Brandenberg Park

[Nicole Hanna]

Today was the first really nice day we've had since... well.. October. I was going to make the most of it. It was very bright, but with clouds that covered the entire sky and didn't have much definition with some fog in the distance. Mid-afternoon, so no cool colors in the sky. Not optimal, I know. It was still too cold in the morning to brave it.

I opted for a black and white with some cinema effect in post-processing.

Anyway, though I like the photo personally, I want to know how it's received by a wider audience. Do you think the photo is over-exposed or washed out? Is there too much negative space for you? Would you prefer the pier be in focus? That it be in color or with definition in the sky and clouds? I'd just like a consensus on popular opinion.

I was originally going to post this in the animals category but thought perhaps it was better suited here. Thanks so much for all your opinions and suggestions!

Nikon D90
Shutter speed 1/4000
Aperture f/2.8
Focal length 90mm
ISO 200

[sourav]

beautiful. serene. calm.
have you done something with the contrast, cause i can see a clear demarcation where white turns to grey.

[Nicole Hanna]

You mean in the sky? I noticed that too. I'm not exactly sure at what point in the post-processing that occurred. I deepened contrast a little, then added a cinema effect, but that's it. I'll have to see what I can do to make that transition a little smoother. Thanks for the comment!

[amrita]

Hi Nicole

I really like your photo and think it has a lot of impact as a B&W image.

For some reason I want to see more of the pier to the left of the photo. I like that it is out of focus though.

Overall though I think its really lovely.

[SwissJon]

I think if you apply a layer mask over the whole thing, and apply a gaussian blur, that should deal with the colour edge (Which probably occured during a desaturation) and it will also blur the pier even more, which I quite like the idea of. Now cut a hole in the layer so you can see the bird clearly, keep as close to the edge of the bird as you can, so that you don't get another "edge". Your pier ends almost exactly in the centre.. Is there any more to it? Or maybe there's some room to crop? Perhaps a square shot? Try it and see what looks right.

That's a really nice shot.

[Nicole Hanna]

SwissJon, thanks! Ihaven't had a chance to learn lightroom yet and I don't think you can do anything with layers in Photoscape. I did manage to fix the color line with a blur though. There wasn't a whole lot of cropping room in the original... it was a bit of a fluke I caught this since someone was feeding bread to the swans and the seagulls came in like vultures lol.

Amrita, many thanks for stopping by. I do plan on heading back tommorrow and see if I can't catch different angles. Hopefully I can catch more of the pier with some of my seagull shots.

[milosh]

I think you have a beautiful image! There are two things I noticed, first is a slight leaning of the horizon to the right, I would fix that, and the second is that banding in the sky. I think that is jpeg banding. Was it shot as jpeg or raw? What level of jpeg compression did you use? If you used a higher compression (lower jpeg quality setting), you can try and save another one with maximum quality and upload it to see if there's any difference? Maybe some of the more experienced members will fill us in on banding.

[Nicole Hanna]

Thanks milosh! The banding in the sky came from post processing and had been lightened. I didn't notice the horizon tilt until you mentioned it so I'll fix that when I get home and then post an updated photo. It is nice to have others look out over with me because sometimes I can stare at it so long I can't even see the obvious mistakes anymore. I appreciate the help.

[milosh]

Sometimes, the longer you work on an image, the less you see. At least I do. Often, when I'm trying to decide on some subtle variations of colour or brightness, the more I look at them, the less I see clearly. I used to stop working on a file and return to it after a couple of days and find that I don't like my first version.