Girl by Pond

[peter27]

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Spotmatic SP
Pentacon 29mm
Kodak 200

 

[Gavjenks]

The lawn chair is really terrible and annoying here. Can it be cloned out sufficiently well?

Everything else about the photos is fantastic, but that is just sticking out like a sore thumb and ruining them for me.

 

[peter27]

The lawn chair is really terrible and annoying here. Can it be cloned out sufficiently well?

Everything else about the photos is fantastic, but that is just sticking out like a sore thumb and ruining them for me.

Thanks for the compliment. As for the chair, it could probably be removed but I felt it provided an inviting place for the viewer to sit down and become one with the scene.

 

[sashbar]

I like the first one ( even though it is slightly tilted, it would be OK if not the building), but the images look a bit noisy and the light is a bit harsh. I think some moderate denoising and filtering makes it look more idyllic. The chair does not bother me at all, it adds to the composition, breaking some predictive lines. The second one - I am not excited. The upper half is not really interesting, I would prefer a tighter crop - see below ( again, denoised, but not filtered this time)

 

[peter27]

I like the first one ( even though it is slightly tilted, it would be OK if not the building), but the images look a bit noisy and the light is a bit harsh. I think some moderate denoising and filtering makes it look more idyllic. The chair does not bother me at all, it adds to the composition, breaking some predictive lines. The second one - I am not excited. The upper half is not really interesting, I would prefer a tighter crop - see below ( again, denoised, but not filtered this time)

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Thanks sashbar. What filtering did you use?

 

[The_Traveler]

I think that the content gives the feeling but the processing doesn't continue on that theme.

Softened focus, warmed it a bit, darkened the corners, edges and bright sidewalk on the right.

 

[KenC]

I also like the chair, both as a compositional element and part of the "story." My quibble is that there's some empty space in each of these that detracts, at least for me. I'd crop the top of the second, enough to get rid of most of the sky, and the right side of the first, just enough to get rid of the pavement on the right side without cropping the stairs.

 

[Designer]

Since this shot is primarily about landscape, and not "girl", I agree that the cheap white chair not only doesn't help, it harms the overall composition.

Furthermore, the girl in the picture doesn't help the scene either.

Nice landscape, poor shot of girl.

 

[The_Traveler]

 

[Gavjenks]

The soft focus is nice, though maybe like half of that.

I like that (without the chair) the time period is ambiguous, and it looks like it could very well be a scene that Renoir might come along and paint at any moment

 

[peter27]

Since this shot is primarily about landscape, and not "girl", I agree that the cheap white chair not only doesn't help, it harms the overall composition.

Furthermore, the girl in the picture doesn't help the scene either.

Nice landscape, poor shot of girl.

Both photos are about the attraction, fascination and magical quality of water in childhood.

 

[Gavjenks]

^
Yes, I did get more of the your intended message from the images then, peter, which is great (magical, subject and context working together, etc., young age curiosity, all that jazz).

Cheap white metal lawn furniture though is neither magical nor fascinating =P


I appreciate the intention for a spot for the viewer to sit down in the image, but for that to work well here I think it'd have to be a stone bench or something classier to go the literal route. Or less literally, allowing the photographer's shadow to show on the water would be another subtle way of approaching the same thing without ruining the mood, for example.

 

[Designer]

Since this shot is primarily about landscape, and not "girl", I agree that the cheap white chair not only doesn't help, it harms the overall composition.

Furthermore, the girl in the picture doesn't help the scene either.

Nice landscape, poor shot of girl.

Both photos are about the attraction, fascination and magical quality of water in childhood.

Just my observation. In your photos, there is almost no connection to the girl, and I'm sorry, I don't get your intended impression coming through.

When I see such a wonderful pond and landscape, there usually isn't anyone in the photo. Since the girl is quite a small part of the scene, and we don't see her expression, there is little to no connection with the viewer, so I do not experience any emotion being conveyed.

 

[Derrel]

I think the doggone HOUSE, placed in the upper right corner, combined with the white chair, really detracts from the scene.

There's actually a very nice photo in this shot, of the girl and the koi in the pond. MINUS the lawn chair and MINUS the house. I'd crop of more of the masonry on the right hand side, but your copyright was there, so I left that.



With the chair cloned out, and the house cloned out, and the image straightened up 2 degrees, it seems more clear to me: girl walked through an opening in the hedge, and came down to a modern, man-made pond with koi in it.

 

[Joanne_0828]

I do agree that the pictures would be better without the lawn chair.