!

Jim. · 16 Sep 2012

Hello all,

I've done photography for a while now, but never really got into it until I bought a Canon EOS550d in January. I'm just starting to get to grips with it. Here's a photo a took the other weekend and I think it's one of my first I've uploaded onto the Internet. I'd be most grateful if you could give any constructive criticism. I'm hoping to improve, but I'm not sure where I'm at now, I'm quite a negative person so I don't really know if this is any good. Let me know what you think...

Although I'm not confident with my photography, I'm ok with people no liking it...It'll make me strive for improvement.

P.S. I guess this place has been photographed to death, but everyones gotta start somewhere

gramps · 16 Sep 2012

I like the mono conversion but the pic looks 'awkward', sloping as it does to the left :thinking:

Jim. · 16 Sep 2012

Ahh I see what you mean.. I never spotted that! I must have one leg longer than the other

thanks for the feedback, it's much appreciated.

antattack · 16 Sep 2012

A great shot. Love the Moody feel to it. It could do with a straighten but other than that, it's great

Jim. · 16 Sep 2012

Here it is straightened up a little

viv1969 · 17 Sep 2012

Ah yes, the edit is much improved

Well done.
I have a similar shot taken a while ago but in portrait layout. There can be some great skies in that area.

Jim. · 17 Sep 2012

Thanks viv, the clouds weren't bluffing either, we caught the downpour right at the end, equalling lots of soggy stinky people in the tiny shop

Bretagnez · 20 Sep 2012

Really moody image thanks to the B&W conversion. The edit is definitely improved on the original post.
Well done and keep it up!

lionofjudah · 22 Sep 2012

Jim. said:
Ahh I see what you mean.. I never spotted that! I must have one leg longer than the other thanks for the feedback, it's much appreciated.

I found when I went recently some photos did look like they were sloping which I think is due to uneven ground levels. I had to straighten a few horizons myself. Picture is good though I'd love to see a bit more darkening on the clouds

Brihutchie · 26 Sep 2012

Straightened version looks so much better, great mood.

horrocks · 27 Sep 2012

Jim, I think you have overstraightened it slightly - it seems to lean a bit to the right now! My guess is that you need to straighten against the base of the long, flat stone centre frame, and the top of the 'arch' above it.

One point regarding the composition - I think the crop is arguably slightly too tight - the structure needs to breathe slightly left and right. As far as processing goes, nice conversion, lovely rich tones. You just need to 'lift' the stones a bit, introduce more luminosity into them.

A really nice B&W shot that has potential to be even better with a little work. Do you shoot in RAW?

Jim, would you allow me to post a couple of mild edits so that you can see what I am getting at?