Chesterton Windmill

[Keith]

I have had this image in my mind for some time, now that I have produced it I am not sure if its turned out as I had hoped.
I had to do some slight cropping and straightening and perspective adjustment as the field has quite a slope on it.
I have also had to lighten the stonework of the windmill as I used a ND Grad filter and boosted the contrast.
I didn't expect to have to do this much PP with the conditions I had on the day.

C&C welcome, but I would welcome any tips if hardy landscape photographers find faults with my efforts

[GillR]

Hi Keith,

You had a great sky for this, and I like the colours and tones in the image and the details and front to back sharpness.

I like where you've positioned the windmill in the frame but I do find myself wishing I could see the base of it.

[Geoff F]

I can't help thinking that I would like to see a bit of interesting cloud to the right of the windmill, as you have, but a patch of clear blue sky behind the windmill - but I expect that was beyond your ability to organise!

Certainly an interesting angle and a good sharp photo with perfect colours. I always find that cornfields, or grass, are very difficult to get looking natural, and I have never had any success with bluebells.

[Keith]

Hi Keith,

You had a great sky for this, and I like the colours and tones in the image and the details and front to back sharpness.

I like where you've positioned the windmill in the frame but I do find myself wishing I could see the base of it.

Thanks Gill, unfortunately, to get this particular shot it was not feasable to include the base, I was quite away down a slope and I wanted to isolate the windmill but also make it look like a dominant structure, but I'm not sure I managed to achieve that, maybe there was a little too much cloud behind it!

[Keith]

I can't help thinking that I would like to see a bit of interesting cloud to the right of the windmill, as you have, but a patch of clear blue sky behind the windmill - but I expect that was beyond your ability to organise!

Certainly an interesting angle and a good sharp photo with perfect colours. I always find that cornfields, or grass, are very difficult to get looking natural, and I have never had any success with bluebells.

Thanks Geoff, I think I agree with you re the clouds.

I too have not had too much success with Blubells, I know in my mind what I a photo to look like, but I haven't achieved that yet.

[Alis]

This is a great sharp and crisp image.

To me however, looks like the mill is facing the wrong way. I feel the windmill should be on the right side of the picture and the field on the left. Either way, the blade should face toward the field and not away from it. Am I crazy?

Also, the angle should be so that the mill is more dominant that what it is right now in the picture. If possible, it is better to see the base of the mill but looks like it was not possibe.

And may be a little bit less of the field (crop the lower forth of third of the picture?)

Another minor point is that the sky is full of those gorgeous bulky clouds, and it definitely adds to the overall picture but it is acting against you at the horizon line, as it makes the like look uneven (it does not look like a straight line). I think it would help if there was something like a blue sky with no cloud where the field meets the sky.

Cheers!

[GillR]

Thanks Gill, unfortunately, to get this particular shot it was not feasable to include the base, I was quite away down a slope and I wanted to isolate the windmill but also make it look like a dominant structure, but I'm not sure I managed to achieve that, maybe there was a little too much cloud behind it!

I thought that may be the case (re: the positioning). It's still a super shot

[GillR]

To me however, looks like the mill is facing the wrong way. I feel the windmill should be on the right side of the picture and the field on the left. Either way, the blade should face toward the field and not away from it. Am I crazy?

There's at least one professional photographer in my area (where there are quite a lot of windmills) who'd agree with you .

[Keith]

This is a great sharp and crisp image.

To me however, looks like the mill is facing the wrong way. I feel the windmill should be on the right side of the picture and the field on the left. Either way, the blade should face toward the field and not away from it. Am I crazy?

Thanks Alis, I think you have a valid point, but again unfortunately I had to have the windmill on the left as just out of shot to the left of my position there was a roped off pathway down through the cornfield which gave me access to that position, so it was impossible to get a shot with the windmill to the right of the frame without having the pathway running through the picture.

Keith

[Yan Zhang]

Crusty,

I like this picture. The foreground has great details, while the sky is exposed correctly.

I have a technical question: I guess to get the detailed foreground as well as the sky like this, you would have to use a graduated ND filter to bring down the the contrast between the sky and foreground. Then will this GND has a side effect on the Windmill? In your picture, I cannot see such problem. But it is often this would be a problem since the Windmill is up into the sky, and when you use GND for the sky part, you also bring down the brightness of Windmill.

Can you explain a bit for this issue?

Thanks,

Yan

[Keith]

Hello Yan, thanks for your comments.

Yes I did use a NDGrad filter.

As explained in the origonal post I had to lighten the stonework on the windmill by using the Dodge tool in Corel Paintshop Pro when I PP'd the photo.

Hope this helps

Keith

[Wirefox]

Nice work Crusty. The DoF is superb. The composition of textures and colours is very nice indeed. I really need to get one or two of these ND filters. I seem to be blowing out highlights left right and centre in sunny weather.

[Keith]

Nice work Crusty. The DoF is superb. The composition of textures and colours is very nice indeed. I really need to get one or two of these ND filters. I seem to be blowing out highlights left right and centre in sunny weather.

Thanks Wirefox, the ND filters certianly are useful, I am on a learning curve with them at the moment.