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Alright, I need some harsh C&C. Help me improve!!

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Enjoihcky247

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Alright, so I entered the 500 Club challenge. I had plenty of flower shots I could have entered but decided to enter this photo instead. It was a B&W HDR I entered thinking I would try something different. Overall I liked the shot. Something seems off about it though and it showed in the voting (90-something out of 106 or so). I'd greatly appreciate your harshest criticism to help me improve!! Thanks guys!





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http://zsaphotography.carbonmade.com/
 
Don't like to criticise as I ain't the best tog in the world!, but the tones all seem to be a bit drab with no real contrast. Nothing really makes the eye look around the photo. I have found my own B+W conversions on HDR don't really work unless I pump a lot of contrast in. Just my 2 cents, as they say. All the best,

Jon.
 
I can't access your flickr something about permission and not having any.

I'd agree that it lacks contrast and nothing to grab your eye although take what I say with a pinch of salt, I'm not doing so well in the challenges either. :)

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Arrrrrrh !

Bart.
 
Yes, sorry, can't access your flicker account. Try uploading here and the posting. Cheers. Jon
 
I am not sure I can agree with the comments about the lack of contrast (even though they come from better photographers than I am). I think in terms of the post-processing it is alright.

Real problem is there is nothing overall of interest to the viewer, nothing to attract their gaze. Your title is "Over the River and Through the Woods", but where is the river? Where is the view or the path through the woods? Where does the path lead? You know, that sort of thing. Just nothing of interest or no story. Perhaps this problem exacerbated by the fact that the bridge doesn't stand out enough. When the entire photo is equally sharp there is nothing for the people's eyes to rest on.

Maybe this is partly a problem of post-processing after all. For example, when I do sharpening in PS, I mostly only do Smart Sharpen the main subject or whatever I want the viewer to focus on. So for example, for a in-camera JPEG file (at sharpness setting -2), I usually do 125% sharpening on the main subject (or whatever I want focus) and 25% for entire image, rather than just 150% for entire image. For your photo, I would sharpen the bridge (and the maybe the path) the most.

That said, I wouldn't take the ranking result too hard as it was an extremely competitive challenge. I've seen great photos rank low as well. It is certainly not a terrible photo, but it isn't a great one either...

Keep in mind that I've finished last place twice in the challenges, so I could be wrong.
 
Thank you very much for your thoughtful reply. I think you hit the nail on the head. You're absolutely right when you say the subject (the bridge) doesn't stick out. That must be while it fee;s off even though I think the composition is fairly close. Thanks so much!
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http://zsaphotography.carbonmade.com/
 
Hmm.........upping the contrast didn't help much. A white frame might help.

Or what does it look like in colour with a bit of that grunge processing, funk around with the cutves and perhaps a touch of vignetting.
It's not a contest winner as it is, but with modern medicine who knows.

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Arrrrrrh !

Bart.
 
I really like your pic. However it seems to be one of those that we all shoot from time-to-tim and look at afterwards convinced that there is a great shot there somewhere if only we could bring it out!

The second picture seems to have more contrast than the first. The lack of contrast makes the image very flat and fails therefore to capture the eye.

To me, the main problem is the composition. All the elements of a good pic seem to be available: a wonderful bridge, a wood with character and a pathway leading off in to the distance. But none of these have been manipulated/placed/composed in an effective composition.

Could you have got lower? Could you have stepped to the left to include the paths vanishing point? Could the angle of the bridge be accentuated? Could you have climbed a tree for a more unusual shot of the scene? etc, etc.

Is this a place local to you? If so you could learn a lot by returning and reshooting the pic.

Drew.
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'The whole idea of learning Photography is to reduce the number of Monkeys it takes.'
 
I downloaded it and played around with it some. I think, as does my wife, that a good dose of clarifying and upping the contrast improves it significantly. Also, it's a pretty busy photo even with the bridge as the central theme, so that may have played a roll in it's relatively poor finish.

Finally, I thought the competition was pretty stiff in this challenge. IMO, most of the top 100 finishers were pretty good images.
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AEH
http://aehass.zenfolio.com/
Question: What do you do all week?
Answer: Mon to Fri. Nothing, Sat & Sun I rest!
 
The basic question you should answer is... what should the viewer see here? There is nothing that kept me looking at the picture. The bridge is nice, the exposure seems OK, not over or under exposed. But... I didn't find it interesting. The leading lines led me nowhere, the trees are just trunks, and the B&W didn't serve anything for me...

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Oren Sarid
Israel

Please click to see my pictures, comment and rate them in my gallery at http://oren.thesarids.net/

 
Agree 100%: It is not the processing. No story and nothing interesting to see.
doady said:
I am not sure I can agree with the comments about the lack of contrast (even though they come from better photographers than I am). I think in terms of the post-processing it is alright.

Real problem is there is nothing overall of interest to the viewer, nothing to attract their gaze. Your title is "Over the River and Through the Woods", but where is the river? Where is the view or the path through the woods? Where does the path lead? You know, that sort of thing. Just nothing of interest or no story. Perhaps this problem exacerbated by the fact that the bridge doesn't stand out enough. When the entire photo is equally sharp there is nothing for the people's eyes to rest on.

Maybe this is partly a problem of post-processing after all. For example, when I do sharpening in PS, I mostly only do Smart Sharpen the main subject or whatever I want the viewer to focus on. So for example, for a in-camera JPEG file (at sharpness setting -2), I usually do 125% sharpening on the main subject (or whatever I want focus) and 25% for entire image, rather than just 150% for entire image. For your photo, I would sharpen the bridge (and the maybe the path) the most.

That said, I wouldn't take the ranking result too hard as it was an extremely competitive challenge. I've seen great photos rank low as well. It is certainly not a terrible photo, but it isn't a great one either...

Keep in mind that I've finished last place twice in the challenges, so I could be wrong.
Click to expand...
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Visit http://www.voider.net
 
You are right of course. The reason I converted to B&W was because I felt that the green trees distracted from the bridge, however now I realize if the composition was better the bridge would have been the main focus, color or otherwise.

Thanks for the comment.
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http://zsaphotography.carbonmade.com/
 
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