Lone Shotgun Shell

[a.saliga]

While out on a walk in the woods behind my house I spotted this shotgun shell. Increased the contrast and added a vignette in Lightroom. Tell me what you think.

[jiminyClickit]

a.saliga,

Vignette is softly applied, not so obvious (better, yes?). Slight angle is interesting without messing with DoF. Good relationship, dark to light. Very pleasant color palette. Sharp where it needs to be. I might fuss with the bright orange edge of weed on right, above center. Clone out, or select and desaturate, or uncontrast. Mute it however you can.

Saw a yellow shell down the lane, but it was live. Left it. You chose uniquely.

[praesentire]

a.saliga,

This is a very cool shot! It makes me wonder about the history of this empty shell. When was it shot? Why was it shot? Very mysterious.

As I am still new to photography, please take my opinion with a grain of salt. One thing I find distracting is the cluster of speckles found at the bottom of the frame. Is it just the sand's reflection out of focus that causes it? I'm also curious if a couple more higher f-stop would have brought the whole rusty end of the shell in focus.

I love the way the rusty surface and the dirt on the ground play on each other. There is so much texture to be enjoyed here. Thanks for sharing!

[windrider86]

Great imagination and use of it! I ddi agree with the blurring in front. Perhaps a bit of cropping?

[a.saliga]

Yes, in retrospect I wish I would have shot with a smaller aperture to get the whole shell in focus. I particularly like the shot with the shallow DOF though, but a bit more would have made for a better shot.

[a.saliga]

I took a bit of spare time I had during my lunch break today to re-edit this photo.

I used a mix of the clone stamp, healing brush, and blur tool to remove the distracting blades of grass. I also applied a curvers adjustment layer and an unsharp mask.

Here are my results as well as a smaller before and after for easier comparison.

[jiminyClickit]

a.saliga

Shadow detail is better, overall color is livelier. Acid test: do you like it more than the original?

[a.saliga]

I like it much more. I never realized how much "unsharp mask" does for a photo.