Construction Equipment

[Snarkbyte]

A couple of shots from a road construction site. C&C is always welcome and appreciated.

#1: At first I intended to remove the power lines from this shot, but I'm actually beginning to like them. Opinions?


#2: Lately I've become fond of the desaturated look for images with strong texture, leaving just a bit of color visible. I layered a couple of B&W treatments from SEF2 to bring out the texture and contrast, then desaturated the result to taste. This particular composition almost insists on a square crop.


Thanks for viewing.

[gregj1763]

Hi Al,
Personally I would clone the power lines out. There is certainly enough in the photo to keep you interested already, and I know it's the angle they are travelling but it looks like the should continue underneath the tank so I keep getting draw to the empty space there. Or maybe that's just because you asked me to look at them.
Other than that a great and interesting photo and I do like the desaturated look in the last shot.
Good work.
Greg

[Snarkbyte]

Personally I would clone the power lines out. There is certainly enough in the photo to keep you interested already, and I know it's the angle they are travelling but it looks like the should continue underneath the tank so I keep getting draw to the empty space there.

Thanks for the comments, Greg. I know what you mean about the diagonal lines leading the eye, and at first I shared your opinion. But then I noticed that those lines also brought my eyes to the machinery in the background on the right. I agree it is a bit disconcerting, at first, to have lines that lead nowhere, but then the eye begins to explore the area around the negative space that the lines point toward. Rather to my surprise, I found that this can actually make the picture more interesting (well, it seems that way to me, anyhow). I do think the second shot is the better of the two.

[gregj1763]

Hi Al,
Can see your point about the lines leading your eye to the background.
Hope you don't mind but I had a quick play with your photo to see what you thought.
I just thought that it balance it out a bit?
Would like to know your thoughts.



Sorry about the rough cloning. I'm a bit dodgy at pp.
Cheers Greg

[Snarkbyte]

An interesting idea, Greg, and even more so because you're really just trying to correct for a perceptual illusion; the eye expects the lines to continue straight through the tank, but they don't. If you look closely, you can see the (real) lowest line just under the bottom of the tank, between two of the vertical poles on the right. This same illusion is often used by stage magicians to make their tricks work, but in this case, it's the absence of the expected lines that really draws attention. Thanks for the comments, but I'm sticking with the laws of physics vs. the rules of perception on this one.