If you go down to the woods today...

[Adam]

Okie dokie, my first attempt (large file by the way)

This was taken on the weekend, in Northumberland on a walk to see a local tarn.

I was taken by this opening's quietness and stillness and wanted to capture that. The clouds were above, and it was drizzling somewhat, so I aimed down to cut out glaring highlights. This meant a slight crop on the bottom to try and balace the image out a bit as there was too much bracken.
Also, I would've like to have got the path a little bit more central, but that would have meant losing the foreground bracken, so I chose bracken over a proper lead-in (was this correct?).. I did get that small trail/path to the right, but I'm not sure if it's direction works?

Anyway, please let me know your thoughts.

Thank you
Adam

http://img3.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/3c1de21745.jpg

[Jaime]

I like the mood and the atmosphere of this image Adam, it certainly is quiet and still, and despite the fact that it was cloudy and misting I think it adds to the image. I would have chosen the bracken as well, and I think that the path in the back leads you to the end of the image quite well for me.

[neilyb]

Adam colours here are superb, as are sharpness and depth but I think it just misses as a great shot as you are too high above the ferns, some low down lens distortion pulling the left bottom into the frame would have worked here (IMO). As it is I would do a bit of burning on the top half to dowse down the brighter spots.

Edit : Perhaps a crop from the right, this side does not draw you the same as the centre (left of the tree).

[Dimitri]

I agree with Neil,closer to the fern would be better.
Either crop some from the right or stretch as i`ve done and no crop.

As been said,the colours look vibrant enough and the framing to avoid the top highlights works for me.
What you really need here is some morning mist and sun rays coming through.

[Scottie]

I like Neils suggestion wrt attempting to straighten up the trees in the LHS and Dimitri has did a good job of bringing out a little more detail in the RHS of the image as your origional version looked a little dark and distracting in that area.

[neilyb]

I prefer Adams colouration D, yours is a little too saturated (IMO) and I am not sure I would stretch an image.

[Adam]

I like the mood and the atmosphere of this image Adam, it certainly is quiet and still, and despite the fact that it was cloudy and misting I think it adds to the image. I would have chosen the bracken as well, and I think that the path in the back leads you to the end of the image quite well for me.

Cheers Jaime

Adam colours here are superb, as are sharpness and depth but I think it just misses as a great shot as you are too high above the ferns, some low down lens distortion pulling the left bottom into the frame would have worked here (IMO). As it is I would do a bit of burning on the top half to dowse down the brighter spots.

Edit : Perhaps a crop from the right, this side does not draw you the same as the centre (left of the tree).

Thanks mate. I spent a while on the colours with this one.. my WB was fairly far off, so had to fix that as well... also, I finally started using individual RGB streams on curves (normally I don't do this) to give me more accurate colours without touching everything else (like the reds for the floor etc).

And I completely forgot about the bright spots up top :redface:
I've edited this a few times and each time I've dodged those bright spots (thanks for the tips by the way, I can do it now!).. just forgot this time.

And yes, I see what you mean about the comp. A closer approach would have definitely worked, I'll keep that in mind.

I agree with Neil,closer to the fern would be better.
Either crop some from the right or stretch as i`ve done and no crop.

As been said,the colours look vibrant enough and the framing to avoid the top highlights works for me.
What you really need here is some morning mist and sun rays coming through.

Thank you buddy. I think out of the two options you gave, I'll choose a crop, rather than a stretch. I'll see how that plays out.

I like Neils suggestion wrt attempting to straighten up the trees in the LHS and Dimitri has did a good job of bringing out a little more detail in the RHS of the image as your origional version looked a little dark and distracting in that area.

Thanks Scottie. The intention was to leave the RHS fairly dark and mysterious, but it seems it's not mysterious to the viewer, just annoying :)
I'll investigate a crop as I think bringing detail out of that dark area might give me too much noise? Heck, I'll check them both out.

I prefer Adams colouration D, yours is a little too saturated (IMO) and I am not sure I would stretch an image.

I think his colours are overcooked just because he's working with a reduced jpeg to start off with. More likely a quality issue rather than over saturation.

[Dimitri]

Cheers Jaime



Thanks mate. I spent a while on the colours with this one.. my WB was fairly far off, so had to fix that as well... also, I finally started using individual RGB streams on curves (normally I don't do this) to give me more accurate colours without touching everything else (like the reds for the floor etc).

And I completely forgot about the bright spots up top :redface:
I've edited this a few times and each time I've dodged those bright spots (thanks for the tips by the way, I can do it now!).. just forgot this time.

And yes, I see what you mean about the comp. A closer approach would have definitely worked, I'll keep that in mind.



Thank you buddy. I think out of the two options you gave, I'll choose a crop, rather than a stretch. I'll see how that plays out.



Thanks Scottie. The intention was to leave the RHS fairly dark and mysterious, but it seems it's not mysterious to the viewer, just annoying :)
I'll investigate a crop as I think bringing detail out of that dark area might give me too much noise? Heck, I'll check them both out.



I think his colours are overcooked just because he's working with a reduced jpeg to start off with. More likely a quality issue rather than over saturation.

Thats correct,i never touched the saturation.

[neilyb]

The colours are totally different?

[Adam]

Not here dude..

[neilyb]

Just me then :|