Eleanor Deep in Thought

[dje]

I was inspired by the Baguettes thread by Rob (NoCard) for this image. It's a shot I took some years ago on a 2MP camera of Eleanor Roosevelt's statue in NYC. It lacked impact so I did some PP work on it. Does it work ?

Cheers Dave

[Donald]

Does it work ?

Yes it does, in my opinion, but ..........

The bit I don't think works is that the frontage of the building stops just in from the left-hand edge and around the corner there seems to be some sort of modern, reflective surface.

What I'd want to do is crop it so that all we see is the front of the building. But then that's going to have her looking into a relatively small space when she should be placed further to the right in the frame looking into more space on the left, if you see what I mean. So, the starting point for that, so fara s this image is concerned is that she's placed too centrally.

Solution? A fairly severe crop (probably to the left of those two trees on the right, that leaves more space on the left but still gets rid of that edge on the building.

One idea to ponder.

[dje]

Solution? A fairly severe crop (probably to the left of those two trees on the right, that leaves more space on the left but still gets rid of that edge on the building.

One idea to ponder.

How's this Donald ? I think it is better because it not only removes the distractions you mention but also gives more focus to Eleanor.

[Donald]

Brilliant. Now that is a powerful image.

[jjbacoomba]

Wow! What a difference. Love this shot. Very well done!

[wommby]

Absolutely beautiful - Well done

Deb

[dje]

Thank you Donald, Joe and Deb. Glad you like it.

Dave

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Dave,

The later crop is much better ...

However, and I know we're throwing away too many pixels with this crop, if you really want domination, how about;


What did I do?

Well, a crop obviously, but with a slight anti-clockwise rotation too
Dodging to bring up subject

Obviously compromised quality wise by me (sloppily) working on an already cropped jpg but you get the idea.

Cheers,

[dje]

Hi Dave,

The later crop is much better ...

However, and I know we're throwing away too many pixels with this crop, if you really want domination, how about;


What did I do?

Well, a crop obviously, but with a slight anti-clockwise rotation too
Dodging to bring up subject

Obviously compromised quality wise by me (sloppily) working on an already cropped jpg but you get the idea.

Cheers,

Thanks for your comments and edit Dave. I think this is an even better crop and the rotation definitely helps too.

It's a pity it was such a low res photo to start with. We can get away with these crops for displays of this size but if we tried to go larger it would start to show. In hindsight, this is the sort of composition I should have used for the shot in the first place.

Cheers Dave

[NoCard]

Don't know how I missed this post, very sorry!
I think this post brilliantly shows there is more than one way to skin a cat.
Were it not for the heavy trees on the right, I think the original, centrally positioned, coloured Eleanor works well.
However, since we do have the trees, I agree the cropped versions are an improvement in composition.
The first version of the crop, is a good overall composition, the rule of thirds working well here.
Whereas the second is creates a very strong view of Eleanor, and she becomes the absolute focus of the image, no need for rules, dominance by size does the job.

As examples of the use of selective colour, they all work well. I like the simple blue hues (was this the original colour?).

[dje]

Don't know how I missed this post, very sorry!
I think this post brilliantly shows there is more than one way to skin a cat.
Were it not for the heavy trees on the right, I think the original, centrally positioned, coloured Eleanor works well.
However, since we do have the trees, I agree the cropped versions are an improvement in composition.
The first version of the crop, is a good overall composition, the rule of thirds working well here.
Whereas the second is creates a very strong view of Eleanor, and she becomes the absolute focus of the image, no need for rules, dominance by size does the job.

As examples of the use of selective colour, they all work well. I like the simple blue hues (was this the original colour?).

Thanks for your comments Rob. It's very easy to miss a thread on this site. They just keep rolling in !

I didn't change the colour of the statue but I did lighten it and apply an unsharp mask to give it a bit more "punch". The local contrast enhancement that an unsharp mask brings tends to highlight the subtle variations in the texture and tone of the statue material (not sure what material it is).

Cheers Dave

[mishlove]

I must be seriously jaded....I miss read the title completely wondering what the heck....

Anyhow......I love the coloring of the statue ... and the 1st crop.

[dje]

I must be seriously jaded....I miss read the title completely wondering what the heck....

Anyhow......I love the coloring of the statue ... and the 1st crop.

Thanks Michael. It is a nice statue. I'd like to see it again in better weather conditions - it was freezing that day and we didn't hang around for any length of time. But then you'd know all about that sort of weather !

Cheers Dave