Helps to be prepared (even if it is inadvertent)

[tbob]

Usually when I go out I wear my hiking boots. However this time I put on the gum boots, for reasons I cannot remember. Probably because I was in too much of a rush to go back into the house and search for the hiking boots; wanted to get out as fast as possible to catch the sunset.

While I was out I decided to try getting to this old barn I like to shoot. However the road was quite impassible due to thick mud so I decided to switch to shooting these old granaries. Fortuitously having the gum boots on allowed me to walk though the flooded field to get these

Taken a half hour after sunset, at what is becoming my favourite light as I avoid harsh reflections on the stubble and long shadows from the setting sun.

[Geoff F]

Obviously a tricky exposure but these have worked well.

I just wonder if a very slight crop from the left and bottom of the first image might make a better balance to the composition?

[tbob]

Obviously a tricky exposure but these have worked well.

I just wonder if a very slight crop from the left and bottom of the first image might make a better balance to the composition?

Can you show me or describe the crop you prefer? I like to see others versions of my images as it helps me learn

The exposure is reasonably easy, I expose so the highlights in the sky are not quite blown out (using the blinkies on the LCD) This is usually plus 1.7 to 2 exposure compensation. I use one metering spot on an element as close to grey as I can determine and allow the camera to set the speed (I usually shoot in Aperture Mode as it is the depth of field I am most interested in controlling The focus is set using one metering spot and the lens set to manual for the exposure and the metering spot moved) I can then recover in post processing, I am not sure about other programs but in Capture One I use the high dynamic range sliders.

This is how it looks as shot (not exactly the same shots, close in time)

[Manfred M]

I like the first two images better than the third. They were nicely seen, taken and processed.

I find that the environment is the key element of this scene and there just isn't enough of it in the third image. The "angry" sky on the right hand side of the first two images really makes the shot stand out. The left hand side is a bit too "pretty" so losing a bit of that and showing the darker, moody sky might be worth considering.

I think offsetting the buildings so that they are less centred might also be worth considering.

A couple of quick crops gives me:


1.





2.

[Shadowman]

nice series, each one better than the first as more detail is presented.

[tbob]

I like the first two images better than the third. They were nicely seen, taken and processed.

I find that the environment is the key element of this scene and there just isn't enough of it in the third image. The "angry" sky on the right hand side of the first two images really makes the shot stand out. The left hand side is a bit too "pretty" so losing a bit of that and showing the darker, moody sky might be worth considering.

I think offsetting the buildings so that they are less centred might also be worth considering

Thanks Manfred
Will enter those suggestions into the mental database to be mulled over. Is there an acronym like GIGO (garbage in/garbage out) only the converse we can use? Like GSIBPO (great suggestions in better photographs out) only less clumsy?

[Geoff F]

My thoughts for the first image were rather similar to Manfred's crop.

[zen]

I'm with Manfred re images 1 & 2. Too bad the middle building in #2 has a pole coming out of it's roof, though . . .

Thanks for sharing.

Zen

[mugge]

I prefer image 1 and I would certainly consider Manfred's crop.
Cheers Ole

[tbob]

I'm with Manfred re images 1 & 2. Too bad the middle building in #2 has a pole coming out of it's roof, though . . .

Thanks for sharing.

Zen

The local utility company takes a dim view of cutting down power poles to improve an image. Especially after last time.

[Wavelength]

Enchanting blue....lovely images