Hi everybody,
I was a day on a beautiful island in the North Sea and came home with these pictures. The weather changed every ten minutes. On the top of a hill I was exposed to storm and rain and a little later the warm sun dried my clothes.
Perhaps you have the time to comment on the pictures and help me to improve.
Thank you, Kandid
These are enjoyable, calm images, Kandid, and a pleasant change for me from the frequent drama and saturated colours that draw attention, but ultimately don't tend to satisfy me. Even the last two, taken into the sun, have a real, rather than look-at-me quality to my eye.
I particularly like the first, that sinuous boardwalk leading us into "your" scene. The next scene is a good companion image, with a similarly near-left-to-distant-right sweep, similar palette, and a pleasing juxtaposition of soft grasses and soft hills. Both compositions are satisfying.
In the final image, the foreground is a little dark and hard to discern. I think I might have been inclined to pan right a bit, so those little mounds at lower left start in the corner (like the boardwalk above) and lead us in. To my eye this balances the light water area and dark sand a little better too. I've approximated this here, along with increasing foreground contrast and exposure. A bit crude, but I hope it conveys the idea. I've also levelled the horizon.
Hope to see more from you; you have your own style, and an eye for composition.
Dear Chris,
tank you for your appreciating feedback.
When I post processed the last picture I intentionally did not lift the shadows to emphasize the reflections. The dark area in the front was supposed to serve as a black negative space. Your version of a possible composition for that picture is better than mine, I agree.
I understand your point about the dark foreground, Kandid, but I just think you've overdone it a bit here for me. The reason I say this is that even on my fairly bright monitor I find my eye drawn to the dark area, trying to work out what's there, and this effect is distracting, holding my eye there - for much the same reason that jet black shadow areas are tricky in photography. I think we instinctively scrutinise shadow (for threat), and this tends to trump the aesthetics. Just my personal view and theory! You may well disagree.
Hi there!
I agree with the feedback from Chris. Since he didn't mention the third one and I like this the best, I'll just at the the color and exposure on this one are beautiful!
Thank you. The exposure of the third picture is unusually short for water in motion. One would think half a second or longer. But no, I opted for 1/800 of a second to freeze the waves. It seems to have worked.
I like how crisp it is. "Creamy" water is common - and beautiful. This crispness is less common looking this pleasing.