Two Travel Photos - Feedback Wanted!

Back again with two more photographs taken on my travels. The first in near Loch Awe in Scotland and the second is in the hutongs of Beijing. What say you? What would you have done better?

#1 looks grainy out of focus....
#2 you have parts of people in the foreground and the wrong fstop if your shooting down a row of bikes....

I don't mind a bit of grain, its the selective colouring that puts me off.
If you had kept a bit more of the man's face on the second one, it would have been a lot better imo.

Thanks guys! Just what I though! This was actually an experiment I was carrying out to see the different reactions from "photographers" and "general public"

I've shown the above two images to 5 people in the past few days (unrelated, only 2 of them know each other) and ALL of them have said that they thought they had been taken from a magazine or photography website before I told them I had taken them. They were literally blown away with them both.

I guess this is why I like posting here. As I said, it helps me grow.

Thanks so much!

stanclark wrote in post #14514311
#1 looks grainy out of focus....
#2 you have parts of people in the foreground and the wrong fstop if your shooting down a row of bikes....

Sorry, I take liberty at the latter comment! I take it you would slam the fstop to it's widest in this instance? Fair play to you. However, there is no right or wrong fstop for ANY picture as far as I'm concerned. It's all about individual style.

Thanks for your advice though.

tupper wrote in post #14514327
I don't mind a bit of grain, its the selective colouring that puts me off.
If you had kept a bit more of the man's face on the second one, it would have been a lot better imo.

Not if you had seen what he had on the other side of his face it wouldn't!

Personally, I like it that way but I can see why many people wouldn't. I also agree with you about selective coloring in most cases but for some reason I tend to use it more with travel related snaps

Thanks for your input

RangersForever wrote in post #14514389
Not if you had seen what he had on the other side of his face it wouldn't!

Personally, I like it that way but I can see why many people wouldn't. I also agree with you about selective coloring in most cases but for some reason I tend to use it more with travel related snaps

Thanks for your input

Now you have said it, I don't want to know

Anytime, I'd love to see the sheep photo in colour or full black and white. I love how they are just staring down the barrel

#1 I really really really like, is it selective colouring or desaturated? I have a similar effect going on with a picture of mine but it is just desaturated.

#2 Doesn't do much for me, focus seems to be on the clothing at the bottom right of the image not either of the 2 guys

I think the first shot would be better without the tree, without the darkest portion of the cloud above.

The second one doesn't quite work for me because the direct eye contact with the foreground man tends to suggest he is the main subject; but when the viewer's gaze is attracted there, the crop then basically brushes the viewer away, to the far less interesting background. In other words, your foreground steals the show, but is just not complete enough to satisfy.

hadgo wrote in post #14517317
#1 I really really really like, is it selective colouring or desaturated? I have a similar effect going on with a picture of mine but it is just desaturated.

#2 Doesn't do much for me, focus seems to be on the clothing at the bottom right of the image not either of the 2 guys

Exactly that, desaturated with a gradient filter top half of image. I am beginning to really like that style for these types of photographs! Care to share your image with us?

Number 2 seems to be a stickler for most people and with the composition I can see why. I like it but I know it's far from perfect!

Christopher Steven b wrote in post #14517598
I think the first shot would be better without the tree, without the darkest portion of the cloud above.

The second one doesn't quite work for me because the direct eye contact with the foreground man tends to suggest he is the main subject; but when the viewer's gaze is attracted there, the crop then basically brushes the viewer away, to the far less interesting background. In other words, your foreground steals the show, but is just not complete enough to satisfy.

Thanks for your feedback! I think you may be right about the tree now I study it closer. However, with the cloud, I was trying to portray the sheep looking helpless as the storm rolls in whilst they are out in the open... taking it away I feel would detract from that... for me anyway.

Second one... well explained!

I'm curious, did you tilt #1 intentionally? I think it would be better if it were straight. I'd also like to get closer to the sheep cropping maybe the left 1/4 or the tree - or both.
#2 is an OK travel snapshot, but the guy's arm in the bike-shaw (or whatever that thing is) has some weird light transition going on which may be the result of your processing. It looks very unnatural.