Old shot of lakefront

[Mr. Clipit]

I shot this back in October here on Staten Island with an older point and shoot I had. Theres some moderate photoshopping applied, dealing with the tones mostly. A week ago I would have told you its my favorite shot, but after prowling the dps forums I'd day differently.
Looking at it now, my main problem with it is that there's no focal point, no where for the eye to settle on. Am I right? Would a different crop help at all? Looking forward to your comments and suggestions.

[Mr. Clipit]

gee, 37 views and not a single reply... guess I just smell bad.

[ken52278]

I like this photo. Your colors are strong and vivid. It does have a "standard" composition, kind-of like a 50-50 landscape. A good focal point of this could be that rediculously "out of place" red tree left of center! That has an amazing draw affect. I would crop this just a little from the bottom to offset the horizon and over from the right a touch to get that red tree in the center more.

I have seen some vivid mirror landscapes like this done in half color and half b&w. Try to play with that a little just for fun!

[Sandie]

I have only been commenting for a day or two now (and I am addicted), but I have noticed that a lot of times the better photos don't get comments because no one sees anything wrong with them. It is easy to offer advice when the someone is way off the mark, but it is harder, takes a keen eye and good communication skills to improve a shot that is already pretty good.

I like the color, I like the shot, if it were a special place to me I would love to print and frame it. My only improvement comment is take out the top wisp of a cloud that is dead center..it is distracting and pulls the eye away. If you cut off a little more of the sky and a touch of the water, the eye moves around the picture a bit more naturally.

[Mr. Clipit]

Thanks for the help, I recropped the picture - is this better?

I'm not to familiar with half color shots... is it supposed to look anything like this?

its probably just the way I did it, but its not to impressive to me

[ken52278]

I think youre right! It might be a very specialized technique! I have only seen it a few times and I thought it looked good, it might be the composition of the photo that made the difference.

[Mr. Clipit]

I guess so. The beach lines seem to straight to pull it off. Hows the crop, though?

[ken52278]

I like the crop, it pulls the eyes right into the trees!

Good job!

[coolname]

The colours really pop out, but the image is a bit flat. I think it would be a more effective composition if there was something in the foreground (rocks, perhaps?) that gave a feeling of depth.

[Mr. Clipit]

theres an edge of a branch in the lower left corner of the original, but it was distracting more than anything.