To the Field

[Cold]

Captured this shot last week. While it wasn't my favorite shot of the day, it was the one which I think had the most potential for improvement. It has a foreground and a background, but I'm worried that the field itself doesn't offer much. I like the composition aside from the wish that there had been something...anything...in the field. Horses, deer, bales of hay, even a tractor. It just seems like there's lots of good elements but without one central thing to tie it all together.

Agreed? Suggestions? Other points of critique?



Link to full sized image

Camera Model: PENTAX Optio WS80
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 18.1mm (35mm equivalent: 102mm)
Exposure Time: 0.0080 s (1/125)
Aperture: f/4.5
ISO Equiv.: 250
Whitebalance: Manual
Metering Mode: Matrix

[sk66]

I agree.
It would have been great with a horse in there.

[Cold]

Originally Posted by sk66

I agree.
It would have been great with a horse in there.

Thanks, sk66. Glad to see I'm at least on the right track. There were horses in other fields, but as you can see, they'd have likely escaped from that one...

[augiecrazy8]

I like the framing, but definitely agree that this element brings your eyes to some empty space. The colors are very vibrant, and you can tell it's a beautiful fall morning with the angle of the sun. Feel like a broken record, but something to focus on would complete the image. It is beautiful even without.

[Essy]

Yes...my eyes keep going back and forth from the fence on the left to the one on the right. How about picking one of those as your focal point instead of the field itself and then cropping it in tighter? It's a lovely spot.

[sk66]

Originally Posted by Cold

Thanks, sk66. Glad to see I'm at least on the right track. There were horses in other fields, but as you can see, they'd have likely escaped from that one...

Photoshop?

[Krusty79]

I started this thread because of images like yours:

Is a compelling subject required?

[Cold]

Thanks everybody! I'm glad that you liked the shot aside from the elements that I was thinking it lacked as well.

Augie, evening sun actually. But yes, in that shot, if I didn't know, I'd say it looked like morning too.

Essy, that's a good idea! I had taken a few other shots of the fence at that point and was going for something different...but in this situation, it might have been best to stick with it.

sk, if you wanna have a go at it, be my guest. I'm doing good to type 'Photoshop' without making an error, so I generally stick to just making a few adjustments of levels, saturation, and sharpness.

Krusty, that's a good read. Thanks for the link.

[sk66]

here you go

[S_Sanyal]

Great image Cold. As everyone is in agreement with the need for a central / compelling element. i think Essy's suggestion about a crop keeping one end of the fence as the central element is quite sound. I've tried to demonstrate how that may look without losing your framing trees and also letting a viewer's eye travel to the beautifully highlighted ones at the far end.

Sk66's digital magic is also fantastic albeit with one slight observation, the horse's lighting is a bit inconsistent with the brilliantly sunlit field IMHO