Brewing up a storm

paulocon · Aug 29, 2008

New on here so hopefully, this will post ok!!

Saw this tree on Flick so having made some enquiries, I made a detour while on a drive down Ireland for work - unfortunately, the light was pretty bad but this is what I came up with. I would be delighted if someone could critique it as I'm very much a beginner trying to improve (feel free to be critical - it's the only way I'll learn)..

JonathanBlu · Aug 29, 2008

My goodness my monitor isn't tall enough to see the whole thing!
Hmm, what can I say...
I love the foreground element! That is what I will call all that mud in grass that is so very nicely in focus, buuuut i think you could have cropped out some of the sky, other than that it is a beautiful picture!

P.S. Maybe clone out those black whatevers on the left side of the picture as well!

paulocon · Aug 29, 2008

Jonathan,

Thanks for the feedback. Sorry about the size - new on here so not sure what is the best size to post..

Here is a smaller version

Interesting comment about the sky - I have to say that I'm a real sucker for a sky - I will try a few crops minus so much of the sky...

invisible · Aug 29, 2008

Thanks for posting a smaller version. I agree with pretty much everything Jonathan said, except the comment about cropping out some of the sky. Even if the current crop leaves the tree in the exact centre of the frame, I think it works great in this particular case.

A couple of suggestions (personal preferences): I think the sky would look even better if you could add some contrast to it. Also, there seem to be two birds flying to the right of the tree; since they're so small, they show as dots, so maybe you could remove them.

Hard to believe you are a beginner. If so, you are doing great

tb2 · Aug 30, 2008

A good shot and a good subject. I'm fine with the balance of sky and land, but (there's often a but isn't there

) I'd have composed with the tree further to the right with the rut/puddle to the left to give a slightly more interesting balanced asymmetry. Of course there may be something out of shot to the left that prevented that composition!

Regards, Tony

paulocon · Aug 30, 2008

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions - much appreciated and exactly what I am looking for - I've found feedback from Flickr tends to be of the 'nice shot, nice light' type!

When I say begineer - I've had my DSLR for a couple of years but young family limits my time for putting it into practice... Hoping to find some challenges/tasks on here to incentivise me a wee bit..

The dots are indeed birds - I will have a go at photoshopping them out.

93rdcurrent · Aug 30, 2008

I like the shot as well but I would like to see it with a more brilliant skyline feature. I polarized filter with blue sky, a lightening strike, ufo trying to land... something. The clouds are a bit dramatic but I think they could be even more so. It's still a good shot but I would consider revisiting the location.

paulocon · Aug 30, 2008

93rdcurrent said:
I like the shot as well but I would like to see it with a more brilliant skyline feature. I polarized filter with blue sky, a lightening strike, ufo trying to land... something. The clouds are a bit dramatic but I think they could be even more so. It's still a good shot but I would consider revisiting the location.

Thanks for the feedback 93current. The sky is a problem in this one alright. Unfortunately, the Irish weather let me down on that particular morning so hopefully, I'll be down in that direction soon and will reshoot. Quite a lot of shots of this particular field on Flickr as the field can be split between meadow and crops during the year which can be a nice contrast...

manaheim · Aug 30, 2008

invisible is gonna kill me, but it's kinda yellow.

I swear it's not me or my monitor... some of you people just live in yellowland or something. :lol: