The first one I think could benefit from some selective darkening on the banks to help the eye follow the creek to those trees.
The middle one I feel like should be revisited at a different time of day, ideally if the scene could be backlit. If you can you might even be able to get some rays through the smoke. If you can, also reposition yourself to better balance the water tower and stack in the frame.
The third one I really like. One change that I would do is adjust the exposure on each escalator. Either darken the back ones and even out the brightness on the front ones, or increase the contrast gradient from bottom to top. The point being to bring out the criss-crossing and repetition.
Great suggestions, Matt. Only rebuttle I have is I can't exactly make the middle photo work being backlit. The reasoning being I would lose the shadow of the trees, which is kind of what I intended the photograph to speak to!
That makes sense. The towers and the smoke definitely draw attention away from the walls below. The water tower is almost perfectly centered in the frame, and the smoke, stack, and building provides a frame for it. The foreground wall with the tree shadows accounts for only about 1/4 of the frame and I honestly didn't pay attention to the shadows until you said something. If you go back, try out some different framing. I think it will be difficult to keep the background features present and still define the tree shadows as the subject, but if nothing else the process of trying this challenging idea will help you grow.
The first one I think could benefit from some selective darkening on the banks to help the eye follow the creek to those trees.
The middle one I feel like should be revisited at a different time of day, ideally if the scene could be backlit. If you can you might even be able to get some rays through the smoke. If you can, also reposition yourself to better balance the water tower and stack in the frame.
The third one I really like. One change that I would do is adjust the exposure on each escalator. Either darken the back ones and even out the brightness on the front ones, or increase the contrast gradient from bottom to top. The point being to bring out the criss-crossing and repetition.
I agree. Contrast/ curves.
Great suggestions, Matt. Only rebuttle I have is I can't exactly make the middle photo work being backlit. The reasoning being I would lose the shadow of the trees, which is kind of what I intended the photograph to speak to!
That makes sense. The towers and the smoke definitely draw attention away from the walls below. The water tower is almost perfectly centered in the frame, and the smoke, stack, and building provides a frame for it. The foreground wall with the tree shadows accounts for only about 1/4 of the frame and I honestly didn't pay attention to the shadows until you said something. If you go back, try out some different framing. I think it will be difficult to keep the background features present and still define the tree shadows as the subject, but if nothing else the process of trying this challenging idea will help you grow.