Cranes

[hynek]

Hi,

I'd love to get some feedback to this one:



Camera: Nikon D90
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/11.0
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash
Exposure Program: Manual

I like composition of crossing diagonals etc but yet feel something's missing

These gray day's are starting to depress me, no nice light anywhere. Everything is dull and...well gray. Playing with curves helps a lot...any other hints?

Thanks in advance!

[Doctor Atomo]

I see that you are maxed out at 18mm, could you have stepped back or gone vertical to get the base of the buildings and a little more sky? Also someone was saying there is software to straighten the cranes vertically if you want.

[hynek]

The pic is cropped at the bottom because there was a lot of noisy traffic, that just distracted IMO. But I was pondering pretty long whether crop or not and am still unsure. What's better a spoiled base or no base at all?

Hm, do you think such corrections enhance the picture? I had the impression that such wide effects are an arty addition.

Thanks for the feedback!

[Doctor Atomo]

Yeah, I know it's tough. I might take a bunch of shots until I get some interesting traffic? Wait until a time of day with less traffic? Can you post an un-cropped shot?
I don't mind the curved effect in this shot.
Is that sunlight or enchanced color?

[hynek]

Yeah, just hadn't the time in this case.

I've attached the original RAW converted and scaled down.

"Enchanced"? Well I've played with the curves, added contrast and taken out some brightness. No magic here.

P.S. I've been standing right at the corner, so I hadn't much "moving space". :-/

[Doctor Atomo]

Oh, wow. I really like the unedited shot. I don't think the traffic takes away anything, in fact I think the composition is much better.
Now just do some color magic and I think it's a great shot!

[hynek]

Wow, really? I hate the cropped cars at the bottom (a step back would have introduced traffic lights though).

I've attached another version. The church on the left could be cropped away, though?

Opinions?

[Doctor Atomo]

Well the foreground is so cluttered that the church doesn't make much difference. Its true the eye flutters around but then it settles on the building and cranes, because of their presence and strong shapes.
I really liked the color in the first one!

[hynek]

What do you mean with "first one"? The cropped at flickr and the last one should have the same colors (it's the same color control point, they move though when the crop is removed, but I thought I got it same).

[SriMesh]

This is an amazing capture with good lines to show the grandeur of the cranes going up into the sky.

I am not sure about the crop one way or t'other The crop first proposed takes it from 1.5 or 3:2 ratio to almost square and 1:1 ratio.

With the strong yellow, which is a natural contrast with the sky, do you think the effects discussed here, which enhance the yellow building and makes the clouds more ominous helps or not? It may add a bit of suspense to the image and the thoughts of the crane operator's job. Kind of like adding suspenseful music to a movie scene....

I was wondering once reading this technique if there would be something to try it out on to see how it would work.