Scenes of Vermont Forums

Carol, I can understand your ambivalence toward this photo, but I think it has some real potential. First of all, you must crop out all of the sky. It is too bright and detracts from the shot. I think you could really improve the photo by using Color Efex Pro. The clouds reflected in the water really have a lot of potential. I also think the colors in the rock could be more saturated.

Here's my version. I cropped the photo and used the detail extractor and the pro contrast filters. I might be inclined to crop further, even down to the water's edge to highlight the reflection of the clouds in the water.

Al

Carol, don't worry about over saturation until your photos begin to look like Andy"s . He's the king of saturation around here.

The key to this and any photo is the subject. I don't know what you were trying to accomplish with the original photo, but it was the pattern and texture of the reflected clouds that I really like. That's why I was inclined to crop more of the photo than I did. In my version, the reflecting clouds are clearly the subject but I can't say the same thing about your shot.

Al

I agree with Al. An edit with the trees and clouds represented only with reflections would be very nice. Not a perspective I would have thought to either shoot or crop to but, after Al mentioned it, I "hand cropped" and I do like what I saw (your picture, not my hand). I think it will remove the final bits of ambivalence.

With just the tree reflection and your foreground, it nicely puts a frame within a frame on your wonderful cloud reflection.

Carol,

I like it!

I feel (and while a novice behind the lens, I am quiet accomplish at appreciating the work of others ) that your newly cropped picture has a very nice "spril" flow to it. The lightness of the bottom left portion of clouds draws the eye, the eye then is pulled into the detail of the plants, then on to the reflection of the trees and around to the rocks. Not that intrigued by the rocks but they nicely complete a semi-circle around the subject.

If the reflected clouds could be even more detailed or more contrasty (yeah, making up works) I think it would create a nice texture in depth. The clouds almost feel like they are on a separate plane from the rest of the image which does simulate that depth.

Nice work.

Carol: My first (and maybe best) instinct was not to comment at all here. However, if I am going to expect others to comment on and critique my images, I guess I owe it to you and the group to weigh in.

This is one of those images I might keep in the files, but wouldn't do much more with. I honestly don't think it is a really strong image. The clouds, themselves aren't a strong enough subject, in my view. I also would like to see the rocks in the foreground razor sharp, and they appear a bit soft here. Its one of those images (and trust me, I have 100's of them) that you look at and wonder what your thinking was. What was the subject and what did I do to make the subject the central part of the photo?

Aside from the sharpness issue, the technical quality of the image is great, as is the compositional "balance". But the image just doesn't do it for me.

My wife has a favorite saying: "thats why God made chocolate milk and white milk." There are others who like it. It might even win a contest or be on the cover of Nature Photographer Magazine. That's what makes critiques critiques I guess. Thanks for posting, and for continuing to participate and make this a great place!

LOL Carol!

Andy wrote:[...]My wife has a favorite saying: "thats why God made chocolate milk and white milk." There are others who like it. It might even win a contest or be on the cover of Nature Photographer Magazine. That's what makes critiques critiques I guess. Thanks for posting, and for continuing to participate and make this a great place!

I agree with your wife's quote and I think I can see the application here.

I do think this is a very good illustrative photo and was very impressed by the improvements made to it after the initial comments. That is the piece that I am liking right now about our critique process. As someone who is learning to get the most out of processing software, I like watching people take an image, embrace the criticisms and then try to make corrections to the fullest extent possible.

As you said, we all have pictures where we look at it later and just cannot believe that a scene that so impressed us came off flat. We all have that streak of optimism that causes us to keep it and hope that we can do something with it later. With a new-ish baby, I cannot go out and get new photos so I am having fun with my little image salvage project and everyone's thoughts and input has helped immeasurably.

Thanks all!