Silhouettes

I shot a series of silhouettes today, and i want to know what everybody thinks! any coment, critique, or sugestion is, as always, very much appreciated!

#1 I don't like the position of that huge thing at the left side of the frame, I can't focus on the rest of the picture with it there

#2 The best one
#3 I like

1) Since I have no idea what it is, can't really relate to it so it's just a big black thing in a picture.
2) I like it except the fisherman's head looks lost in the treeline.
3) I don't know if I like it, but it is interesting. Looks like rebar?

KarlosDaJackal- no one ive shown the first one to seems to like the silhouette of the farm equipment... i thought it was cool looking so i just couldn't help myself lol. I'm glad you liked the other two!!

polarbare- the first one is a picture of some farm equipment at sunrise... i just thought it looked cool lol. on the second one i tried to get his head more clearly, but by the time i saw him, he was already starting to pack up, so i knew i either had to take the shot or never capture it. the third one is just a bunch of rebar sticking out of the ground in the pattern of a square, so i can only imagine that there used to be a building there. i thought it kinda gave off a "destruction" vibe that would look great on my camera

thanks for looking!!!

Bigbitt8706 wrote in post #6204919
KarlosDaJackal- no one ive shown the first one to seems to like the silhouette of the farm equipment... i thought it was cool looking so i just couldn't help myself lol. I'm glad you liked the other two!!

I think its just too big and tries to compete with a nice looking sunset and the birds. You really want to look at those things but all you see is the farm gear. Maybe if it was further away (and smaller) it would work, or there is the crop option.

I guess with number one it depends on the audience very much. Here with the sometimes too coldly technical forum it was never gonna go down well. But if you showed it to someone who is used to seeing that kind of gear they might really like it, as the gear would not distract them so much, or they might like seeing it in a different way.

#1 would be better if sharper, I think.

Love #2, beautiful.

#3, eh.

IMHO, #3 if the bars were framing something that would probably help out, maybe even the run itself. The low angle and the lack of anything in the background detracts from it.

the first one im not keen on because it feels like it has a little movement/camera shake (not just the flying birds) and none of the silhouette shapes are in focus

the second one i really like the sky but it needs to be brought down a bit: too washed out/pale. the boat gives a sense of scale to the skyscape

the third one is a little dark but quite interesting absctact-wise, but i would crop out those rooftops because they are too far out of the picture to look like they are meant to be there - i think it would be stronger with just the vertical shapes and the sky

KarlosDaJackal- I showed it to my Grandfather who grew up a farmer, and he was just utterly confused why I would take a picture of that. I told him I liked the way it looked and you could almost see a visible question mark over his head… it was pretty hilarious!

Photoguy6405- I thought the first one was super sharp until you pointed it out, and now I see exactly what you mean… the equipment is very soft. Is there any way to fix that in Photoshop? I’m glad you liked number 2! Eh on number three? That’s just painful… at least when people say they don’t like something, or even that they hate something that I have done, I know it evoked some sort of emotion and I feel somewhat satisfied… eh hurts. Saying eh is worse than saying that photo is just an epic failure—eh means it did so little for you, that you don’t even feel the need to type one extra letter by typing out b-a-d.

Aram535- I tried to make it frame the other bars, but there was a blue barn in the background that I didn’t want to include in the frame… it really didn’t fit in with the feeling I was trying to convey. Not that I need to say this, but it was massively frustrating, because it did look really nice with the other mangled rebars off in the distance.

Somethingsimple- I completely agree with you on the first one… I just didn’t notice the softness of the farm equipment until someone pointed it out, and now it’s just about all I can see! I would be very exited if you knew of a way to fix this in Photoshop. On the second one, I spent about two hours trying (and failing on more than one occasion) to give the sky some more ‘pop’ without putting a bunch of halos around the fisherman, or giving it an unnatural look… any PP advice to make it better? on the third one, in the middle, those are rocks, but on the far right I did catch the tops of a few trees and an electric line pole. I’ll have to play around with the crops a little bit and see what I get!

The second one is the best of this series to me anyways..thought it may have too much sky, and by cropping it gets rid of the blown clouds?

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Bigbitt8706 wrote in post #6220480
Photoguy6405- I thought the first one was super sharp until you pointed it out, and now I see exactly what you mean… the equipment is very soft. Is there any way to fix that in Photoshop? I’m glad you liked number 2! Eh on number three? That’s just painful… at least when people say they don’t like something, or even that they hate something that I have done, I know it evoked some sort of emotion and I feel somewhat satisfied… eh hurts. Saying eh is worse than saying that photo is just an epic failure—eh means it did so little for you, that you don’t even feel the need to type one extra letter by typing out b-a-d.

There was no intent to be brutal, I can assure you that. Plus, I didn't say it was bad because I didn't think it was flat-out bad. "Eh" is my way of saying I can take it or leave it. I'll give a little more in-depth comment here, though...

On the positive side, I absolutely love the sky. The colors and tones, everything. I even think the rebar idea is good, but where it loses me is the "randomness" of the rebar. It feels kind of... lost. Sometimes randomness is a good thing, just here it didn't work very well. Maybe a different angle. Maybe fewer and/or not quite so proniment and overpowering. Or, maybe show a bit more of the base in silhouette to give it a bit more context. Just throwing out some ideas.

FWIW: I've always loved how you're willing to experiment.

As a side note, I also like what Flo did with the panoramic view of #2.

Flo wrote in post #6220536
The second one is the best of this series to me anyways..thought it may have too much sky, and by cropping it gets rid of the blown clouds?

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i dont like this so much now. the scale/'bigness' of the sky is gone and so is that lovely pink/blue section near the top which contrasted so much with the darkness at the bottom of the frame. yeh the blown section is gone but at too high a price IMO

somethingsimple wrote in post #6242812
i dont like this so much now. the scale/'bigness' of the sky is gone and so is that lovely pink/blue section near the top which contrasted so much with the darkness at the bottom of the frame. yeh the blown section is gone but at too high a price IMO

My first reaction when I saw her crop was similar, it lost too much sky. But the more I looked at it the more I liked it.

I'd hate to lose that sky. There are many other ways to do it, but the simplest is using a Layer Mask for local changes. Post #9:
Airport runway shoot

I like your spirit of adventure in trying different things that show deliberate thought being involved in the process of each capture.

Bigbitt8706 wrote in post #6220480
KarlosDaJackal- I showed it to my Grandfather who grew up a farmer, and he was just utterly confused why I would take a picture of that. I told him I liked the way it looked and you could almost see a visible question mark over his head… it was pretty hilarious!

So, now you know that not everybody is an art critic! Or, maybe they are.

From your account, I would say that you may have missed a great photo opportunity. Next time, have your camera armed and ready to fire when you show your grandfather a picture of a farm implement or whatever else might evoke a reaction.