Please Critique this Windmill!

[jbkalla]

OK, I realize windmills are overdone, but hey, I'm an amateur!

Please let me know what you think of this: Post processing, composition, etc... I see one glaring thing that bothers me: The windmill support boards stop right at the horizon line, making it look bisected and weird. I should have raised or lowered my camera, but I didn't notice it til later.

http://kalla.net/POTN/_MG_7692-small.jpg

EXIF data should be in the photo. I used the "Dave's Orton Effect" action to get the look.

Larger Sized Photo Link (http://kalla.net/POTN/_MG_7692-9x6.jpg)

[Bill Boehme]

Well, there is no windmill nor tank, just the tower so it is not very interesting. The image seems to lack sufficient contrast in the details and the color, especially the green sky doesn't help. Additionally, a large part of the sky is blown out. Overall, the low contrast and drab color has caused the image to lose its depth perception. It's either the wrong image for showcasing the Dave Orton style or maybe the Dave Orton style isn't worth messing with.

[tonydee]

^ +1.

[droberts]

I think its got potential...To me it says desolution...You did to good of a job following the "rule of thirds" which should be called "guidelines of thirds". To me if you crop more from frame right and bottom you would get more of a focal point on the tower and the vast expanse to draw the viewers into the depth of the photo. I personally think B/W conversion would work better than color as well. Of course other people will see what they want in it this is just what I see.

quik edit to show you...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v25/czsquad/_MG_7692edit3.jpg

[jbkalla]

Excellent! Thanks for the critique!

I've tried to incorporate most of the suggestions, though the sky color varies somewhat, so it was difficult for me to get right. The blues seem a bit strong, but...

Here's my attempt at improvement of a color version:

http://kalla.net/POTN/_MG_7692_9x6_orton_tiny.jpg

Larger Image Here (http://kalla.net/POTN/_MG_7692_9x6_orton.jpg)

Are these changes for the better or did I mess them up?

[jbkalla]

My attempt at B&W:

http://kalla.net/POTN/_MG_7692_9x6_orton_BW_tiny.jpg

Larger Image Here (http://kalla.net/POTN/_MG_7692_9x6_orton_BW.jpg)

I get the feeling the photo would be much improved had I taken multiple exposures or gotten a better angle on the sun, which seems to blow out the sky or underexpose the windmill.

[tonydee]

Darren's post worked a charm... completely took me by surprise... both in composition and lessening the impact of the loss of perspective introduced by your post-processing. It would be interesting to see the original though, and no doubt he and others could do more with it, including perhaps create a better result in colour.

Your latest post doesn't work nearly as well as his... notice your sky immediately above the horizon is much darker, as is are the boards of the windmill? Not sure which software you're using to convert to B&W, but for that kind of control it's important that you're experimenting with the degree to which each of the red, green and blue colour channels contribute to the greyscale intensity. Simply hitting "desaturate" - depending on your software - might use a 1:1:1 contribute, or more likely, something based on the perceived brightness of the different colours, so green would be emphasised most etc.. For example, the GIMP offers choices like:

356210

Your latest post looks pretty close to these default ratios.

It's far more flexible when you can adjust each colour independently. The GIMP's Colours / Components / Channel Mixer lets you do this, ala:

356211

Notice that I've just left these on their defaults, and not yet tried to reproduce Darren's mixing. Photoshop and any other decent image editing package has something similar. LightZone's is pretty cool... a circle with hue varying around the edges, white in the middle, and a separate "strength" slider. The colour and saturation from where you click in the circle corresponds to way the RGB values are mixed....

Cheers, Tony

[Bill Boehme]

I also was favorably impressed by Daren's B/W edit.

There are still a couple things that are problems in the image. For some reason, there seems to be a softness that doesn't quite look like soft focus. It looks more like fogginess around contrasting edges. Along with that, there is a rather noticeable halo around contrasting edges such as the windmill tower against the sky which may be some of the reason for the fogginess that I perceive.

I would also like to add my thoughts to what Tony said about B/W tones. In order to have a perception of depth of field, which I think is important in a "wide open spaces" type of scene such as the one in your image, there needs to be some sort of visible gradient in the landscape that helps to convey that information -- however, it appears to me that the open terrain from just beyond the tower and continuing to the horizon is almost a monotone. So the viewer is left with only the diminishing size of the few scattered clumps of brush or trees as visual cues to gauge distance.

[droberts]

Color corection before conversion is the way to go... I usually use the curves tool to control my color. Once I get it adjusted I will then do my B/W conversion, after conversion I will go back to the curves tool and adjust color levels to the desired contrast I am looking for. This is the best way I have found to add definition and eliminate flatness in my B/Ws.

[jbkalla]

Tony: Thanks for the info! I didn't use any color mixing to adjust to B&W, so that's probably why it looks bleh. I'll try playing with what you showed.

Bill: The softness is from the Orton Effect and is supposed to be there. I'll try a different processing to see what happens. About the visible gradient, would that be fixable or is it something I'll need to look for in the future when composing a shot?

D.Roberts: Does your shot look normal right before the conversion or does it look hyper-saturated or something?

[droberts]

D.Roberts: Does your shot look normal right before the conversion or does it look hyper-saturated or something?

Depends on the subject...if there is not alot of colors in the photo I might exagerate the settings just a bit so they'll stand after conversion. A colorful photo will look pretty much natural. After conversion you can go back into curves and play with the color settings for any fine tuning.

[rcpcduck]

you went out and shot some thing. good doing , your second attempt has more impact and stands out . keep shooting

[Namerifrats]

I like the desolate look of the shot personally. Just has that "forgotten" feeling to it.

[jbkalla]

Thanks!

What I really need to do is shoot something less clichéd than windmills. I'm not very artistic, so choosing subjects and changing around views/lighting/etc... are not my forté.