Railyard re-visited

[gregj1763]

Following on from a recent thread of mine Image worth pursuing ?
I re-visited the museum and took a few more images trying to think of composition and perspective as suggested.
Was even brave enough to submit a B&W
C&C welcome as always.
Cheers, Greg

[John 2]

Nice mono conversion but it's the first one for me Greg. Good use of diagonals in them all but the reflection in no.1 just adds that bit more.

[gregj1763]

Nice mono conversion but it's the first one for me Greg. Good use of diagonals in them all but the reflection in no.1 just adds that bit more.

Thank you John, #1 is my favourite as well and when I heard the rain this morning I went straight down there. I already had the image in mind and after fiddling around with different crops it worked out pretty much as planned so fairly happy with the result.

[IzzieK]

#1 is very strong for me, Greg...
#2 I like that you've captured the decay here. Do they still have some stuffs inside that building?
#3 -- Brave enough is an understatement...I like the conversion to B/W here. I would say, clean looking.
All these shot have a good combination of lines and diagonals that makes interesting viewing...

[Shadowman]

Nice angle on the first and sharpness of the reflection.

[gregj1763]

Thank you John and Izzie for your comments.
Izzie, that particular building in image 2 is just for storage, the one in mono houses a locomotive used for passenger transport in the 50's-60's plus some war memorabilia and the lower roofed section is the foyer area of the planetarium. The museum complex also houses buildings where railway buffs restore old carriages etc.
For anyones interest here is a link to the Queen Vic web site http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/qvmag/index.php?c=21
And by the way my painting features strongly in any photo you can see a wall.
Cheers, Greg

[FootLoose]

Nice set, Greg. I love the colours in the 2nd shot. I would be all over that building taking pictures to use as textures.

The first is probably the better of the three, as others have remarked it is a strong composition. If it were mine I would try cropping about half off the top - to take out the lower power line on the left. The main interest for me is the reflection, and I think that crop might possibly make it the main focus of attention.

[gregj1763]

Like this Greg or does it cramp it too much at the top?

[Rebel]

I like the first one without the crop.

[Manfred M]

Greg - I find the B&W works best for me. As for the other two, I wonder if #2 would not also do better as a monochrome; I find that the colours conflict and clash a bit too much and this would be fixed in a monochrome image.

#1 I like, except for all that stuff on the left hand side of the shot; it distracts the view and doesn't add to the shot at all. I wonder if something along these lines might not be an improvement.




I'd dodge a few of the darker areas in shadow, to bring them out a bit more and would also apply a light vignette to draw the viewers eyes in from the edges of the image.

[FootLoose]

Like this Greg or does it cramp it too much at the top?

It does feel a bit cramped at the top, Greg. This is what I had in mind:




I like Manfred's crop, too, but that makes a different story of it. For me, the buildings in the background add another layer of narrative to it.

[gregj1763]

Lots of ideas and opinions to work with.
Thanks all four your input.

Here is a B&W as suggested by Manfred. I increased the saturation on the yellow slider to bring out the detail on the doors.

[Manfred M]

This B&W version of the barn works better for me than the original.

There are a number of reasons that I will go to B&W and the two most common ones are to simplify the shot (if the colours are too messy) and to give the shot a "period look". Both of the these reasons apply here, and I think this works well.

That being said, I tend to be a bit hesitant to go to B&W; all my hard earned money went into a camera that does an incredible job capturing colour; and then just throwing it all away on a whim means I stick to colour more often than others might.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Greg Very nice shots. I find Manfred's crop of #1 and the B&W version of #2 better than the originals. I like #3 as is.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Greg,

Yes - this is very much more what I had in mind when I replied in your other thread - well done.

If you are going to do a reflection, I feel that it ought to be vertical, which is easily judged since a puddle has a flat surface which must be level, so any point in the real image needs to be exactly vertically above the same point in the reflection, which they're not in shot #1 - it needs a slight clockwise rotation.

Continuing with #1; of all the crop variations, I prefer your original composition, but in B&W - that said, I find the black/yellow stripes a distraction (too modern a context) and would crop those off or clone them out.

I prefer the monochrome version of #2 - the large shed with the "7" on, although again, being a pedant, I'd also have rotated this slightly clockwise, although I accept deciding what should be vertical is a challenge in such a shot of such a subject (where what should be vertical may not be these days).

#3 doesn't personally appeal to me; I can't see what the subject is - it's just part of a shed.

I hope I don't appear too harsh, please don't be discouraged by my comments, I'm just trying to help.

I feel guilty not having shot anything much for so long myself, that I ought to get out and shoot something similar - just to prove - as I know - that I don't have all the answers either - criticising other's work from a comfortable seat is too easy. I am just as harsh on myself, which is why a lot of what I shoot, no one sees

Keep at it, Dave

[gregj1763]

Thanks for the comments Binnur and Dave.
Dave your comment don't seem harsh at all and I really appreciate the suggestions you put forward about the images.
I always re-edit my photos using peoples suggestions then compare the two side by side to see the difference. It's all very helpful stuff.
Cheers, Greg

[Mark von Kanel]

Late to the tread and have little to add Greg but well done and keep revisiting, each itteration imporves i think. well done

[gregj1763]

Late to the tread and have little to add Greg but well done and keep revisiting, each itteration imporves i think. well done

Thanks Mark,
All the comments have been very helpful and I did a B&W version of the 1st image as suggested by Dave. It turned out very well I think.
Cheers, Greg