Critique First Morning Frost!

Kodiak Qc

Suspended / Banned
Messages
20,285
Name
French Canadian living in Europe since 1989!
Edit My Images
Yes

A beautiful morning where I had to shoot the restoration progresses
of a city owned castle-farm from the 13th century.

 
Last edited:
I would crop it a bit different


I did not crop the original but healed and cloned what seemed to displease in the take.
 
Last edited:
Yes, that line on the bottom didnt work for me :) this one is better IMHO
 
that line on the bottom didnt work for me

I understand your point for aesthetic "appeal" and agree with it.
In this historic building, though, I HAD to deliver the take with the line and the door
(that was on the left in the original) as the line was a rail on which the very massive
door was rolling to close and open.

A typical case of descriptive document vs evocative photography!
 
Last edited:
Edit is better by getting rid of the wood on the left, (what a pity it wasn't stone both sides) ... colour through the arch is very attractive :)
 
(what a pity it wasn't stone both sides)

It is!
…what was cleaned out was the heavy metal door
that was hanging there.

Thanks for passing by!
 
Yes, I meant in the image :)

Gotcha!
To do so, I would have had to use a wider lens with the consequence
that the "frost" would have been too small and far away!
 
Another for the final edit, glad you left the arch in on the right, gives you a sense of the castle a bit more than chopping completely.
Very pretty place :)
 
Very pretty place

Yes, as many are around in the "land" (in the german sense and pronunciation).
Getting sites like that in a different light is the challenge as they are shot all year
'round by thousands of tourists!
 
Nice but if it were my shot I would maybe add some vibrance or HDR but each to their own.
 

Thanks Andy & Heath.
some vibrance or HDR but each to their own.
Helen, vibrance does not exist in my world (I don't use LR)
and HDR is pretty much taboo on natural subject but in interior
architecture this is a often used approach.
 

Thanks Andy & Heath.

Helen, vibrance does not exist in my world (I don't use LR)
and HDR is pretty much taboo on natural subject but in interior
architecture this is a often used approach.

But could you not have combined two exposures, 1 for the arch and 1 for the vines ?
I can imagine that the stonework is also of interest and in character with the scene.
The colours against the frost background are very attractive.
 
Last edited:

Thanks Andy & Heath.

Helen, vibrance does not exist in my world (I don't use LR)
and HDR is pretty much taboo on natural subject but in interior
architecture this is a often used approach.

Thanks for your reply, you should do what pleases you.
 
…you should do what pleases you.
I've been on that road for quite some time and through the years
I developed a way to work that, and that's why I'm here, I like to
question and eventually revise.

The greatest challenge before me is not technique or gear but an
other aspect (the most important) of photography: communication.

Times are changing and the types and levels of communication too.
If I would make perfect pictures telling no story or communicating
in an inadequate way, I would throw myself out of my own trade.

A living forum like this here, is a good place to open for critics some
works and evaluate its communication interest.


Like any other tool, HDR is an option in the tool box. For a same
work, many different approaches are possible… just as many as

there are artistic intents. I have adopted the very old idea that
Mother Nature needs no make up. This means that any rendition
of a nature subject should be in their most natural representation.
That means, as well, that out of the context of nature, HDR may
be at times a great option to seriously consider.

In this thread, the frost is the keyword and the stonework just
a frame for the scene.
•••
PS.
Why would a smile like yours be Hell on Earth?



 
A very pleasing shot Daniel I prefer the stoenwork darker as frame.
 
Beautiful shot, I like the frame of the door, it loses context when removed in the tighter crop. The final edit is very nice with the line removed.

I appreciate the comments on lighting the inner building. Could this not have been done with flash rather than HDR. Locking the exposure for the far landscape in manual and the. Adding some flash exposure compensation for the building would have worked? And been all in camer, no HDR!
 
Could this not have been done with flash rather than HDR

No HDR here Alan, I just opened the dark area through a mask in an
adjustment layer in my RAW converter.

A flash would have done it but rather distastefully because if the angle
of incidence even in TTL! That's why I went for the natural perception
and, consequently, the darker arch.

Thanks for your comment.
 

No HDR here Alan, I just opened the dark area through a mask in an
adjustment layer in my RAW converter.

A flash would have done it but rather distastefully because if the angle
of incidence even in TTL! That's why I went for the natural perception
and, consequently, the darker arch.

Thanks for your comment.
Kodiak, I know you didn't use HDR, I was referring to the suggestions in the thread to use it.

No problem, I skimmed through the thread so my language may have been unclear:)

I like it as it is!

Was only commenting on how to lighten the structure rather than saying this as a preference.
 

…got you this time! ;-)
 
Back
Top