A Touch of Frost

[Magog]

Having had some helpful C&C from my first post a few days ago, I thought I'd have another go.
I took this shot on Sunday, using my wife's EOS 400D with standard kit 18-55mm IS lens, so I know it' s not as sharp as it might be (I have sharpened it a little in Picasa). The frost on the old railway sleeper (railroad tie to our American friends) caught my eye; I'd be interested in your thoughts as to how it worked as a subject.



thanks

John

[easternlight]

Hello John,

It is a nice and kind of abstract view you are showing us. Maybe it could improve bij setting the "horizon"straight, you know what I mean? After that you might consider cloning or cropping the plants on the far right away, the dot that shows half of the plant.

[Magog]

Good morning Koos,

thanks for that comment; I did wonder about cropping a bit, but thought it might place the two larger growths a bit close to the edge of the frame. At the moment they sort of fit the rule of thirds.
I might have another attempt at home tonight.

[Sergio M.]

John, I would never have figured out what it was if you hadn't told us. Very interesting and works for me as an abstract as Koos said. The growths don't bother me and kind of add to the abstractness of the image (at least for me).

[Magog]

Thanks Sergio,

I did have a sort of abstract impression in mind when I took it. I also tried converting it to B&W, but I didn't feel it added to the image.

[Bobobird]

Look fine to me as is. A bit of horizontal re-alignment should help as Koos suggested.

[tbob]

Works well for me both as a subject and composition. The lines are irregular enough to need being absolutely horizontal.

It would be interesting to see a version with less blue cast to the colour. I could be convinced that the blue adds to the abstractness of the image.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi John,

This has a lot of potential, but I think you may need something better than Picasa to achieve it - Elements would do, not too expensive, or GIMP (free).

Shooting RAW will allow more editing options too.

For this, a bit brighter would help I think, unfortunately I can't give any useful advice with Picasa since (from memory) it's all a bit "effect and uncalibrated slider driven" and doesn't allow fine control of the things you're applying.

Hope that helps,

[Magog]

Thank you very much for your input, folks. Herewith a few tweaks, as suggested.

Cropped a little, lightened slightly and straightened:



I'm afraid I can't do anything with the colour cast, Trevor; as Dave correctly points out, I only have a fairly crude tool to work with.

Dave, thank you for your helpful comments. When I first started in digital a few years ago, I was convinced that all this software stuff was the spawn of Satan. "Get it right in the camera" and all that. However, I have come to realise that post production is an integral part of the process. It's now only a matter of deciding which way to jump; should I get Elements? should I make use of Canon's DPP and experiment with RAW?

Much to learn, have I (as Master Yoda might say).