Winter colours

[Bearface]

Today was the first day in a while that we'd had a clear, sunny day in my part of West Yorkshire (UK), so I thought I'd go out and capture some random images showing the beauty and colour we sometimes miss at these times of year. I've added five of these to my gallery here, but I thought I'd post a few in this thread for comment or critique.

The images were shot at around 2.30pm as the sun was falling. The location is a forestry reserve and reservoir close to Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire, UK. It's about ten miles from my home.

Contrast and saturation have been boosted a tad in all the images, but they're otherwise unmolested.

http://dpnow.com/galleries/data/500/024b.jpg

[Bearface]

Here's another...

http://dpnow.com/galleries/data/500/025b.jpg

[Bearface]

And the last one...

http://dpnow.com/galleries/data/500/030b.jpg

Thanks for your interest :D

[Caz]

They're all cracking, but for some reason I'm really drawn to the second one with your eye being led through the trees... absolutely amazing.

Lovely to see, since it's just taken me almost an hour to drive the 20 miles home from work through dense fog... we hardly saw the light all day :\

Carol

[Tom]

Of the three the third one is my favourite. I feel the contrast and saturation is a bit excessive especially in the first one.
The second one; The rectangle of whitish background looks as if someone has hung a sheet out to dry in the woods.

[Autumn]

Lovely pictures Tim. The second and the third are my favourites. For my taste the saturation and contrast are a little too much but I do see where you are coming from and it certainly gives a different view to the images.

You do not mention sharpening, but they all look as though they have been heavily sharpened. Is is the contrast boost that gives this effect, or have they been sharpened?

Anyway it is good to see a different take on an image.

Audrey

[Bearface]

Lovely pictures Tim. The second and the third are my favourites. For my taste the saturation and contrast are a little too much but I do see where you are coming from and it certainly gives a different view to the images.

You do not mention sharpening, but they all look as though they have been heavily sharpened. Is is the contrast boost that gives this effect, or have they been sharpened?

Anyway it is good to see a different take on an image.

Audrey

Thanks Audrey. I tend to sharpen selectively, but with images for the Web I add a little more simply because I use an LCD monitor and images often look quite a bit softer on CRTs. My girlfriend (also a photographer) uses an Iiyama CRT and on there these images appear sharpish, but nothing like they do on mine. That said, the contrast boost, combined with the failing light producing a backlit effect on branches and other plant-life, will have the effect of making things look sharper in any case :)

Where colours are more than just incidental to a scene, I like to emphasize them to give a "larger than life" feel to the image. Not to the extent where detail is lost or colours destroyed, but enough to make a visible difference. Shots which simply reflect what the camera saw are fine if the intention is to simply record a scene or event, but for artistic images I think one needs to make a picture, which is different :D

Both yourself and Tom have suggested that the saturation / contrast thing is a little much, so in allowing for the fact that my monitor is more contrasty and saturated than a CRT, I've probably gone a little too far. Point taken ;)

[Bearface]

Of the three the third one is my favourite. I feel the contrast and saturation is a bit excessive especially in the first one.
The second one; The rectangle of whitish background looks as if someone has hung a sheet out to dry in the woods.

Fair enough :)

Can you see the area in the woods around the trees - directly below the drying sheet? I wondered if your monitor might be a little dark, because that would highlight the backlit area and create the idea that it's floating in the dark. On the screens I have access to, it just looks like background light on the other side of the wood :D

Thanks Tom.

[Autumn]

Fair enough :)

Can you see the area in the woods around the trees - directly below the drying sheet? I wondered if your monitor might be a little dark, because that would highlight the backlit area and create the idea that it's floating in the dark. On the screens I have access to, it just looks like background light on the other side of the wood :D

Thanks Tom.

On my TFT monitor, I see the path leading over a little hillock and out of focus trees, the other side of the field, in the background. The only light colour is the sky and that is just off white.

[Autumn]

Thanks Audrey. I tend to sharpen selectively, but with images for the Web I add a little more simply because I use an LCD monitor and images often look quite a bit softer on CRTs. My girlfriend (also a photographer) uses an Iiyama CRT and on there these images appear sharpish, but nothing like they do on mine. That said, the contrast boost, combined with the failing light producing a backlit effect on branches and other plant-life, will have the effect of making things look sharper in any case :)

Where colours are more than just incidental to a scene, I like to emphasize them to give a "larger than life" feel to the image. Not to the extent where detail is lost or colours destroyed, but enough to make a visible difference. Shots which simply reflect what the camera saw are fine if the intention is to simply record a scene or event, but for artistic images I think one needs to make a picture, which is different :D

Both yourself and Tom have suggested that the saturation / contrast thing is a little much, so in allowing for the fact that my monitor is more contrasty and saturated than a CRT, I've probably gone a little too far. Point taken ;)

The sharpening on the first and second pictures gives the effect of "A touch of frost," particularly on the lower right, this side of the stream in the first pic and the foliage on the trees and the bracken in the second. I have a TFT monitor.

Also, on the first image in the same area the ground foliage/grass etc. definitely looks quite blue in places. This is not a criticism, just an observation, however, I am wondering if that is how you intended it to be or whether it is my monitor. Perhaps you would let me know. It's about 6 weeks since I calibrated it.:\ :)

[Pol]

I'm not too keen on the first one. Nice light on and through the trees but what spoils it for me is the blue (UV?) - especially the OOF strand in the foreground (just behind those lovely mossy rocks).

Lovely colours, composition, detail and dof in the second one. I love
those details and colours on the water's edge,also love 'watching' the gentle flow of the water and 'slow stroll' along the fenced path on the opposite bank (to check if the sheet is dry yet ..... LOL) Shame about the lighter,newer wood of the gate but it's weathering nicely so that's ok.

The third one - lovely scene, good dof and about spot on for my taste but this one triggered off one of our 'debates' this end. David slighty disagrees. He said his eye was led too much to the centre and he thinks it might be better with a bit off the left side (as viewed on-screen) - after much discussion, we finally agreed (in a manner of speaking ;) ) a crop from approximately at the sharpish rock in the midle of the water, just left of the edge of the river bank in the foreground - to include the rock in the picture.

All of them magical Wintery colours though. :)

Pol

[Tom]

Fair enough :)

Can you see the area in the woods around the trees - directly below the drying sheet? I wondered if your monitor might be a little dark, because that would highlight the backlit area and create the idea that it's floating in the dark. On the screens I have access to, it just looks like background light on the other side of the wood :D

Thanks Tom.

Yes Tim I can see the area below the sheet. Nice brown colour.
Really it was just the almost uniform shape (straight sides etc) of that particular background area that reminded me of a drying sheet.

[Archangel]

Here's another...

http://dpnow.com/galleries/data/500/025b.jpg


Hi Tim,

This one works for me better than the other two.
Apart from the "Winter Colors", it includes more elements than the other two. A lake, a small path, a fence on the side, more depth and visible colorful background behind the trees.

Regards

George

[Bearface]

I'm not too keen on the first one. Nice light on and through the trees but what spoils it for me is the blue (UV?) - especially the OOF strand in the foreground (just behind those lovely mossy rocks).

Lovely colours, composition, detail and dof in the second one. I love
those details and colours on the water's edge,also love 'watching' the gentle flow of the water and 'slow stroll' along the fenced path on the opposite bank (to check if the sheet is dry yet ..... LOL) Shame about the lighter,newer wood of the gate but it's weathering nicely so that's ok.

The third one - lovely scene, good dof and about spot on for my taste but this one triggered off one of our 'debates' this end. David slighty disagrees. He said his eye was led too much to the centre and he thinks it might be better with a bit off the left side (as viewed on-screen) - after much discussion, we finally agreed (in a manner of speaking ;) ) a crop from approximately at the sharpish rock in the midle of the water, just left of the edge of the river bank in the foreground - to include the rock in the picture.

All of them magical Wintery colours though. :)

Pol

Thanks Pol :)

I'm the first to admit that the first shot is slightly odd, in that it's a pretty random visual assault of colour and texture, as opposed to a flowing, balanced scene. The colour-balance does lean towards a blue-ishness in the foreground area, and in relation to the upper portion of the scene this is primarily because it was in shadow, while the trees were still being lit directly by the sun. I could've made some adjustments to counter this, but I left it alone. And you are right about that OOF branch in the foreground... :)

I'll give that crop some thought. It is admittedly a fairly flat scene in the sense that it leads nowhere in particular (in fact it directly cross-sections the most logical flow), but I was hoping to relay as much of the view as I possibly could, hence the crop. But it's food for thought, definitely ;)

Thanks to David, too. I think...:rolleyes:

[Stephen]

Thanks to David, too. I think...:rolleyes:

I feel David is our 'member by proxy' *LOL

[Blithe]

The second one is just great. I feel that I could walk through that gate, which is where my eye is first drawn to. After taking in the ferns my gaze is lead into the distance along the fence. The colours and textures are good in my book.

When I went on to read others' comments I wondered where the 'sheet' was. All I saw was an inviting blurred backdrop, that in reality would make me venture further. Only on long and close inspection did the sheet jump out - like one of those 3D pictures when you know what you're looking for. How everyone sees images so differently always amazes me. :)

[Ian]

Today was the first day in a while that we'd had a clear, sunny day in my part of West Yorkshire (UK), so I thought I'd go out and capture some random images showing the beauty and colour we sometimes miss at these times of year. I've added five of these to my gallery here, but I thought I'd post a few in this thread for comment or critique.

The images were shot at around 2.30pm as the sun was falling. The location is a forestry reserve and reservoir close to Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire, UK. It's about ten miles from my home.

Contrast and saturation have been boosted a tad in all the images, but they're otherwise unmolested.



Hi Tim, this is a pleasing image, but to be strictly criticalk it's kind of lacking a subject to focus on. The vibrant green moss to the bottom of the picture draws the eye, but it's too small to me a primary focus.

Ian

[Ian]

Here's another...



I like this better than the first, but the magenta-tinted landscape glimpsed through the trees looks very odd.

Ian

[Ian]

And the last one...



Thanks for your interest :D

Now we have a more complete picture - the brook provides some real focus and the lovely surrounding scenery, which is not too dissimilar to that in the first two pictures, now fits into the overall picture much better.

All three pictures are very punchy, plenty of depth and crispness, but it's the third one that comes to life for me :)

Ian

[Pol]

I feel David is our 'member by proxy' *LOL

yeah - I'm always nagging him to join up and post but he steadfastly refuses to get involved in any online forums anywhere.

Maybe it's better that way rather than our 'debates' becoming too public. I was tempted to hit him with the laptop over Tim's 3rd picci - I liked it unchanged, he kept going on about the way his eye was leading. Thing is - he tends to have a different leading eye to me - he also looks through his camera viewfinder with his left eye, whereas I use my right eye.

So - it's not unusual for us not to see eye-to-eye (about all sorts of things.) *LOL

Pol

[guymclaren]

This one is the best of the three, I consider them pretty pictures but they don't really do anything for me from the visual perspective. From the tech perspective they seem way better than what I would have done with the subject.

[Bearface]

Now we have a more complete picture - the brook provides some real focus and the lovely surrounding scenery, which is not too dissimilar to that in the first two pictures, now fits into the overall picture much better.

All three pictures are very punchy, plenty of depth and crispness, but it's the third one that comes to life for me :)

Ian

Thanks for your comments Ian. I set out yesterday to simply capture some autumn/winter scenes and to try to bring the incredible texture and colour available in nature onto the screen. The first shot is undoubtedly quite unconventional in that it trades a balanced compostion for a sea of colours and textures, but in an abstract way I think that it has a place..........I'm just not sure where *LOL

The second was more conventional apart from the square crop, but something about the calm river and those colours made me think it'd work as a stand-alone image. Tom's comments about the background patch of sky were interesting, because I hadn't noticed the "drying sheet" in the woods until he mentioned it.......now I can't get it out of my head when I revisit the shot :rolleyes:

I think the third shot is fairly safe compositionally, and also the colour / contrast adjustments I made were less severe in that instance. Also there's more to view overall and a decent mix of elements and colour which don't challenge the eyes quite so much as in the first two. It's probably my favourite too, if I'm perfectly honest :)

Stephen (understandably) questioned the need for me to post such technically ambiguous shots in the knowledge that people wouldn't necessarily like them, but if I'm posting less conventionally composed and processed landscapes and getting consistent feedback about the colours, the contrast and in some cases the compositions, then I'm getting a good idea of how these slightly leftfield techniques / approaches might work for me commercially. The critiques therefore, are invaluable :D

[Autumn]

I feel David is our 'member by proxy' *LOL


I don't understand these posts about 'David' - I can't see a post by him. I feel as though I am back at our Photographic Society where everyone knows something except me.

Who is David?

[Stephen]

I don't understand these posts about 'David' - I can't see a post by him. I feel as though I am back at our Photographic Society where everyone knows something except me.

Who is David?

Sorry Audrey, the thing is you gorra keep up *LOL Seriously, you may have heard Pol refer to 'Gert', you know her 'significant other' *LOL Well on a good day she uses his proper name, David. As she is bound to show him this "Hi David, have a great Christmas" :D

[lumix]

And you know what they say, "Behind every good woman there is a great Photographer" :D Hi David, Merry Christmas.

[Autumn]

Sorry Audrey, the thing is you gorra keep up *LOL Seriously, you may have heard Pol refer to 'Gert', you know her 'significant other' *LOL Well on a good day she uses his proper name, David. As she is bound to show him this "Hi David, have a great Christmas" :D

Thank for that Stephen.:confused:
I did actually know that Pol's husband was called David, but I thought there must be another member also called David and that I had missed his post. You are right, I should keep up, but I have other/better things to do, like stroking my new camera.;) and finding an old spectacle case (you'll never guess what I nearly typed instead of 'spectacle'):) In fact, I have a rather nice fabric paisley one which will do fine for now.

[Jocelyn Walker]

On my TFT monitor, I see the path leading over a little hillock and out of focus trees, the other side of the field, in the background. The only light colour is the sky and that is just off white.
I really like your subject matter, but I too find the saturation, contrast & sharpening offputting! I prefer the 2nd photo as it seems to tell a story of its own, but find the 3rd could be quite tranquil & peaceful if muted. Really would look great with a bit of mist about!