Critique number 15

[deaner1971]

I like it very much.

I don't mind that it is centered because I feel that you need to give the eye the centering to counter-balance the strong draw of the illuminated hill to the right.

In absolute terms, I think I would have liked better light on the barns but I feel like the relatively dull light on the foreground keeps it from dominating the picture and allows the better lighted background to give the picture depth in layers.

Only real criticism is a question about the crop. Could you crop out even more from the foreground to eliminate the gravel patch to the right? The line of grass to the left of the snow covered driveway draws the eye to that patch and with so much white in the foreground, it holds the eye once you notice it.

[autzig]

Carol, tell me what you did with Color Efex Pro. I may be able to make some suggestions about how you used it if I knew what you did. I have some thoughts that I'll share with you after you tell me what you did in the post processing. I agree with "Even Dean" about the light on the barns.

Al

[autzig]

In the meantime, take your eyedropper tool and drag it around on the brightest area of snow in your photo. Make sure your info pallet is visible. (Window - Info) We know that white is R:255, B:255 and G:255. The RGB numbers found by the eyedropper tool are miles from that. Click on the brightest area and look at the foreground color on your toolbar. It is grey. You want your snow to be white, so here's how to do it in Photoshop. Go to your layers pallet and create a levels adjustment layer. Using the white eyedropper, click on an area of snow that should be white and watch what happens. The snow will turn white! Your sky will get blown out but that isn't a problem. Set your foreground color to black and using a large brush, paint the sky. Black will hide the effect of the adjustment. The sky will go back to the way you had it in the original and the snow will be white. This will demonstrate to you the ease and power of adjustment layers.

I'm having a lot of trouble with the silo. It dominates the scene whether you wanted it to or not. I've tried all kinds of cropping options and I can't find anything that works for me. You may remember CT posted a shot that included two barns and a silo (Critique # 4) and it had the same affect. The only solution, I think is to photograph the barn from an angle that puts the silo behind it.

[Andy]

Hi Carol:

While I agree about the "light" on the barn, that can really be said about almost any photograph. It is always going to be about the light, and sometimes we just don't have it when and where we need it. You did manage to catch some nice light in back on the mountains.

My thoughts may be familiar to you, and will go back to when we first started corresponding. I would like to see a tighter crop. For certain on the left (I don't see anything there that adds to the image), and probably in the foreground, as Dean suggests. Lots of "empty" space there, still. My only concern would be what a crop of the FG would do to the perspective and placement of other elements -- especially the horizon.

On the right, I personally would crop it close to the barn edge -- but there could be some disagreement there. The key, to me, would be how much of that sunlit mountain range in the BG you are willing to crop out.

I have not been a huge fan of all the "add-ins" like color effex, partly because I like to have more control and I am afraid that lots of users use these programs without really understanding what they (the programs) are doing (perhaps an ignorant statement, as I haven't used them myself) to the image. It is possible that your coloreffex adjustment is the culprit for the grey snow??

I don't see that the image is "too centered" and I am not as bothered by the silo as Al is -- but I do think his suggestion about a perspective other than "head on" has some merit and might make for a more "interesting" view of the barn.

Overall, I think the image has some real promise. I would certainly go back there in a "nice light" period, if you are able.

[autzig]

Carol, I like this one much better than the original. That darn silo still troubles me though. I think I would like the photo better without the shed on the left. Cropping it out fixes my silo problem for me. Lightening up the barn and the cropping really helped a lot.

Al

[Andy]

Carol: Compositionally, I like the re-do. Not much we can do about the light, as we have beaten to death. I don't have a problem with the silo at all. I think Al's suggestion "works" as a stand-alone, but I like the red barn to the left. I think the red barn and the silo balances the heavy weight of the main barn.