One for CC Please!

[jmtonkin]

I took this picture a few months ago and I finally got it to look right in post production. Let me know what you think!

ISO 200
200mm
f/5.6
1/800s

Thanks!

 

[CowgirlMama]

I like it. I love cows in the fields. I used to drive by some going to class each day.

 

[bigtwinky]

Interesting image. For some reason, my eye is draw right in the middle of the frame, just to the left of the closest cow. I guess the grass patern and colour is what drew my eye there.


I really like the repeating cow patern, pretty cool. And processing wise, might be a tad too much contrast for my taste, but overall, like the colours and tones.


I'm thinking the image is missing. It doesnt feel tight (again, probably due to the dead space that draws my eye). I feel that the image is in between an image of cows and an image of the scene. Zooming in closer to that main cow and really working that as the main focus of your image OR, zooming far out and having alot more sky/hills in the back and making the cows smaller to make the scene the subject.


Just my random thoughts.

 

[TMBPhotography]

I am from a cow state so these images are very secondary in nature to me. I don't like the color of the grass they are in, way too brown. And the back ground grass is spotty at best.

 

[jmtonkin]

I completely agree with the whole "eye being drawn directly to the center" thing. At this point, I'm not sure what I could do to fix that.

Here's a tighter cropping:

I'm not sure if this helps it out or not. I feel as though it solves the problem of the "dead center" effect, but I can't decide how I feel about it.

As for the grass color, all I can say is that I took this on October 2, pretty late in the season. And it was a pretty dry summer. I agree though, the grass is quite brown, but they're eating it!

 

[jmtonkin]

Here is the original of this photo:

I did maybe go a little overboard on the contrast...I like the "mood/feeling" it gives though. As you can see, in the original, I missed the focus on the main cow. It was my 5th day with the camera and I didn't fully understand "one-point A/F"...oops! I think I solved that problem, finally!

 

[Erinw417]

I kind of like the contrast on it as well.

 

[bigtwinky]

The tight crop isn't working for me.
You'd have to of had a different shooting angle to make that work I think.

One of the reasons the eye can be drawn to the center of the frame is the vignette. This guides the eye slightly to the middle, so use it sparingly and with images where you want to have the viewer look in the middle.
Keep in mind that every piece of processing you do to an image, just like the compositions, angles and settings you shoot with, impact the final product and how it will be seen by the viewer.

EDIT*I played around with the original some and really couldnt get anything I liked. So I guess my next tip is when finding a cool seen like this, shoot many many different angles, focal ranges, settings. If you have the time, really break down the scene with your camera. When I see something interesting, I force myself to take 10 images of it from different angles.*

 

[jmtonkin]

My biggest regret with this photo, well I have two actually, is #1 I didn't get more than the one angle (this is mostly because I took this from the car...) and #2 I missed the focus in the first place. I really like this shot with the repeating cow effect and the warm colors. However, I can't get passed the "center" effect. If only there had been a cow there...Anyway, I'll just chalk this up to a learning experience and do without!