Project 52 by Teresa (GaelicSea)

[gaelicsea]

Week 2
Barn



I am not very happy with this photo, but I'm not sure why. I like the composition as is; however, I think there is some depth missing or something. Any ideas?

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Beautiful colours and I can see why you shot it. For me I think it's a balance thing - similar to having a subject dead centre. Usually okay to look at but being symmetric makes the picture sometimes look flat.

In this case, I think you have subjects of interest on the left and the right that draw your attention and balance your photo, but the symmetric balance creates an... I'm not sure - a flatness perhaps? The house and tree on the left seem to perfectly balance the thicker, darker tree on the right. I found I ended up going back and forth between the two subjects and not moving deeper into your photo.

I think if you were to crop one of your subjects out, you might find that your capture gains a greater feeling of depth. I'm not a landscape photographer so someone else might have a better idea though

[FrankMi]

Hi Teresa! Great subjects and coloring. I think Malcolm is right, you have plenty of room to play with several different croppings. I'd experiment a bit and see if you can find a combination that suits you better. You might try for less sky or less foreground, perhaps just the building and the mountain in a panorama?

[Wendy Stanford]

Hi Teresa, lovely colouring, looks like a nice spot
I think cropping would make the barn the focus, perhaps remove the tree on the right, a little of the sky, but keep the barn on the 3rd line.

[gaelicsea]

Cropped
I did have this crop version...but I don't like this one either. I probably need a zoom to capture the details more? Or maybe later in the day when the sun casts more shadows to give depth? Is there more that can be done in PS with layers? If not, I will give up on this one...but if there is something I can do with layers I would like to see if I can improve this photo. This is just one example of the dissatisfaction I am experiencing with my results.

[Geoff F]

I would crop even tighter, Teresa.

To me there are a number of issues to consider with this general scene.

I don't like having a lot of uninteresting foreground; but in this case I would like just a little more, if possible.

Then there are two items which are important. The barn plus trees and that peak in the background.

So I would try a 3 x 2 ratio crop which cut the right edge tight to the right base of the peak (just show it) and a corresponding amount from the sky.

Ideally, I think I would crop the sky a tiny bit tighter then increase the canvas size, very slightly, to clone in a little more foreground and make a better balance.

And finally, I think I would try an Adjustment Layer, plus mask, to selectively brighten the shadows/midtones around the barn, but just a little. I'm not sure about this. With a little extra foreground it may appear OK as it is now.

[gaelicsea]

Thank you everyone for taking the time to view and critique my post. I will definitely use your suggestions and see if it improves the image.

[gaelicsea]

Week 3
Daisy

I ran out of time again this week, so I decided to use a photo I took on Monday for a scavenge challenge. I liked how it turned out but would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Fantastic detail in the centre of daisy. For me personally I don't think the daisy at the bottom adds to the photo. I think I'd prefer a 1:1 crop on it - but then again, I'm not really a flower person

I'm sure everyone else will have different thoughts.

[dje]

Cropped
I did have this crop version...but I don't like this one either. I probably need a zoom to capture the details more? Or maybe later in the day when the sun casts more shadows to give depth? Is there more that can be done in PS with layers? If not, I will give up on this one...but if there is something I can do with layers I would like to see if I can improve this photo. This is just one example of the dissatisfaction I am experiencing with my results.

Teresa I've just seen your thread for the first time. My apologies for a late response to your week 2 post but I have to say I think you are being terribly hard on yourself. I think your image is very nice and would suggest the following

Using Shadows/Highlights adjustment, enhance the shadows to 20%. This will lighten up the barn area. Then create a duplicate layer and set the Blending Mode to "Soft Light" and the Opacity to about 50%. This should give a little more depth to your photo.

Dave

PS : I also like your week 3 image.

[ScoutR]

Nice shot Teresa, but I have to agree with Malcom about the second flower. I think I would crop right below the third full petal on the right

Wendy

[gaelicsea]

Yes, now that you say that about the second flower I see what you mean. I used a mirror to get the flower and it's reflection. I kind of liked that reflection...but I can see how it is distracting rather than enhancing.

[gaelicsea]

Here is my week 4 submission...I'm behind schedule and will be posting week 5 soon (I hope!).

These are the Flatirons in Boulder. We just got 14 inches of snow and everything looked frosty.



Here is the B&W version.




C&C welcome.

[Goldcoastgolfer]

I really like that B&W version - a nice range of lines,tones and textures which bring you to the mountain peak. The grass or branches on the bottom left for me is a bit of distraction but they can be easiliy cloned out.

I'm not sure that your colour version is being translated correctly by my browser - or does the mountain really have a blue tinge to it? I'm not sure if it really looks like that or if it's the Adobe RGB colour space that you're using.

[Geoff F]

Blue tinges often occur with snow scenes, Mal, under certain lighting conditions. Sometimes they add something while other times they just look odd.

However, in this case, the B&W version is excellent.

[gaelicsea]

Here is the original. The only pp I had done on the other version was to increase the contrast, clone out the snow/reflection on the one flatiron, and sharpen. Is there something else I could have done to the "color" version to make it better?

[Goldcoastgolfer]

Blue tinges often occur with snow scenes, Mal, under certain lighting conditions. Sometimes they add something while other times they just look odd.

That's what I get for living at a place where there is only sun, sand and surf. I don't get an appreciation for the snow scenes

Is there something else I could have done to the "color" version to make it better?

From my perspective I honestly couldn't say. You could play with the saturation and luminance of the colours but in this case, I would stick with the B&W as it is really shines in this format. Sometimes colour can actually distract from a scene where as B&Ws serve to highlight the tones and textures much better.

[gaelicsea]

Thank you for the comments Mal and Geoff!

[Geoff F]

With that shot, Teresa, you had a lot of problems to overcome. Shooting into the light is never easy and that effort produced very bright highlights with darker areas where you ideally wouldn't want them.

And the whole scene is a touch on the blue side.

Just out of interest I have had a quick edit.

I didn't really want to add a reworking of mine to your Project 52 thread so I have tried to put it into one of my galleries and link from there.

https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/fo...chmentid=20744

After several attempts, let's see if this link works!

There are a number of options but I chose one of the simpler methods.

Used Curves to reduce the blue highlights (blue channel) then brightened the whole scene (RGB) with an Adjustment Layer and edited the mask to remove the effect from the sky.

Created a duplicate layer and set Blend Mode to Multiply with opacity at 50%. Added a mask to this layer and reduced the effects from the snow and bright clouds by editing the mask.

Just a quick example. Your B&W is actually better.

Mal. We also rarely get snow where I live, in the far UK south west beside the sea.

[PhotoRob]

Beautiful subject Teresa, and I really like the composition, feels 'balanced'...