Trying to get "zen" feel.

[janesa13]

Unfortunately, with my current lens (28-80mm nikkor), I could not get any wider than this so some trees got chopped.

[rpaladino]

Originally Posted by janesa13

Unfortunately, with my current lens (28-80mm nikkor), I could not get any wider than this so some trees got chopped.

Hi,
I can see why you picked this scene to capture a zen feel. My recommendation is to crop the bottom of the photograph up to just below the center subject.
Have you tried working in black and white? This photo would work well in black and white giving you a zen feeling.
Keep up the good work.
Raquel

[Amigone201]

Hm, I look at this picture and instead of zen, I want to make it a scary one. The spindly, leafless trees really look like the kind of woods you would expect to see Hansel and Gretel walking through right before they meet the witch.

Would you mind if I took your image, did some Photoshopping, and brought it back here?

[mattdm]

The center well (or bench? the stone round thing) is visually weighty, which is kind of a shame, since it's much less interesting than the organic shapes of the trees. I think I'd crop to move it out of the center -- maybe make it the bottom left corner of the image. (This also crops out the little sign by the one tree, which I find distracting.) That way, you've got the pull of the regular, human-made form juxtaposed against the woven tangle of the branches.

[janesa13]

by all means, you can take the pic and photoshopped it so I can see what you mean

[googlit]

It seems to me that the tree branches draw the eye to them, and they look very active and contrasty. I would blur the pic as you get away from the focal point... Hard to explain. Here's what I mean:



I combined a few other effects, and think I overdid it with the blurring... but yeah.

[janesa13]

hmm....seeing your pic, it might be a good idea to make the original pic into lomo.
I'll probably try it once i get my hand on photoshop. Anyone that try this can post it here

[mattdm]

Originally Posted by googlit

It seems to me that the tree branches draw the eye to them, and they look very active and contrasty. I would blur the pic as you get away from the focal point... [...]

So basically, the same thing I was thinking, but then taking it in the opposite direction -- the trees are overwhelming the stone circle, so get rid of them.

I think the blur effect is pretty hard to do exactly right in post-production; if it's a location that can be shot again, it might be nice to try it at a wider aperture.

[Amigone201]

Originally Posted by googlit

I combined a few other effects, and think I overdid it with the blurring... but yeah.

I don't know about overdoing it...that effect is awesome! I definitely see the zen-quality in that one!

Here's what I did with it:



I desaturated it a little more than halfway, then added a shade of purplish. The effect I was going for was to make the garden look like a sad, dead kind of place, with maybe a hint of creepiness. I guess I wasn't going for "scary" so much as maybe a childhood playground that you've grown out of. You've grown up, but you come here hoping to recapture your youth, and you find that it's the same place, and it evokes some memories (hence, a little bit of purple warmth) but not the same "feel" as it was when you were a child.

Haha, I'm sorry, I'm usually not this depressing! I also don't know if I conveyed right what I'm putting into words. Do you guys see it?

[mattdm]

Originally Posted by Amigone201

I don't know about overdoing it...that effect is awesome! I definitely see the zen-quality in that one!

It gets the point across, but the result as shown is more "vaseline on the lens" than "selective focus".