time for my first critique

[musthavemuzk]

bout time to get some photos from my 20D up in here to get good and bad words.
http://mncable.net/~muzkman/forumpics/barnsilo1.JPG
http://mncable.net/~muzkman/forumpics/barnsilo2.JPG

no post work done on either except for resizing.
exif info left intact
BW on barnsilo2 done in camera.
orange cast caused by sun and Kelvin WB choice in barnsilo1

overall i am happy with the shots but i know they are not great.

thanx for looking

Monty

[poke]

I like the colour one... I reckon your composition is pretty good, but then again I've still got a lot to learn in that area :). You could probably up the contrast a bit though.

If you get to take another one of that barn, I would like to see a similar shot, but close to the ground... maybe taken from the top of the little mound on the side of the road that you can see in the bottom of the frame... with the lower part of the empty space that is currently in the left of the photo, partially filled with a tuft of grass.

:) enough of my ramblings :)

[andygrif]

I think you should be happy. The colour one is great, I've tried cropping it a little tighter to take out the tracks on the bottom right, but I think it works well with them left in.

I'm not sure there's much to be gained by going B&W, the colour shot has some beautiful tones in it - and to me it's a shame to lose them.

You could possibly tweak the line of the horizon a touch...but that might just be me after a heavy night...my neck's not straight:D

Good job!

[JX]

Hi musthavemuzk,

I agree with Bloo, about the B&W. It does not work.

But the the first image, was great. I think you nailed the exposure. For the angle that you took the image at I think the compostition is good. About all that you can do to make this image better is a little post processsing. If your using Photoshop, I would try and bring out some detail in the roof and use the USM filter.


Nice work.

[musthavemuzk]

definitely glad someone noticed the tracks in the lower corner of the pics. as that was my biggest complaint about them. but i did not want to do any cropping yet.
had not even looked at the horizon actually. will have to now.
i know some USM would have helped but was not lookin at that yet.

i do believe the timing was impeccable with the sunset and colors. both of the sunset and of the barn with that color upon it.

i thank you for your time and input.

feel free to dig out the sandpaper whenever critiqueing my pics.
cannot get better if i do not know what is wrong. or what could be improved. or what does or does not work in said pic.

i shot this barn and silo last fall for the ZO contest. check my gallery for that.

thanx again

Monty

[musthavemuzk]

suppose i should link to that gallery.
http://www.photozo.com/album/showgallery.php?ppuser=2838&cat=500

Monty

[Hellashot]

I like number one, but see what it looks like if you crop out the bottom right corner where tire tracks are. Might make the scene more untouched.

[tim]

The color one's nice :)

[musthavemuzk]

again i thank all for the words.
when i shot the pics i did not see the tire tracks. only after i resized them did i see them. i do think if i got lower the tire tracks would not be in the pics as well as the view would change for the better. so once it gets less sloppy out there i will have to get low for some more pics. snow melt has been fast this past week. not that i mind getting down and dirty...just do not feel like crawling around on the ground after a long day at work.

now that it was mentioned the BW is kinda blah... but remember this was done in camera. as i have no clue yet how to transform a color shot into BW.
PSE3 is on its way so soon i will have more control than i do now with PSE2. mayb one day i will have enough pennies for PS and the current version at that time....mayb

it is odd though. i would rather shoot racing and action than buildings and such, but i have found myself looking for buildings and some landscape stuff more and more. mayb it is cuz i drive alot.
and well the flowers and macro are just cool.

for now

Monty

[Bob_A]

Nice shot Monty.

Being someone that really enjoys shooting B&W film and spending hours in the darkroom, I found myself messing around with your B&W image and found it has a lot of potential. Try upping the brightness in PS by +20 and contrast by +35 and the photo takes on a whole new look. As the others have mentioned, see what it looks like after cropping out the tire tracks and possibly a tiny bit of the sky.

If I was doing this in the darkroom I'd experiment with darkening the sky up a bit along with the edges of the photo ... however, I'm useless with PS so I have no idea how to accomplish this digitally.

Bob

[musthavemuzk]

thanx for the words Bob.
never done the BW thing so it was interesting. that was done with in camera processing so i am sure it was flat as compared to what a color one converted would be.
i do not have the full PS just elements 2 that came with my camera. elements 3 is enroute from bestbuy.com but not here yet. PS is just too much $$ to be laying out for a program.

i would rather catch the shot and have to do no editing but that is wishful thinking in some cases.
right now i am simply getting used to the camera as well as learning all the terms andstuff. as the 20D is my first SLR camera. so alot needs to be learned.

Monty

[Bob_A]

You can do quite a bit with PS Elements 2. That's all I have right now, and it has more than enough features/options than I require at this time. Given the price of Photoshop CS (it costs as much as a 300D body), Elements 2 will have to do for awhile :)

Bob

[Kennymc]

The lovely warm evening glow is great but it's lost in the B&W version therefore I prefer the colour one... Composition wise the horizon line is a little too central so the advice on cropping the tracks out is very sound as this would move the horizon on to a third line... Lovely exposure though and no PS work is needed except for the crop or you will lose the atmosphere of the image...

[musthavemuzk]

elements 3 arrived on sat but have not been home long enough to install or play with it.

thanx for the words Kenny. i did not even think about the central horizon line.
will have to consider that.

Monty

[goldstrikn]

The color one looks best. Nice shot.