I Got the Winter Shot Woes

[AgentDrex]

Presented for your critiques and comments are three photos shot today. It's so beautiful out today with all the fresh snow on the trees. None of these photos really do anything for me and I have no clue why. I'm hoping someone will have some tips for me. I'm currently without a ride and so going somewhere else would have to be on foot and I'm not really up for doing that. There is one spot I would love to go but not walking twenty miles to get there. There is a tree across the lake that I would like to go take a photo of. I'm pretty sure the ice is thick enough by now to walk across. I'll go take a photo of that soon here and post it in this thread.

For those of you that live in the forest like I do, what shots work with the winter snow and which ones don't? Thanks for the assistance in advance. I will be posting more photos in this thread as I come across scenes of the winter landscape and as I am given ideas and suggestions by you all. So please check other pages in this thread for more images. Also, feel free to edit any of my photos as you feel they should look and re-post them here.

*per a recent rant by someone (i.e. ME) and for clarity's sake, there are no intentional mistakes in these photos for any mischievous purposes.

These were all taken hand-held. Not only do I have kinetic tremor, it's frickin' kind of cold out after awhile. Cannot believe there is not more motion blur than already present. Custom white-balance was set using the snow. I set the shutter, ISO and aperture for the exposure (obviously) and then auto WB against the snow to get a gray then set the custom WB to that.

#1 - Just trying anything that may work and so I made this shot of the front deck where I live (it's nautically themed I guess is what the landlord calls it):


#2 - Still having no luck finding a suitable subject today to showcase the snow, I shot this house across the lake through the trees from off the back porch (notice how winter has made me use selective-coloring against my will?):


#3 - While on the deck, I thought maybe a black and white shot would work best with the snow. With that, I shot the corner of the back porch and converted it to B&W in post-process (may have over-done the sharpening in the first so I made a second):


And remember, only YOU can prevent forests.

All photos in this thread have been taken between Cass Lake and Bemidji, MN USA with a Nikkor AF 28-85mm f/3.5-4.5 on a Canon 1000D.

 

[AgentDrex]

Here's that tree. This just makes me feel worse though. Not exactly what I was hoping for:

 

[dxqcanada]

First you should figure out what attracted you to take the picture.
Really look at what it is ... then start cropping mentally.

I can see the mental interest in taking these images ... just problem is that your camera did not see the same thing you did.
Now, you might be limited by the lens focal length, but in most cases you could work around it.

Remember ... it could be the empty space or very small that attracted your attention.
Keep working at it.

 

[AgentDrex]

That's the thing. That's the composition I had in mind (with the tree photo) but something about it isn't right. You know, I'm thinking this tree needs to be centered in frame with the woods filling up the background. I'm going to try that. I would have done that but I was a little nervous out on the lake and seeing so much slush everywhere. Wussed out and didn't stay out as long as I should have. It'll get much colder soon and then I'll be more sure of the ice thickness.

Thank you for looking and commenting. That's appreciated very much.

 

[bunny99123]

I like #2. It reminds me of how a snowy, winter day feels like. We don't get much snow here anymore, and I miss it some times.

 

[AgentDrex]

I suppose you don't get much snow. It is extremely beautiful out here right now. I am glad at least one of the photos portrayed that snowy feeling.

I think what I'll do once I get a chance (I may be gone for a week or so unfortunately starting tomorrow) is hope for the sun to come out early in the morning (if it does, the sun will light up the left-front part of that tree), bring a ladder (pretty tall step ladder) and climb up it to take the photo. Maybe the vantage point I currently have of the tree across the lake (I'm up on a hill) is the reason for my disappointment. The tree was shot at standing level so its boring and not the same view as what I got stuck in my mind. Then I'll center the tree and fill the rest of the frame with the woods behind like I mentioned earlier.

Thank you for looking at these bunny!

 

[AgentDrex]

Trying for a composition of a tree and its busy branches:

 

[AgentDrex]

Nature and its selective coloring:

 

[dxqcanada]

Need to get those whites whiter.

Does the snow look white on your screen ?

 

[AgentDrex]

Here, I'll add bleach! I have my monitor calibrated so it looks dull white, yes, not bright white. How does it look on your screen and does this look any better?

Side-by-side comparison:

 

[dxqcanada]

Ah. #1 looks white.

You should brighten your selective colour shot to remove the dull white.

 

[AgentDrex]

Okay, nature's selective coloring is now brightened. How's this?

 

[Rick58]

Much, much better :thumbup:

 

[AgentDrex]

Is it just me or did my brightening lose definition in the snow? And ideas on how to brighten an image without losing texture?

 

[Rick58]

You may have lost a little, but it was worth the cost. The white really pops compared to the one not washed in Tide