Gloomy day

[Jo.T]

Hi all

Found this little gem the other day, the weather had closed in and was very dark and gloomy, was just going to do some record shots as a reminder to go back later but thought i would see if i could do some thing with it. After a serious play in CS5 i'm quiet please with the results but have i done enough?

The composition is a bit of a rule breaker does the crop i used work?
I used a lighting effect to try and lift the boat does it fit the scene? is it enough?
I think i had a rain drop smudge on the lense in the bottom centre of the pic, is it distracting and can i fix it?

Any other help would be greatly appreciated



Exposure 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture f/11.0
Focal Length 10 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias +1 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

Thanks
Jo

[TheMoons678]

Really like the feel of the picture!

Yeah for me I would have liked the boat left centered, so possibly crop out the mud to the right.

5 second edit in picasa to crop/ increase shadows:

[Krusty79]

I think you have some great colors in the shot, but I am puzzled why you chose a composition where the reeds are obscuring the boat. I find myself wanting to push them aside so I can see the boat better. All of the visual interest is in the right 2/3 of your shot, so I don't think the left third is contributing much. For me, that gives the composition an unbalanced feel.

It's usually better to frame the shot so the subject is entering the frame, not exiting like in your shot.

[Jo.T]

Originally Posted by Krusty79

It's usually better to frame the shot so the subject is entering the frame, not exiting like in your shot.

Thank you for your comments, this is one of those subjects that is hard to get left to right usless you want to stand in the river . I have other angles but they all are right to left or exiting the pic as you stated. This brings up the question of flipping images do we have the artistic licence to do so just to make it a stronger image?

Cheers jo

[Krusty79]

I know there are many times you need a wetsuit or hovercraft to get the compositions you want. I do wonder how this would have looked if you could have moved to the right a little and maybe got down lower.

I've seen Windrider and others recommend flipping images sometimes because our minds are trained to read from left to right. I don't consider that cheating because you are not adding anything artificial to the image.

[Jo.T]

Originally Posted by Krusty79

I know there are many times you need a wetsuit or hovercraft to get the compositions you want. I do wonder how this would have looked if you could have moved to the right a little and maybe got down lower.

thank you for your comments, I have flipped the image and given it a bit tighter crop, I am hoping to get back to this location again at sunset would be perfect but till then will work with what i have and see what i can create, I have added a mono version at a different angle to see what you think

Cheers Jo

[Doug Sundseth]

I like the new compostion quite a bit (though I don't think it's worth reversing the numbers to change the direction the photo reads. ). You've cut away parts that didn't contribute to the composition and what's left is much stronger.

[Krusty79]

I like the 2nd one better also. The nice colors are gone, but the composition is much better. Let us know how the sunset shots turn out.