Zakim bridge Boston for CC - need feedback on new edit for printing please

[SquarePeg]

Would love some feedback on these. I don't love them and can't quite put my finger on why. It could be the stars on the lights which I thought I liked on my small screen but now find really distracting... These were taken with the Samyang 12mm, ISO 200, 1 second and 6 seconds respectively. I was at f16-f22 but as it's not a Fuji lens the aperture doesn't get recorded in the exif.

_CAT9506 by SharonCat..., on Flickr


_CAT9418 by SharonCat..., on Flickr

 

[NancyMoranG]

Well, you know I am no expert....I wonder if #2 is just too busy? It's wonderfully clear, colors +, nice sky, well lit foreground....maybe too many focus points for myneye?
Hmmm, #1 is beautiful...great sunset reflection! Perfect clarity etc...
Yea, maybe the starburst lights are taking away from other beauty in the shot?
I like it a lot though.

 

[zombiesniper]

I really like the colour in both of these and the starbursts don't bother me a bit. They actually remind me of some city postcards I've seen.

Now seeing as I have no technical aspects of the image that I can see issues with, what follows is all preference or just feeling based and in no way a right or wrong.

#1 I think what throws me off in this one is I would like to see it wide enough to capture the whole bridge centred in the image.

#2 Some images really take on a new feeling when you have the juxtaposition of something old and worn with something clean and new. In this case though I'm not sure if it's the angle of the image or what. It just doesn't feel like that was the goal. The old dock just seems out of place.


P.S. The starburst trick combined with a little distance can make even the grimiest cities look more clean and pleasing. All to do with the whole squeaky clean starburst and "ping" sound we've all heard in hundreds of cleaning commercials.

 

[SquarePeg]

Well, you know I am no expert....I wonder if #2 is just too busy? It's wonderfully clear, colors +, nice sky, well lit foreground....maybe too many focus points for myneye?
Hmmm, #1 is beautiful...great sunset reflection! Perfect clarity etc...
Yea, maybe the starburst lights are taking away from other beauty in the shot?
I like it a lot though.

Yes! The busy-ness bothers my eyes. Good call.

 

[SquarePeg]

I really like the colour in both of these and the starbursts don't bother me a bit. They actually remind me of some city postcards I've seen.

Now seeing as I have no technical aspects of the image that I can see issues with, what follows is all preference or just feeling based and in no way a right or wrong.

#1 I think what throws me off in this one is I would like to see it wide enough to capture the whole bridge centred in the image.

#2 Some images really take on a new feeling when you have the juxtaposition of something old and worn with something clean and new. In this case though I'm not sure if it's the angle of the image or what. It just doesn't feel like that was the goal. The old dock just seems out of place.


P.S. The starburst trick combined with a little distance can make even the grimiest cities look more clean and pleasing. All to do with the whole squeaky clean starburst and "ping" sound we've all heard in hundreds of cleaning commercials.

Great feedback thanks. I’ve added below a 2 shot pano that shows the whole bridge. Very hard to get good sight lines here. This was 12mm on a crop so roughly 18mm for you full framers. That’s my widest and no matter which angle I tried I could not get the entire bridge from this vantage point. I was just shy of it with no room to wiggle. Even with the pano I had to crop out some of the supports on the left because of distortion.

I agree about the dock and may try to remove it but with the reflections that could prove to be difficult. If I consider doing anything with this one then maybe it would be worth the effort. I couldn’t really frame it out without losing the bridge reflections.

Untitled by SharonCat..., on Flickr

 

[Designer]

Would love some feedback on these. I don't love them and can't quite put my finger on why.

Any time you can get a red sky, it's a good day in photography. That is probably the star of the show in these shots. If I find fault with #1, it is going to be that the bridge deck divides the frame in half horizontally, and you're missing most of the red sky.

#2 is the better shot, IMO, and my reasons are; asymmetrical balance between the bridge support structure and the red sky peeking under the deck. Also an eye-leading structure (the dock) pointing at the small portion of red sky. And the "light echoes" on the left side (the purple lights are reflected on the water). Starbursts are not terrible things unless they are warped or something. Just a part of photography.

 

[Dean_Gretsch]

In number 2, the left building needs a bit of straightening. As ZS said, the dock in the foreground just looks out of place to me as well. It's color, along with it overpowering the scene just doesn't work for me. The colors in both don't seem as vivid as your pano either.

 

[SquarePeg]

Would love some feedback on these. I don't love them and can't quite put my finger on why.

Any time you can get a red sky, it's a good day in photography. That is probably the star of the show in these shots. If I find fault with #1, it is going to be that the bridge deck divides the frame in half horizontally, and you're missing most of the red sky.

#2 is the better shot, IMO, and my reasons are; asymmetrical balance between the bridge support structure and the red sky peeking under the deck. Also an eye-leading structure (the dock) pointing at the small portion of red sky. And the "light echoes" on the left side (the purple lights are reflected on the water). Starbursts are not terrible things unless they are warped or something. Just a part of photography.

Thank you both as well.

I may re-edit these or take another look through my shots from this location to see if maybe I missed one with more red sky, less distortion and less dock.

 

[smoke665]

From my perspective I'm not a big fan of the first two. They seem as others have said jumbled with no clear focal point, and they feel unbalanced.

Now the pano is another story. Well balanced with a strong leading line from the dock and the V from the bridge supports locking the eye right on star. I really like it.

 

[snowbear]

The pano is my favorite of the three (of course) but I also like #2. The star bursts and pier don't bother me. It looks like you have some dust; I see four or five spots in the sky of the pano. I'd clone them out during your re-edit.

 

[SquarePeg]

OK. On the pano I straightened the buildings and wall on the right and got rid of the spots - which I don't think were dust as they are not on all of the images from that night. I think they might be some weird type of bokeh balls from all the lights and reflections at play here.

I wasn't going to spend a lot of time on this one but then someone contacted me to buy a print. She wants it on glossy metal. I ran it through Topaz Sharpen and DeNoise and bumped the vibrancy a tiny bit. I'm wondering if I should bump the exposure? Normally I would as prints always seem to be darker than on the desktop but this is a night scene and don't want to have it look too "lit up". Feedback welcome.

Zakim Bridge pano print 2 by SharonCat..., on Flickr

 

[zulu42]

Nailed it IMO

 

[SquarePeg]

From my perspective I'm not a big fan of the first two. They seem as others have said jumbled with no clear focal point, and they feel unbalanced.

Now the pano is another story. Well balanced with a strong leading line from the dock and the V from the bridge supports locking the eye right on star. I really like it.

Thanks for the feedback. I think you hit the nail on the head with my issue with the first two. Appreciate the comments on all 3.

The pano is my favorite of the three (of course) but I also like #2. The star bursts and pier don't bother me. It looks like you have some dust; I see four or five spots in the sky of the pano. I'd clone them out during your re-edit.

Done!

Nailed it IMO

Thank you!

 

[NancyMoranG]

Forget the photo, now I want to know how you learned the 2 pp programs you mentioned! ;}
No, j/k great shot....

 

[SquarePeg]

Forget the photo, now I want to know how you learned the 2 pp programs you mentioned! ;}
No, j/k great shot....

LOL. Topaz Labs has AI programs that work with LR and PS. A few years ago I bought the whole "suite" on black Friday for 50% off and I was thrilled to find out that my product key still worked earlier this year when I switched from PC to MAC and was able to download the MAC version and even better the updated versions of the software with all the AI improvements. Topaz Sharpen is amazing and has saved me a few times from missed focus, wind battered tripods and camera shake on my part. DeNoise is, in my opinion, the best noise suppression program out there. I have posted photos taken at ISO 12800 and they look good. There is no need to really learn anything. I hit the auto adjust button and 99% of the time the result is perfect. Manual adjustments are 2-3 sliders which are self explanatory. They're a bit pricey but worth it as far as I'm concerned especially if they have a big sale. I don't use the other programs that were included in the suite and would just buy the sharpen and denoise if I was doing it over again. Anyway - sorry to sound like an ad for them but they are pretty fantastic at what they do.