Renswoude castle

[msol]

All,

Today, I visited the little city of Renswoude and took some shots of the castle. Please let me know what you think. When I return there, what should I do differently (or what should I absolutely keep :D)

http://images.fotopic.net/?id=3628312&outx=760&oq=0

http://images.fotopic.net/?id=3628313&outx=760&oq=0

http://images.fotopic.net/?id=3628314&outx=760&oq=0

http://images.fotopic.net/?id=3628315&outx=760&oq=0

http://images.fotopic.net/?id=3628316&outx=760&oq=0

[Meerkat17]

Great shots and I mean it - The second and the last are the strongest in my opinion.

Excellent work Marc

David

[Lamplight]

I agree, beautiful photos. Nice job. :)

[mpkirby]

The last two are my favorite, but the shadows seem too deep for some reason. Perhaps bring a bit more out in them???

Also, you might want to try converting the one with the reflection to B&W, and then play with the chanel mixer in photoshop. There might be some neat effects that work well.

I love the "storm clouds" look on the first one.

The 2nd one, the foreground flowers are a bit too prominent for me. Take a few steps back, and to the left. I think it would have worked out better. Alternatively, shoot them as the primary point, and open the aperature to blur the background.

Mike

[roanjohn]

Very nice!!! I like the simplicity of it..................

Ro1

[BCG3er]

The second shot is excellent, the only thing i would do, maybe is to darken the sky in Photoshop to give it even more contrast/drama... but that is just me who likes to mess in Photoshop. :D

[Mettleh3d]

Man, those are realy nice shots. Too bad theres nothing really SPECTACULAR to shoot in Southern CA...

[henkbos]

Goed gedaan, jochie :D :D :D

#1: I would remove the little white board near the right bottom and the white spot near the left bottom corner.
#2: flowers are to prominent, the top of the fense seems to float in the air. This might have worked if the flowers were more to the left/right.
#3 and #4: the castle is too small in this compo. Like #4 better though
#5: great shot. Try to brighten up the shadow a little.

Henk

[ecobo]

The second one is awesome! I like the colors and the spring temper.
The others are good too, but they lacks of the perfect green on the second.

[4walls]

If you need to darken the sky a little, try this Photoshop trick...

select the sky
add a fill layer
choose a light grey color
make the blending mode "COLOR BURN"
adjust the opacity

This will simulate a polarizer effect on the sky.

[msol]

Hi all,

Thanks for all the nice feedback and suggestions on my Renswoude pictures. Since you all seem to prefer #2 and/or #5, I'll focus on these two here.

One remark upfront: I just had bought a Raynox 0.66 wide angle converter, and this was my first photo shoot with this new toy. I think I used the converter on each shot I show here. It is certainly visible on #1, #2, and #5. The others are crops and so should better have been taken without the converter.

It's funny to read that some of you prefer #2 (with the foreground flowers) and others feel that the flowers are too prominent. Since I was practicing with the wide angle converter, I thought this was a great situation to bring in a "big" foreground element. It is these types of effects that I bought the converter for. I guess that the effect worked... but a bit too much for some of you. :-) Personally I like the effect and don't think it is too much. But... as is often the case, that is a personal thing.
Another remark I got on #2 is that the sky could be a bit darker (more dramatic). I agree completely. 4walls... thanks for the Photoshop trick. I didn't know this one yet (and there are probably 10000+ other tricks that I do not yet know too :-) ) It worked very well. Actually it didn't just darken the sky, but it increased the contrast, which is much better. The whites remained white, but the blue/greys became darker. This does indeed mimic a polarizer! It did absolutely improve the picture. (However, the difference is not big enough to post the changed picture again.)

For #5 you consistently propose to lighten up the shadows a bit. I agree that the small versions you see in the post have very dark shadows. Fortunately, my larger original shows much more detail. I worked a bit with curves to lighten the shadows a bit , but didn't think it really improved the large version. But, you taught me a thing here since I never really thought of checking the shadows for too much black (except for the "mathematical" levels adjustment.)
Mike suggested to convert #5 (I think) to B&W and play with channel mixer. I tried this but didn't really succeed. I should say that I never yet used channel mixer before. Also I wouldn't know which "neat effects" you intended.
I also tried a sepia look... but didn't really like it. Also I tried a gradient map (from dark blue, via orange, to white) which gave a nice effect, but one that, I guess, becomes boring after seeing it a couple of times. I think I'll stick to the original colored version.

So again... thanks for all your feedback. This is exactly why I think this forum is so usefull.